Aki Rissanen - Art in Motion (2019) [Hi-Res]

The music in this album is first and foremost about my long-lasting trio and how we have been growing together musically and personally in recent years. We have been making music actively both in the studio and on stage and that really has helped us to communicate on a profound level and find our own voice as a trio, album after album.

Both classical and electronic music strongly influenced my playing and writing from day one. I studied classical music repertoire for acoustic piano formally for 12 years, but always alongside my love for electronic music and gear. My parents bought my first acoustic piano and synthesiser at the same time, and I have been taken inspiration from these early days in my composing. When I started to gather and compose the music for the new album I found myself noodling around the tunes, moods and hooks I had been absorbing when I was young.

Art In Motion is a word play around the initials of Aki Rissanen Trio - A.R.T as well as referencing the influence of art music from the European repertoire. There is a cover by Italian Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo and one by contemporary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, whilst my compositions refer to Satie, Pergolesi, Bach, Ligeti and Stravinsky to name a few. We explore the roots of the current European jazz music from the outskirts of Europe, with our perspective as Finnish artists with Nordic, Slavic and Western European heritage.

And the motion? We are a rhythmically intense band inspired by the aesthetics of electronic dance music, focusing on our interplay and continuing the Nordic tradition as we see it. We, as jazz musicians, are in constant motion because our form of art doesn't ever stand still!

If European countries and citizens have come together around common values and ideals of peace and prosperity, it is the extraordinary diversity of their cultures and their music that makes Europe so rich. In a climate marked by the surge of nationalism, it is important to reemphasize it. As naive as it might sound, we can unite people through our music.

"Unity in diversity", the relevance of the European Union's motto is ever so actual.

AKI RISSANEN piano
ANTTI LÖTJÖNEN bass
TEPPO MÄKYNEN drums