Lauri Porra (b1977) is a Finnish composer and electric bass player. His musical credentials are impeccable: Sibelius was his great-grandfather, Jussi Jalas his grandfather, with musicians for both parents, his father (as an amateur) in jazz. Porra’s own musical instincts have drawn him towards rock and other musics, for which he has rightly been lauded. In Kohta (2016), he plays an omniwerk, an instrument created in 2014 as (in Porra’s description) ‘a sort of combination of … the Lautenwerk (lute-harpsichord) and the viola organista … a bowed instrument played by pressing keys’.

The three works included here, Kohta presented in two alternative versions, are testimony to Porra’s musical instincts and collegiate approach. Vili Ollila assisted with all the orchestrations, Jaakko Kuusisto assisting with Entropia, a concerto for electric bass and orchestra (2015) and Domino Suite, a duo concertante with jazz drums and piano orchestra (2017). Percussionist Samuli Kosminen also assisted technically throughout with various sound effects in post-production: this is an unashamedly manufactured product.

Yet with all this care and thought lavished, I wish I could be enthusiastic about the result. Alas, below the surface slickness, the music strikes me as aimless, self-indulgent and devoid of any striking personality. Entropia comes off best, Porra writing for his own instrument, but long outstays its near-28-minute duration. Kohta (‘Paragraph’ is one possible translation; ‘Point’ and ‘Soon’ are others) originated as a piece for rapper and orchestra; but, as the firm-toned Paperi T (aka Henri Pulkkanen) intones in Finnish only and the text is untranslated, its expressive target remains obscure. I prefer the instrumental version but it is just too long. The less said about Domino Suite the better, frankly.