Ulkomaalaiset - One

Ulkomaalaiset is a rather different kind of Gharbzadegi or Fremd. In this context it speaks to a disconnection to place rather than to people. Fitting a square peg into a round hole Can, however, be a good thing. Edward Ka-Spel united with Alena Boikova and Martin Heuser in Finland to herald the coming of Spring and managed to paint several startling tone poems that reflect this sense of Ulkimaalaiset. The trio settings were improvised with an intimacy, conveying both the beauty and loneliness of exploring a strange, unpopulated place. Sometimes Heuser's piano plays against Ka-Spel's and Bikova's electronics with the quiet subtlety and austere sweetness of a more musical John Cage/David Tudor collaboration. Occasionally the spirits (and maybe even the ghosts) of Aho and Sibelius are inadvertently conjured. This triumvirate is so well matched that they seem to create air above mountains. Two separate releases present with four very distinct pieces of loud, quiet, and loud. Cloudbursts of angelic rain bewitching the souls of the ever wandering Ulkomaalaiset. (Electro-improv album with Edward Ka-Spel.) Ed. Of 300 numbered copies. The second album 'Two' will be issued early Feb. 2008.