Jääportit

With his second full-length album, Northern Finland’s Tuomas M. Mäkela (a one man band releasing under the name Jääportit) has woven a sensual ambient paradise. Uumenissa is music to get deliciously lost to, a musical Eden that combines the stark nature of the North with the richness of living. The gentle and flowing texture-heavy soundscapes found on this ten track instrumental outing drift from one dreamlike state to another, each similar but different, each strangely deep and captivating. The compositions are decidedly mellow but also uplifting, and employ synths, sequencers, organs and the mellotron to fashion their sweeping magical landscapes. Five years in the making, Uumenissa practically seduces one into repeat listenings with what seem like hundreds of subtle auditory details interwoven into the tracks. Each time one lies down and relaxes with it (yes, this is an album to sprawl out with, close your eyes to and absorb), something new is heard, discovered or imagined beneath or between the deceptively beautiful layers of drones and fragile melodies of the arrangement. Almost new age, almost space age, an album this organic is positively next age. Simply gorgeous.