Wigwam - Fairyport (Reissue) (1971/2010)

"Fairyport" was the 3rd album released by Finlands WIGWAM which also featured the introduction of another cast member with the entrance of the outstandingly talented composer/musician/bassist Pekka Pohjola. The end result was WIGWAM's first real stab at pure progressive rock and INMO is one of my more favoured albums of the 70's prog era. On "Fairyport", WIGWAM mix jazz, rock, pop all in one exploratory album with a nice wide range of themes and moods. Generally the songs are pretty organ drenched with lots of rhythmic syncopation. With "Fairyport" the threesome of Gustavson, Pembroke and Pohjola was completed. Jukka Gustavson (keyboards) wrote the most progressive pieces, with Jim Pembroke (vocals, piano) wrote the lighter and shorter songs and Pekka Pohjola's (bass) focus on the instrumental aspects. The bottomline is a very well balanced album with lots of progressive tendencies, instrumental prowess and instrumental mastery. There are several magical moments on this album including "Losing Hold" , "Cafffkaff, The Country Psychologist" and Pohjols's ZAPPA-esque instrumental tribute "Hot Mice". Band membership was Ronnie Österberg (drums, congas, percussion, backing vocals), Jukka Gustavson, (vocals, piano, organ, electric piano), Jim Pembroke (vocals, harmonica, piano, electric piano), Pekka Pohjola (bass, violins, acoustic guitar, piano, celeste and harpsichord). I guess every diamond has one rough cut and so too does "Fairyport" with the last track being a 17 minute live epic recording circa 1971 and sounds even with the re-mastered CD version like something off a bootleg. Having said that the studio material is to kill for and I would heavily recommend this album to all lovers of progressive rock. ~ Review by loserboy