Flying Finn free-jazzer Fredriksson tours Ireland in June.

Linda Fredriksson, the celebrated next generation Finnish saxophonist, is bringing her lauded Juniper project to Ireland this June. The tour, organised by Music Network, begins in the west in County Mayo's Erris Gaeltacht on 7 June hitting key towns and cities across Ireland including Sligo town next night. 2021's Juniper (WeJazz) won us over root and branch. Key tracks included the preternaturally still elegy 'Neon Light (and the sky was trans)' and even better 'Nana – Tepalle' a beguiling melody introduced by a deep riff that bears, you can't help much as you might fight it, an uncanny resemblance to the heart of the main Ron Grainer theme for 1970s/80s TV series Tales of the Unexpected, the sax part of which was played by Duncan Lamont. The Fredriksson track has already racked up over a quarter of a million streams on Spotify alone. Fredriksson will be accompanied by her band, featuring Tuomo Prättälä on keyboards, Mikael Saastamoinen on bass, and Olavi Louhivuori on drums.

Fredriksson, first heard by this blog in the punk-jazz band Mopo at the Irish Time Jazz Connective festival in Dublin pre-Lockdown, includes in her band one of Europe's most creative drummers Olavi Louhivuori who made European jazz history 17 years ago with the Ilmiliekki Quartet on the acclaimed March of the Alpha Males. Fredriksson taps spiritual jazz and a compositional sound that harnesses space and shades of electronica so intuitively in a deep song that has a stirring vibrational sense to it all through.

The confirmed venues and dates for the tour are:

• Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet, Co. Mayo - Friday, 7 June 2024 - Book Now
• Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo town - Saturday, 8 June - Book - also acting as the launch of next month's Sligo Jazz Project Summer School and Festival
• Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal - Sunday, 9 June - Book
• The Sugar Club, Dublin - Tuesday, 11 June - Book
• Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford city - Wednesday, 12 June - Book
• Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely, Co. Wicklow - Thursday, 13 June - Book
• Triskel Arts Centre, Cork city - Fri, 14 June - Book