Each piece on "My Finnish Calendar" represents a month of the year, and each also exists as an independent artistic statement. And if the storyline might not always be directly apparent from the music, Rantala has provided explanations and hilarious anecdotes in his liner notes. The sheer strength with which all this inspiration has been bubbling up becomes clear right at the beginning of the year.
Iiro Rantala is a jazz chameleon who loves to appear in many guises. The Finnish pianist invariably springs a surprise with the concepts for his albums, particularly those of his solo piano projects. For "My Finnish Calendar", he has turned a new page: this is improvised music but with an extra-musical narrative: from a very personal and Finnish point of view, he has set to music the passing of a complete year in his home country, and he has done it with his typical mixture of melodic inventiveness, melancholy and humour. His well-known technical finesse and mastery, acquired over the years, have been applied here with an unerring instinct for bringing the essential to the fore.Each piece on this album represents a month of the year, and each also exists as an independent artistic statement. And if the storyline might not alw...
line upIiro Rantala / piano
Recorded by Klaus Scheuermann at the ACT Art Collection Berlin, November 30, 2018
Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
Iiro Rantala played on the “Alfred Brendel” Steinway D-524780, tuned by Thomas Hübsch
Cover art by Mimmo Paladino, used with the
kind permission of the artist
Music composed by Iiro Rantala
Iiro Rantala / Piano
Produced by Siggi Loch
