Arto Koskinen’s piano cycle Fuga indiana is a group of 17 pieces that aim to synthesise Baroque contrapuntal techniques with his longtime immersion in Eastern traditions, particularly that of Hindustani vocal music. Koskinen’s experience in experimental and rock bands also floats to the surface of his music, which is more modal than tonal in nature.

For example, the contrapuntal textures in Fuga libera’s second part and in ‘Canon – Serioso’ don’t convey cumulative momentum so much as they evoke the Grateful Dead’s guitar-and-bass interplay or Keith Jarrett fishing around for ideas. More virtuosic manifestations of the same thing happen in ‘Fughetta – Deciso’ and Fuga seria’s scintillating conclusion. ‘Jor and Jhala’ turns up the heat with torrential tremolos in all registers, while, by contrast, the softer, gentler and starker ‘Prelude – Teneramente’ wouldn’t be out of place in a collection of GI Gurdjieff Sacred Hymns.

Because a piano cannot bend notes, one misses the wealth of nuance and inflection points that enable Hindustani masters (such as vocalist Pandit Pran Nath or sitarist Nikhil Banerjee) to sustain a raga’s slowly unfolding alap. As such, a little of this music goes a long way. Yet, in fairness, I wonder if tuning the piano in non-equal temperament would yield more gripping results, with more harmonic tension and vibrant overtones all around. Think of La Monte Young’s The Well-Tuned Piano, Michael Harrison’s Revelation or many of Terry Riley’s improvised excursions and you’ll understand what I mean.

Without having heard the composer’s own recording of Fuga indiana, Joonas Ahonen’s sensitive and committed interpretation seems to serve Koskinen’s aesthetic in every way, and is beautifully engineered.