Album Review: Der Finger – Le cinque stagioni (Toten Schwan Records)

Der Finger hail from Moscow, Russia, developing avantrock-noise, free/dark-jazz and psychedelic improvisational music since 2012. They have released a new album entitled “Le cinque stagioni” via Toten Schwan Records.

The idea behind the album is that the 5 recorded tracks represent 5 seasons of “Illuminati calendar” that is mentioned in Robert Anton Wilson novels, (notably, “Illuminatus!” trilogy), so the tracks are named by original German names of these seasons, each consisting of 73 days, representing development stages of everything from complete chaos to complete fuck-up (SNAFU) and back again in the eternal cycle.

What an imaginative effort this album is. It’s deserves praise for the scope of Der Finger’s thinking alone. That being said, this is a wacky as hell album. One that many will struggle to get into. The fusion of so many different elements is exceptionally unusual.

It opens with darkened jazz as the 20-minute long Verwirrung gets underway. The darkness builds in intensity while a saxophone goes ballistic leading towards a hellish and uncomfortable rumbling middle segment that goes on for ages. It’s impressive just how much it gets under the skin and by time we reach the conclusion the mind will have been turned to jelly.

No time to rest though as the 15+ minutes of Zweitracht comes at us thick and fast. Whatever madness was induced by the previous track is pushed even further here as the jazz/noise fusion is something few will be able to cope listening too. When it finally breaks, the feeling of relief is immeasurable.

Horrified yet? If not, don’t worry…Unordnung will see to that although the jazzy side of things really settle down and become more listenable. We then take a trip back into a dark-fuelled world as Beamtenherrschaft makes as much noise as humanly possible, the drum beat in particular sounding the echoes of a dying season.

That the final track, Realpolitik is only 8 minutes long (well, 3 seconds short of 8) is the real surprise of this conclusion. Here we get off-beat guitar strumming in the style of someone who has never played one before and a constant wildness to the avant-rock noise that covers everything. It’s a welcome finish as this really is an album that has to be heard to be believed.

It takes incredible talent to put together something so unusual and there is no arguing that Der Finger will really get people’s attentions with this release. Bloody wacky though…

Der Finger – Le cinque stagioni Full Track Listing:

1. Verwirrung
2. Zweitracht
3. Unordnung
4. Beamtenherrschaft
5. Realpolitik

The album is available now over on Bandcamp and you can find out more via Der Finger’s Facebook Page.