Artists
Album Info
Release Date: 2022-11-11Label: Alakulttuuritalo
Composer Pekka Toivonen’s audacious new Ensemble album mesmerizes from jazz and free to classical.Merging both sides of the Pekka Toivonen Ensemble, the latest release from Alakulttuuritalo plunges into the worlds of jazz and classical.
— Our music is both poison and potion. This album rings with brutality and sensitivity with an A side that is composed and the B side, which is more like an intuitively painted piece. It’s actually a kind of freejazz symphony in three parts, Toivonen explains. Toivonen, also known as a graphic designer and visual artist, eschews confining musical labels. The hashtag #pärtrane is a self-ironic amalgam of Toivonen’s most important composer forefathers: Arvo Pärt fist-bumping John Coltrane. Pacemaker is at times emotionally compelling beauty, and at other times wildly boundless lawlessness.
— Organic is the keyword here. That’s how it’s been played and recorded – and that’s how we held onto. It’s live, played in one space all together, unedited, unpolished and, dare I say it, “real” or at least “proper” music. This is something I take pride in. I just don’t get it when music is restricted with sterile categorizations regarding style and genre, Toivonen states.
The Pacemaker album was published in November 2022 during the fifth annual Pekka Toivonen Piano Week, where Toivonen performs once every weekday in different locations. The concerts, mainly performed in churches, show the breadth of his expression. The composer says that the acoustics and atmosphere of churches suit his experimental streak. He lives for crossbreeding forms of music and art.
— Half of the musicians playing on the album come from the jazz side of things. The other half have a classical background. And that is inevitably – I hope – heard in the music’s character and boundlessness. Freedom – that’s what I’m exploring here, Toivonen sums up.
On the title track there are two special guests: a thrush nightingale from Tammisaari and legendary DJ Tixa. The digitally distributed version also includes Tuntematon mies, released as a single by AKT in 2021.
– There are no overdubs on the Pacemaker album except for Tixa’s solo, which was recorded before the sessions, Toivonen notes.
As a conclusion, the composer reveals that the third part ending the album as such features a different take on physical releases compared to digital ones.
— There are two nipples after all, so there are also two nightnipples, Toivonen clarifies referring to the track’s title Yönännit (yö = night, nännit = nipples).
Choose your side! ;)