Uton, aka Jani Hirvonen of Finland has always been one of the most prolific players from the so called Finnish Underground putting out release after release on almost every single CD-R label out there. ?Alitaju Ylimina? is his first vinyl release put out by Hamburg?s Dekorder label which is focusing more and more on Finnish psychedelia.

I recently read quite a fitting comment on the music of Uton stating that you listen to it and after a while you forget what you had been listening to for the last five or ten minutes. The same is true for ?Alitaju Ylimina?. It captures twelve compositions in five tunes which mostly feature electronics, flutes, percussion and other gadgets. And also on these five tunes Uton?s sounds are so fluid that it?s really hard to grasp and remember them. At the same time though they capture the listener completely. While some of Uton?s music can be quite boring, ?Alitaju Ylimina? is among the best I?ve heard from him. The tunes contained on the LP were partly recorded in a studio and are quite opulent compared to some of his other output. The LP is split up into the ?Utopia? and the ?Atopia? sides, and especially the ?Utopia? side features a more noisy Uton than usual. Electronic loops, distant and blurry flutes, what seems like distorted vocals, railroad sounds and tons of other sound sources join together to create a truly unholy and ghostly atmosphere.

The ?Atopia? side starts out more quiet with morphing drones, violins and flutes before changing into a full force drilling noisy section. At least I haven?t heard Uton as abrasive and repelling as on this section, but it suits him quite well and makes his music more challenging. Track 2 on the ?Atopia? side is less aggressive, but equally discomforting. Here, Uton uses children?s voices, adult gibberish, harmonium, some kind of wooden glockenspiel type instrument and other sound sources. The ?Atopia? side ends with a percussion driven 70s type tune that has a very tribal vibe with its fierce flute playing. ?Alitaju Yliminia? definitely seems to mark a change in Uton?s catalogue moving away from his minimalist dronescapes into more varied territory. It?s something that sounds well worth pursuing. 7/10 -- Stephan Bauer (24 July, 2007)