Met het album Three Seconds / Kolma Toista brengt de Finse gitarist Jussi Reijonen een schitterend muzikaal perspectief van Oriëntaalse en Westerse muziek.

English version below

English version

The Finnish guitarist Jussi Reijonen presents a wonderful musical perspective of Oriental and Western music with his new album Three Seconds / Kolma Toista.

The compositions of the Finnish-born string player Jussi Reijonen contain characteristics of Oriental, African and Western music. This is not surprising, because Jussi is a global citizen who has lived in Jordan, Tanzania, Oman, Lebanon and the United States. On this second album Three Seconds / Kolma Toista he plays electric and acoustic guitars and the Arabic lute (the ûd). He is joined by American trumpeter Jason Palmer, drummer Vancil Cooper and bassist Kyle Miles. The Turkish trombonist Bulut Gülen and pianist Utar Artun, the Jordanian/Iraqi violinist Layth Sidiq, the Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash and the Japanese percussionist Keita Ogawa. All these musicians bring their own musical baggage with them, which they play in the arrangements and improvisations. We hear a five-part suite, composed from a global perspective, interspersed with the characteristic features of these musicians. The pieces are a musical expedition through an unexplored musical landscape, where everything is possible and where lots of musical treasures appear. From firm bombastic passages with strong percussion to subdued melodies where Turkish and Greek elements blend brotherly with North African percussion and even larded with (modal) jazz sounds. The compositions on Three Seconds / Kolma Toista have undergone an organic development. A lot of work was written years ago, revised during the Corona break and new pieces were added to the CD-rpertoire. This results in seasoned, rich and above all enchanting music!

• Jussi Reijonen: Three Seconds / Kolma Toista (Challenge Records INT)
• Band & guitar photo: Eric Antoniou / with ûd: Luis Zavaleta.

© Mattie Poels.