ALBUM REVIEW: Monuments Of Our Time – From Grotto
With its name originating from the Swedish “Helsingå” and sitting joyfully on the shore of the Gulf Of Finland, the picturesque and colourful city of Helsinki is one of Europe’s most beautiful treasures. Although it was originally founded as a trading city, Helsinki has a rich and luscious musical tradition. It boasts two full-size symphony orchestras, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, alongside being home to a plethora metal bands such as NIGHTWISH, CHILDREN OF BODEM and FINNTROLL, to name a few.
This renowned city is also home to the psychedelic fusion power trio FROM GROTTO. Formed in 2015 and made up of Antti Pasonen (guitars, vocals), Riku Hyötyläinen (bass, vocals, flute, synth ) and Pekka Takalainen (drums, percussion, synth), the three-piece have spent the past eight years finely crafting their jazz-infused, psychedelic melodies to take their listeners on musical journeys unlike any other. Having released their self-titled debut album in 2017 and since then written a soundtrack trilogy for the game Noita, the trio return with their sophomore album Monuments Of Our Time.
The easiest possible way to describe the Finnish trio’s sound is THE DOORS meets OZRIC TENTACLES in a field in Glastonbury and they take the jazziest of magic mushrooms and then the music unfurls like a psychedelic fruit winder whilst they take a kaleidoscopic trip up Glastonbury Tor. FROM GROTTO certainly have crossed an uncommon bridge in fusing a plethora of sounds from across the musical spectrum, but they do so smoothly and with masterful musicianship.
As a result, Monuments Of Our Time is an incredibly summery and chilled-out album, wonderfully infused with spaced-out vibes and joyful, happily abstract melodies. The gentle mix of jazz, prog and psychedelia has a kind complexity, but while the album is experimental and quirky, it’s not an abrasive and avant-garde fusion. As a result, Monuments Of Our Time is an accessible album, but it still seeks to explore the further out regions of this genre fusion, swaying between all out young jazz and trippy psychedelia.
On this album FROM GROTTO move away from the fuzzier blues-inspired riffs of their self-titled debut and delve deeper into their jazzier influences whilst also using what they learned crafting their game soundtrack albums to create some intriguing, atmospheric and dynamic soundscapes. A prime example of this would be Das Boot, which seems to purposefully meander and shift, as if it is reacting to scenes unfolding on a screen. This is something that transcends the entire album; Monuments Of Our Time is effortlessly fluid and lucid in that regard.
There is still a good degree of obscurity though, some areas of this album that genuinely bewilder in the best way possible. Dandelion Tea is the main culprit for this, but ultimately it feels like Pasonen’s lyrics are some space age poetry plucked straight out of the clouds of the varying celestial bodies across the universe. Even so, your imagination erupts with scenes of space travel, interactions with mysterious but friendly others from different planes of consciousness and other weirdly wonderful adventures through the course of the album.
Monuments Of Our Time opens up with Wildfire. A peacefully hypnotic introduction of tribal drum patterns and Indian style melodies that slowly build into a richly psychedelic track that sets the tone for the album’s musical fusions and enjoyable strangeness. Contrasting this is Shigir, a more progressive, guitar-led song with a flowery vibe and catchy OZRIC TENTACLES style lead melody. The spacey vocals make you feel whimsical and free whilst the guitar solo soars above you. I Remember Summer is probably one of the more surprising tracks on the album. Taking the form of a full on smooth, lounge jazz jam, it’s seven minutes of pure, upbeat happiness with glimmering chimes and synths that sound straight out of the 1970s.
Turso continues this jazzy vibe with luscious synth layers interspersed with odd THE DOORS sounding verses. Discovery Of A Tear is the heaviest track on the album, where FROM GROTTO ramp up the energy and the valve amps with frantic riffing before falling blissfully back into their psychedelic ways. The aforementioned Das Boot is an intensely atmospheric, sci-fi sounding track that offers the listener a brief interlude of calm before the oddity that is Dandelion Tea – a track that defies any sort of description other than psychedelic madness but thoroughly enjoyable. The album closes with The Unfolded Eye which leans into some heavier prog influences and rounds things off in a suitably quirky way.
It’s safe to say FROM GROTTO are certainly in a world of their own. Monuments Of Our Time is one of those albums that you just have fun with, a psych album that has so many summery and eccentrically joyous vibes that you won’t be forgetting it in a hurry.
Rating: 8/10
Monuments Of Our Time is set for release on September 1st via self-release.
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