Lingua Fungi is a new Finnish project by Jaakko Padatsu. Lingua Fungi has no connection to the darker aspects of the world, such as war, as opposed to many other War Office Propaganda projects. Lingua Fungi concerns itself the speech of mushrooms, according to the name of the project, and the world of nature.

Percussions instruments combined with snare instruments with a soft soundscape in the background form Lingua Fungi. The songs have a touch of folk, combined with the ambient aspect. For example, I would classify the track ‘For You, Little Seed’ under ambient music, while the tracks ‘Branches’ and ‘Nightly Gardens’ can be considered instrumental folk for the most part. However, these three songs, the first three on the CD, merge perfectly together. ‘For You, Little Seed’ slowly accumulates a more rhythmic nature, while ‘Branches’ and ‘Nightly Gardens’ have many fragments of instrumental music, containing several different instruments. Though many parts of the music are rhythmic, the music doesn’t lose its ambient aspect, because the rhythmic fragments always die down into the ambient soundscape which is constantly accompanying them. It is important to note that all instrumental music is performed by mr. Padatsu himself, which is quite interesting. However, that fact obviously makes a live performance impossible, unless Jaakko Padatsu is extremely creative.

Although the first three songs on the CD resemble each other in more ways than one, this ends when ‘Her leaves in Gold and Silver’ begins. Purely an ambient work, it conjures images of mysterious forests or mountain glades. ‘Vision Quest,’ named after a native American ritual of self-exploration, begins with an instrumental part, after which it changes to something fluctuating and primal. ‘Lucid Dreams’ is almost purely ambient, as if ‘Bloom,’ though the latter creates somewhat of a darker atmosphere compared to the other tracks on the CD. ‘Hope You Won’t Wither’ has a more ‘modern’ feel to it, because Jaakko used distortions and electric tones extensively.

This CD is thoroughly enjoyable, however, while listening to the music, I can’t shake the feeling of having heard this before. The idea of this particular type of ambient music is hardly original and it has a lot in common with its predecessors. Also, many instruments appear in every track in exactly the same manner, creating a seemingly repetitive framework around the music seems to be structured, but this combines the songs into one whole. So, in the end, though it is interesting, the music doesn’t necessarily stand out in a crowd.

I. For You, Little Seed
II. Branches
III. Nightly Gardens
IV. Her leaves In Gold And Silver
V. Vision Quest
VI. Lucid Dreams
VII. Bloom
VIII. Hope You Won’ t Wither