Finnish duo Aki Himanen and Aleksi Kinnunen reunite on Jazz-o-Tech with a fresh five-track EP that finds them in spontaneous and open-hearted interaction with one another.
Himanen is an audio engineer and producer who plays trumpet and electronics, and Kinnunen is a talented drummer. They are a renowned live act and mainstays of this label who have dropped plenty of solo material as well as their Dawn Drops EP and two albums, Scapes 1, which was inspired by generative music techniques, and 2022’s A Thing with Feathers, which was an unpredictable and evolving dialogue full of evocative mental landscapes. They explore fresh new sound worlds once again here with a unique sense of cinematic adventure.
Opener ‚Dual Reality‘ sinks you straight into a smoky jazz basement with a blend of menacing synths and gorgeous trumpet notes vying for your attention. It’s a fantastically loose blend of electronic modulations and free-flowing acoustics that ebb and flow in a conversational style. ‚Sun Burst‘ has a heavy, dubby undercurrent but is detailed with a blend of melancholic and more wild trumpet notes and a busy eco-system of effects, percussion and moody synthesis sounds. ‚The Void‘ is a stunning, cavernous piece with melodies shimmering in a golden light as sombre trumpets linger with a sense of introspection and melancholy. The playful and groovy ‚Thriving Static‘ has a nimble rhythm that dances about with low-slung and elastic bass, drunken chords and cymbal and hi-hats tumbling through the mix. ‚Where The Tracks Disappear‘ is an expansive closer with widescreen and dubby rhythms laden with serene synths and glistening keys. The grove gets ever more busy and pressure as tension builds and the muted trumpet notes add a signature touch of classy jazz.
Dual Reality is another triumph of invention which finds techno and jazz in beautiful and dramatic style.
Jazz-o-Tech is a label that draws on the rich heritage of two of the most visionary and experimental genes in music: jazz and techno. Taking inspiration from the freeform creative nature of those two musical worlds, artists on the label mix tradition with modernity, improvisation with experimentation, and create a new sound known as techno-jazz. Modern music needs to be ambitious. It must aim to deliver a musical message which is one step beyond what has already been heard. It must take you on a new musical journey into unknown dimensions and emotions. That is the Jazz-o-Tech mission.
