This is once again one of those crazy Finnish bands, of course very much in a positive sense, which blows up all musical boundaries and genres and does it absolutely unconventional.
ONSÉGEN ENSEMBLE are named after the Russian poet Onségen Olentkovej, who developed an own language to express himself in which the Finns actually sing too. It reminds a bit of Zheul, created by French band extraordinaire Magma, although there are hardly any musical parallels.
Since I do not know earlier releases of ONSÉGEN ENSEMBLE I cannot say anything about their musical development and progression.
On Fear however, one will get a potpourri of Prog, Post Rock, Psychedelic, Krautrock, Fusion and Zeuhl, which is in its entirety everything else than chaotic. Fear actually sounds quite homogenous and has an almost soundtrack-like flow, whereas the cinematic part rather dips in TV series sound tracks of the 70s. Fear downright captivates, creates a maelstrom you cannot and do not want to escape.
Nine fine people took part in Fear. The album is rich and versatile orchestrated, continuously dynamic, thrilling and with many elements a spliff would perfectly fit to while listening.
Fear is hardly ever tangible, which is its special charm, because you always discover something new. Sparrow‘s Song for example offers a Morricone kind of Western soundtrack. The title track again scores with a mesmerizing melody, Stellar comes with an up-tempo beat, dark choirs and a slight Hawkwind flair, while Earthless could be a slightly potty early 70s Acid Folk track. And there are wind instruments everywhere, which leads every attempt to categorize the music to a reductio ad absurdum.
What else can I say? With the new ONSÉGEN ENSEMBLE album Svart Records once again release a highlight in this so strange year 2020. Fear is outstanding, a record that makes fun, is thrilling and highly entertaining. Just great!