Ozella

This album could easily have turned top-heavy. After all, here's a record which, in just under 40 minutes, covers anything from arabic scales to Japanese sounds, from free jazz references to concepts by Kari Ikonen's favourite painter Vasiliy Kandinsky. To realise his vision, Ikonen even personally developed a device allowing him to play micro-intervals on his piano. And yet, things turned out differently: If anything, the results sound dream-like and mesmerising rather than stodgy and severe. The album's genesis may serve to explain this paradox. In August of 2019, Ikonen suddenly found himself with a month of free time. Without thinking twice and as if in a premonition of the Covid lockdown, he recorded Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions at his own home. His only companion was his beloved Steinway, captured by a personal selection of high-end microphones. Just a few days after the final session, the pieces landed on the desk of ECM- and Blue-Note-engineer Johannes Lundberg who mixed the album at his Gothenburg Epideminstudios.

'Our Sense of Jazz' marks the beginning of a new series of label compilation on Ozella. For the first time, the possibly most potent force behind the label - jazz - makes an open appearance in the title. And yet, the music is as diverse as ever, ranging from folk references to vintage musings, from pulsating patterns to epic sound sculptures.

In the past, the members of the Oddgeir Berg Trio have remained in the background, acting as instrumentalists for renowned Scandinavian colleagues. With the release of Before Dawn, things are about to change. Their album instantly ranks as an excitingly different entry into the long list of piano trios. And despite their decades of combined experience, it sounds every bit as fresh and hungry as you'd expect from a debut. The sound of Before Dawn was sculpted at a very special place, the band's very own Bonker Studio in Oslo. Entering into this barely 30 square meters small space without windows and secured by a heavy metal door, feels like boarding a submarine.

First contact between the musicians of Inwardness is established at a concert in Morocco. A year later, they meet again, this time in the South of France. Months are spent in isolation, in search of new forms of interaction. The trio experiment with different playing modes: playing blindfolded, in the midst of nature or during rush hour in the city centre. The result is a free floating sound, a silence pierced by subtle noises and whispering frequencies. Davy Sur is one of the few drummers capable of navigating the open spaces of this music. For Inwardness, he has managed to extract an intriguingly delicate sound from his instruments.

From anger to love: In a trio of organ, sax, and cello, Rain Sultanov is facing the dark side of the soul.

For his third record, the Finnish keyboard virtuoso Aapo Heinonen has created a refreshingly unique sound, a relaxed whirlwind of fusion-grooves, Latin swing and modal-jazz-melodies - all embedded into stimulatingly complex arrangements. The album still displays Heinonen's recognisable sensual charm. But it feels a lot more cinematic and ambitious than any of his previous offerings. Heinonen admits he had doubts whether he was ready for these incisive changes. But true to his convictions, he never let that stop him.

The international release of “Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions” will finally take place January 8, 2021 on German label Ozella Music