Ainavihantaa - Malady (2021)

You could call this Finnish prog-tinged nu-jazz. It gets to a point where I’m not sure that labels do you much good. These guys are definitely jazzy, and it does have some progressive tendencies in the way that it shifts tempo and isn’t afraid of lyricism or complexity.

The vocals, on the tracks that have vocals, are very pleasant. I like my “concentration music” to either have no lyrics, or lyrics I can’t understand, so songs sung in Finnish (I assume) fit the bill nicely.

Saw this one mentioned on a couple different metal blogs, which is kind of funny, except that metal blogs generally also have excellent taste in other stuff, too. Regardless, it’s a great find.

Google tells me “Ainavihantaa” means “all the time.”

Tracks I liked:

Vapaa ja autio - a nice, stretched out melodic track with organ, horns, and guitar taking turns.

Haavan väri - A little more fast-paced and focused