I was startled to discover a clean vinyl copy of a 45-year-old Eberhard Weber album on ECM Records in the dollar bin of a record store last month. The bassist’s sublime fusion of European folk and Euro-jazz is tastefully updated by Barlast. The Finnish quartet’s new album Musik för scener is a spectral wonder. The promotional materials for the 32-minute album suggest that “(e)verything unnecessary is stripped away.” Sure enough, the astounding sounds created by Barlast are balanced by equally profound silences. The ethereal application of Finnish instruments like the mänkeri alongside conventional instrumentation could become fastidious were it not for a menacing undercurrent of the sort associated with Nordic metal. Any person who encounters an absurdly underpriced physical copy of a Barlast recording in 2066 will be very fortunate.
