Nothing diminishes such Finnish flair
Not at all an off-the-peg piano trio
Using the term piano trio isn’t really that helpful here. Even though one is at work. It’s just you might have certain expectations that just won’t be fulfilled especially if you are looking for a trio in the wake or mould of another dimension be it populated by Brad Mehldau, e.s.t. or Vijay Iyer.
Because the Finnish brother act of avant pianist Joona Toivanen and his younger brother double bass player Tapani along with the much better known drummer the prog loving Olavi Louhivuori – one of Europe’s most creative players of his generation – take a far different approach that if anything dismantles all the essential parts. Nobody worries too much about putting these all back together again either.
Patchy but some tracks are a thrill
It’s patchy overall but three or four tracks are quite brilliant. That’s a ratio most people would be pleased with but it does illuminate a few issues with the album’s structure and sheer ability to retain momentum. There’s no real obvious groove. Pulsar flow does happen however but you need to listen hard for how the rhythmical transformations occur.
But box off the less successful aspects of this recording. Because the two tracks with ‘Gravity’ in the title, the forboding ‘Rotating Dust’ and best of all the loose and open ‘Implications and Consequences’ where the drummer seems to be crashing about while treading on broken plates, work their magic and form a formidably well constructed wall of brooding sound.
Into bands like Enemy?
Recorded in a remote studio in Tuusula if all the tracks were like ‘Implications and Consequences’ this would be a five star release. They aren’t. But it all still proves a charismatic presence that lands not without its mystique and sense of intrigue. If you are into bands like Kit Downes finds himself inside Enemy then this will be up your street. But big caveat if, dear reader, you are a resident of the mindless fun seeker community – and why not (?): the Joona Toivanen Trio are not a band to get the party started. More it’s a unit made for deep rumination and some serious soul searching. For these reasons alone it’s a sonic stimulus that has more going for it than not.
