Edward Vesala, Sound & Fury - Invisible Storm (1992)

The drummer and musical visionary Edward Vesala was a strange bird. As one of the few whose records became less accessible the more composed they were, he marked his path by leaving not breadcrumbs but entire loaves, piping hot and ready to serve. His was a fresh sound, a living sound that, as the moniker of his ensemble implies, thrived also on the richness of fury.

Invisible Storm is a suite of sorts. I see it as existing in two diurnal parts, though the split and its nature, assuming any, may rightly lie elsewhere for every listener. The first half opens the album’s daytime musings, shooting its eyes wide open from the start with the guttural menagerie of “Sheets and Shrouds” before a lachrymose violin and soprano sax woo us in “Murmuring Morning.” Next is “Gordion’s Flashes,” which lays a pleasant tangle of horns and electric guitar over an infectious savannah beat from Vesala, who further shows an aptitude for color as he adds samples of jackhammer and other mundane sounds from an eyedropper filled with chants and stale rituals. Harpist Iro Haarla threads gentler promises throughout “Shadows on the Frontier,” only to have them taken away by children smelling of patchouli and innocent observation. It is they who weave the set’s most masterful narrative, a cinematic flipbook of ghost towns and gravelly dreams that unfolds with the grace of a Philip Glass opera scarred by backstage secrets.

Which brings us to “In the Gate of Another Gate,” a transitory palindrome that opens us to the courtyard of “Somnamblues.” The latter is a ponderous matrix of distortion and metallic whispers that plunges us into the album’s nighttime anxieties. “Sarastus” lumbers through its porous moods riding the back of a roller rink organ, while “The Wedding of all Essential Parts” and the title track offer even more ponderous reflections, given shape by Haarla’s needlework and Vesala’s snare. Reprieve comes in “The Haze of the Frost,” a chain of snow owl talon-prints, rendered by flutes alone, which unearths a slab of mockery in the concluding “Caccaroo Boohoo.”

Because nearly every moment of Invisible Storm (with the possible exceptions of Vesala’s constant hitting and some of the reed work) feels carefully written out, one is confronted with the fullness of his philosophy. In the less straightforward projects like Nan Madol we encounter a sound-world so extraterrestrial that we cannot help surrendering ourselves to its rules. Here, however, Vesala draws much from personal, earthly experiences, choosing from a shoebox filled with hard-won postcards. For this reason, I recommend giving the earlier out-to-lunchers a taste test before downing this fiber-rich brew. –Tyran Grillo

Tracklist:

01. Sheets And Shrouds 0:35
02. Murmuring Morning 01:21
03. Gordion's Flashes 06:29
04. Shadows On The Frontier 07:56
05. In The Gate Of Another Gate 01:35
06. Somnamblues 08:39
07. Sarastus 05:36
08. The Wedding Of All Essential Parts 11:09
09. The Invisible Storm 07:25
10. The Haze Of The Frost 03:25
11. Caccaroo Boohoo 06:26

Performers:
Drums, Percussion, Composer – Edward Vesala
Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Percussion, Flute [Bass Flute] – Jorma Tapio
Guitar – Jimi Sumen
Piano, Harp, Keyboards – Iro Haarla
Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Alto Flute – Pepa Paivinen
Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Jouni Kannisto
Text By [Poem] – Arto Melleri
Trumpet – Matti Riikonen
Bongos – Mark Nauseef (track: 3)
Cello – Marko Ylonen (tracks: 2, 4, 5, 8, 9)
Bass – Pekka Sarmanto (track: 11)

Recorded May and June 1991 at Sound & Fury Studios, Helsinki.


Thanks to the original releaser