Strange Wonder

The feeling between CAM JAZZ and the Great European North goes on. A new chapter for the “Big Blue” project is here, with Jorma Kalevi Louhivuori on trumpet, Antti Kujanpää on piano, Jori Huhtala on double bass and Joonas Leppänen on drums. “Strange Wonder” is the title of the new album, following the debut in late 2011 (for the series CAM JAZZ presents), and the “spin-off” of Little Blue, cut by only Louhivuori and Kujanpää last October.

This album not only displays the rarefied atmospheres or cool sounds (“Eleven Minutes In The Rain”) expected from an all Finnish quartet, but also a great surge of momentum able to emotionally engross and move the listeners (“Harvest Season”), in addition to elegant, soft ballads (the last track “Listening To The Silence”). It also includes pieces that lead one to wonder what kind of experiences the composer may have had (Huhtala, in the case in question) with known birds of great beaks (“Evil Pelicans”).

An yet another proof that the Northern European jazz panorama is in continuous evolution, as also demonstrated by the recent album with Claudio Filippini, Palle Danielsson and Olavi Louhivuori, Louhivuori’s brother, who is a life-giving force in this quartet. He and his trumpet, always standing out and inspired, are the stars of “Strange Wonder”, an album made up entirely of compositions by the four musicians and divided almost equally among them. Young talents but old acquaintances, at the same time, considering that, even before the debut album, “Big Blue”, the four musicians released albums on CAM JAZZ, a label always ready to make room for young European talents.

Recorded in Järvenpää (Finland) in November 2012 at Kallio-Kuninkala Studios -  Mixed in Helsinki (Finland) in November 2012 at Studio Kekkonen

Recording & mixing engineer Mikko Raita

Cover photo by Andrea Boccalini