This was my first exposure to this Finnish psych icon and I found it to be quite a curious one. I feel safe in stating that Keijo sounds like absolutely no one else, but I’d be hard-pressed to conclude whether than is a good or a bad thing. I can’t imagine anyone else being able to sound like this, but it also seems pretty unlikely that they’d want to. Regardless, this album’s primary motif is overlapping layers of meandering, improvising guitars (mostly undistorted). There also seem to be some Indian or Chinese stringed instruments thrown in there as well.
Keijo is a pretty inventive and idiosyncratic player though, as it seems like he has seamlessly assimilated a number of diverse threads (Delta blues, Indian classical music, the entire Sublime Frequencies roster, etc.) into his style. Unfortunately, there is a very significant catch: Maailma Hetkinä doesn’t ever cohere or go anywhere- Keijo just seems to amiably but formlessly improvise for however long he has decided a song will last (in this case, 15 to 35 minutes).
Thankfully, there is generally a lot of weirdness unfolding in the periphery to keep me interested. The most notable surprise is that Keijo occasionally launches into subtly eerie Tuvan throat-singing, but there are also field recordings (usually of water), oddly disconnected and distant-sounding global percussion, jaw harps, a doorbell, and a gong. Also, he periodically and unexpectedly sings briefly in his own strange, nasal voice (delivering an ancient Finnish poem about the creation of the universe).
Occasionally, Keijo weaves these elements together into a denser-than-usual web of layers or seems to improvise a bit more passionately, but that is as close to structure or dynamic variability as he ever gets- he seems quite content to stay as amorphous as possible at all times (“The soundscape of the piece is like the night – you swell and churn, and sometimes something solid may come up,” as the Luovaja website cryptically puts it). Ultimately, I like this album, as it is strange, pleasant, and weirdly absorbing, but it never truly grabbed me or made me want to hear more.
