Lehtela, Ari: The Year the Earth Stood Still

Ari Lehtela is guitarist/composer originally from Finland who now resides in North Carolina. The album is written as a concept, and as you might have guessed from the title, it is Ari’s reflection on the Covid pandemic. The tracks were 100 percent improvised, and the tracks are the flow of the pandemic from month to month (12 Tracks in total). Ari plays a number of string instruments (that he built himself), and joining him are Tom Harling (Saxophone) and Dave Bullard (drums). Improvised music is a strange beast; it can be glorious, energetic and uplifting. But, it can also be a meandering and pointless exercise that can leave the listener confused as to what they just listened to. Unfortunately, the latter applies here for the most part; as the music often descends into plain noise, or what amounts to someone noodling with their instruments. There are moments of interesting melodies or odd little riffs that seem to come from nowhere, but overall it honestly sounds like random noises without purpose, and nothing memorable to latch onto.

Track Listing

1. Prologue
2. Sight Distance
3. March Madness
4. Guise
5. Pandemonium
6. Foot Divide
7. Interlude
8. Blursdays
9. Spiral
10. Conflicting Reports
11. The Year The Earth Stood Still
12. Epilogue

Added: March 27th 2022
Reviewer: Eric Porter
Score:
Related Link: Artist Website
Hits: 631
Language: english

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