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ANTTI LöTJöNEN

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

Antti Lötjönen says:

"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."


TRACK LISTING

1. Circus/Citadel, Pt. I (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
2. Circus/Citadel, Pt. II (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
3. Circus/Citadel, Pt. III (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
4. Ode To The Undone (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
5. Defenestration (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
6. (for) Better People (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)
7. It Goes On. (feat. Mikko Innanen, Jussi Kannaste, Verneri Pohjola & Joonas Riippa)

Antti Lötjönen & Koma Saxo

Erzeben Strasse / Erzeben Koma

Helsinki bassist Antti Lötjönen follows up his 2020 We Jazz Records debut LP with a new 7" introducing a fresh version of key album cut "Erzeben Strasse" and throws in a wild treatment by Petter Eldh's Koma Saxo on the flipside. "Erzeben Strasse" presents Lötjönen's Quintet East lineup in fine form, swinging steadily but also adding enough sideways movement to blur the lines just a little bit. The band features a stellar Finnish cast in Lötjönen (bass), Verneri Pohjola (trumpet), Mikko Innanen (baritone sax), Jussi Kannaste (tenor sax) and Joonas Riippa (drums).

The Koma Saxo treatment of the track, dubbed here as "Erzeben Koma" is full of fire. Uplifting, a bit hectic, beat-driven and jubilant, Eldh's band of brothers double the ensemble heard on Side A, both sampling and adding new recording into the mix. The entire Koma Saxo live band is featured here: Eldh (bass/production), Otis Sandsjö (tenor sax), Jonas Kullhammar (tenor sax), Innanen (alto sax) and Christian Lillinger (drums). The modern sound of Helsinki meet Mauerpark Liquid Jazz.

TRACK LISTING

1. Erzeben Strasse (7" Edit)
2. Erzeben Koma


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