(This is the updated GEPR Ozone Player profile that includes a short review of É)

Ozone Player is actually Finnish composer/keyboardist Otso Pakarinen. He has two albums, Insane Logic and É (not quite ... the accent mark actually joins with the body of the "E", but this is the closest I can come with a standard HTML font set). He has dubbed his style "progressive techno", though this may incorrectly conjure up mental images of techno house rave music. Though there are some "dancable" tracks on both CD's, the music tends to be much more "ambient" than "techno". Especially on Insane Logic, it's also a bit too dissonant and demanding to be called "ambient".

To get an idea what Insane Logic is like, take a heavy dose of old (Phaedra/Rubycon-era) Tangerine Dream, some of the alternate tunings of Wendy Carlos, and throw in some of the nightmarish textures and cacophonies of The Residents, and you'll begin to have a flavor of the music. It is all instrumental, mostly synthesizers, and it can be innocuously cheerful one moment, then decay into frightening darkness the next. These emotional swings make it a bad candidate for the ignorable "ambient" label. My favorite cuts are the longer ones, especially the 7:31 "The Reality Dysfunction".

É is a smoother and more mature album, but no less odd. The first song, "The Name is Bond ... Jeeves Bond" sounds like some sort of warped arabic disco tune, with a strange synthetic rhythm and an interlude that suddenly changes from techno-pop dance music to a theater organ solo. Unexpected to say the least. I really like this tune, and another favorite is "Ollism" which is an all-percussion piece, though the percussion sounds like hand saws, sandpaper and different size hammers. Pakarinen has spent a lot of time on this album laboring over innovative samples and synthesizer patches to make the oddest clanks, scrapes and buzzes which are used as the percussion tracks for all the songs. To this he adds a dose of ethnic/world flavorings, and a bunch of '80's techno-pop dance music, and comes up with a really fascinating stew that is sure to maintain your interest. There are also some nice guitar solos in some of the songs just to add variety to the otherwise all-synthesized sound.

Neither album is going to make music history with it's uniqueness, but they're not "cardboard cutout" music, either. Pakarinen has shown some imagination in developing this style. Not "techno", "electronic dance music" or "ambient", but a little bit of each and some "world" flavors and just plain strangeness too. Definitely not "new age" either (to quote Pakarinen, "I can't stand new age ..."). As all prog, it's not easy to categorize, but I do know I enjoyed both albums. Maybe you will too. -- Fred Trafton