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"Let's assume Mental Alaska is the place you go to get away, a holiday for your mind. When you go to Mental Alaska what you hear is the free music, freedom incarnate, the last truth on earth, reaching back to the source of all human activity, ancient and yet unquestionably existing in the now. You are hearing Taco Bells.
What you hold in your hands is a cassette recorded live in Helsinki, Finland at Ravintola Piano on February 1st, 2014, and conceived by organizers Mental Alaska. Taco Bells consists of Sami Pekkola on saxophone, Tero Kemppainen on double bass and Jaakko Tolvi on drums, all three veteran rovers of free music, active in many bands and musical scenarios including Mohel, Kemialliset Ystävät, Rauhan Orkesteri, and the trans-Europe Jooklo Finnish Quartet. The core Taco Bells trio regularly morphs into a quartet, inviting choice friends to shift the orientation; no two tacos are alike.
On this date the band is supplemented by Finnish avant music pioneer/THE SPERM-founder Pekka Airaksinen on keyboards. It's a testament to the band's egolessness how seamlessly Pekka slides into the group's mindmeld, at turns taking direction and at others providing it. The quartet communicates without artifice, at its peak harsh and vigorous but always with an advanced level of receptiveness, a vivid sense of restraint, and an open heart, dancing around what T.S. Eliot called "the still point of the turning wheel"
Ultimately this is a set of music full of revelations. Side A begins with Pekka dictating the flow with dancing Glockenspiel-like tones, in duo exchange with Jaakko, until the remaining members join in, the energy gradually surging. One can hear a period of discovery dissipating into fruitful communication. A surprising regular pulse emerges, almost Latin in flavor, before quickly dissolving like a mirage. The B-side opens with Sami on assault, with full-on Frank Lowe and Peter Brotzmann vibrations, chopping against the piano. Halfway through Pekka assumes command, manipulating the Taco Bells foundation with a cascade of notes and icy piano clusters. The group is not content to stand still. Searching, always searching. Mental Alaska is not just in the mind. Mental Alaska is real.”
credits
released June 23, 2015
PEKKA AIRAKSINEN -- electric keyboards
TERO KEMPPAINEN -- double bass
SAMI PEKKOLA -- tenor saxophone
JAAKKO TOLVI -- drums
Recorded by Jaakko Tolvi.
Live at Mental Alaska / Ravintola Piano in Helsinki on 1st Feb 2014
Thanks to Mental Alaska, Ravintola Piano, Heta & Samuli.
supported by 234 fans who also own “Live at Mental Alaska”
I don't just love this album, its almost certainly in my Top 10 albums of all time (like those other 200 or so corkers lol) but this is splendid. Free jazz jams slowly coalescing into the heaviest grooves this side of the Sunn(()), just mind-blowing head candy. Wish I owned the cassette!! :( Monkton Wylde
supported by 234 fans who also own “Live at Mental Alaska”
Spotless new collection of moondog inspired tunes. The music is melodic and searching, the band perfectly balanced. Lyrical, layered and crowned by a soulful 'Pastoral'. Peluche Brutale