Utopianisti is the brainchild of the Finnish musician Markus Pajakkala. As an accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist playing the drums, keyboards, saxophones and flutes, Pajakkala has been working on his solo album for over five years, all the while playing in all kinds of bands. As an inspiration he references Frank Zappa - which in my book already earns an extra star! - Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Astor Piazolla, Brian Setzer, Freddie Mercury, Arthur Brown, The Beatles and Pekka Pohjola. Listening to Utopianisti I would add Alquin at the time of Mr. Barnum Jr.'s Magnificent And Fabulous City with keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Patrick Forgas as guest musicians. Another variation could be Passport with violinist Stephane Grappelli. Thus, this album mainly contains jazz-influenced music with an upbeat tempo with Mr. Magnus clearly having a lot of fun. The only song with vocals Sull' On Mies Joka Planeetalla clearly shows this in its title although I've got no idea about the lyrics since Finnish is not my strongest language. Utopianisti has nothing to do with symphonic music whatsoever, but could be a challenge for the advanced prog rock lover in the sense that this music is different, but yet quite nice. **+ André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
