01.07.2011
„Lost Heroes“ by iiro Rantala elected jazz album of the year by the German record critics board.

The explanatory statement of the jury reads: “iiro Rantala is an aesthete. His imagination of sound is traditionally orientated on the possibilities of a good grand piano. The Finnish pianist deliberately refuses the lures of the pro-tools generation, to correct the music with intelligent software. His piano sound is beautiful by itself, his art is the result of a flawless, immensely flexible pianistic attack, a, at times, humorous way of arranging, a profoundly melodical musicality which made him become one of Scandinavia’s leading pianists – ever since his work with the band “Trio Töykeät”. On “Lost Heroes”, iiro Rantala is looking back on late musicians, who strongly influenced his musical career – from Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum over Pekka Pohjola and Esbjörn Svensson to Lucciano Pavarotti and Jean Sibelius. His homage to these musicians is light fingered, witty, full of sentiment without being over-sentimental. iiro Rantala is a virtuoso and at the same time truly musical pianist and, with “Lost Heroes”, has made one of the best piano records of 2011.

Lost Heroes is a superb tribute, a giant of an album. (All about Jazz, US)

A masterpiece of musical hero worship. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, DE)

Rantala's solo work draws on classical music as much as jazz, and fizzes with glittering contrapuntal playing, jaw-dropping juxtapositions of fast basslines and right-hand cascades, tantalising swappings of romantic rhapsodies and bluesy swing, and all kinds of other pianistic fireworks. (The Guardian , GB)

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