Radio Banana

by Aki Peltonen
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, Surrey, UK/Denver CO USA, 2005
CD. $13

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley, State University, University Center MI 48710 USA

mosher@svsu.edu

In the first cut on this jolly, likeable album, Petri Hisses' drums set up a New Orleans march beat. Atop that Aki Peltonen's accordion is plaintive, calling up the instrument’s inevitable Gallic or Parisian associations. They are met with horn blasts, and wrap it up Brazilian-style. The second cut, "Accordion and Drums" (track names are merely descriptive), evokes lazy boats on the Seine and sunny afternoons like the September weekend on which I write this,

The third piece speeds in like a 1970s TV soundtrack, big band jazz underscoring a raid by police in plaid blazers, Afro hairstyles, and big sideburns. No, now it’s a Mexican or Latin American television dance show. Peltonen's accordion is skillful, like Hammond organ, in the way it keeps up gamely with the "orchestra", and inevitably sounds European. Listed among the CD’s instrumental ingredients as "MW-radio", a radio dial (one more 20th century anachronism) is turned, skipping over static and near and distant channels. This trope of electroacoustic music, Peltonen's musique concrete tomfoolery, barely distracts from the festive mood.

The solo accordion "Finnish Waltz" would serve a sad and lonely Emmett Kelly clown performance, dodging a curious dream that threatens to subvert the accordionist, who maintains his balance against winds of upset and the risk of tumbling into cacophony. Here the instrument is both virtuoso and slightly tipsy. When we hear an alleyful of honking brass, we expect it to end, but Aki Peltonen’s plucky, valiant accordion roller skates back in and around the squabbling horns.