Music from Finland

*2025 much needed repress!!* What is music about? It can be about anything, I guess, but that’s not what we are talking about. That’s not why we are here. What makes the difference is if music, any music, is worth it. Then it’s something else. Like this piece, Juho Toivonen’s solo album. What I suggest as a simile to music on this vinyl, is the experience of sauna. Savusauna (smoke sauna) to be exact. The thing about savusauna is that because of the method of heating, the room gets really hot, a…

On their new album "Kammin Jaaretti," the renowned jazz trio Hot Heros craft mesmerizing forest jazz. Saxophonist Sami Sippola and double bassist Ville Rauhala have been navigating the depths of jazz together for over two decades. Originally part of the wild and unpredictable Black Motor, their musical journey evolved into Hot Heros when they combined forces with the masterful drummer and percussionist Janne Tuomi. Hot Heros have made a name for themselves as a fierce live band and a hardworking…

Static Teller is Jørgen Teller's unique solo project. He has a long career as electric guitarist, vocal and electronic musician and released many records solo and with Jørgen Teller & The Empty Stairs. He collaborated with players like Rhys Chatham, Fast Forward, David (Pere Ubu) Thomas & foreigners, Coal Hook (with Ron Schneiderman (Sunburned)), Lazara Rosell Albear, Bruno Ferro Xavier da Silva. Teller calls his music minimal rock goes synth'beat’n’poetry. The project was created during Teller’…

RMSS has been lurking in the Finnish noise underground for a few years now, releasing a handful of self-released cassette tapes, each raising the bar higher and higher. The pressings have been quite small, with limited circulation, but enough to generate excitement among many fans of Finnish noise. Now is the perfect time to present Lihasmuisti, the first full-length CD by RMSS.

100 copies limited edition Finnish sound artist Juho Toivonen’s latest release, Taivaskanava, is an evocative exploration of sonic atmospheres and liminal spaces. Released on cassette by Grapefruit Records, this composition employs a sparse yet intimate palette—piano, acoustic guitar, tape loops, and ethereal vocals—to create a soundscape that feels at once deeply grounded in materiality and profoundly otherworldly. The title itself is rich with meaning, offering an interpretive framework throug…

Sisarusten Toistuva Uni is the sophomore album from Juho Toivonen, a young sound artist based in Pori, Finland. It follows up the piano-heavy debut album Kasveille Ja Eläimille released in 2023 - a record that was one of the major highlights at the Discreet Music HQ last year. The new album revolves around a recurring dream that Juho and his sister Ida-Sofia shared unknowingly. The 8 songs on the album resemble childhood memories, lacking clear borders or narrative, yet painted with strong, rich…

The 1970 album For Children by Eero Koivistoinen was originally released by the book publishing company, Otava, which was responsible for his earlier two albums as well. Jazzpuu/Sähkö Recordings  reissued For Children in 2006 as did we in 2016, yet both of these releases have been hard to find ever since. This time around Svart brings this important piece of Koivistoinen's career, a successful amalgam of acoustic jazz and funky fusion back on the market on a limited Svart exclusive blue vinyl ed…

Odysseus, Eero Koivistoinen's first proper jazz album, gets its title from the wandering spirit of its songs, traveling from one mood to another. Performed by the Eero Koivistoinen Quintet & Sextet, because Koivistoinen wanted to extend his standard quartet (Koivistoinen-Sarmanto-Laine-Hietanen) to a quintet and invited trumpetist Bertil Lövgren to join. Also Juhani Aaltonen is questing on two tracks. Odysseus is an excellent, youthful package of forward-thinking jazz played by ambitious young j…

“Enjoy Foat's rhythmic mastery, jazz-infused mood, and cosmic synths, accompanied by Finland's finest, including the legendary saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen.”

Aclod is the first fruit of the telekinetic long distance collaboration between Juho Toivonen and Loren Chasse. The artists shared environmental recordings from Coyote Wall, Washington and Pori, Finland to create music for an implied landscape that is located neither here nor there. Toivonen and Chasse began working together in 2021 after Toivonen reissued Chasse`s seminal field-recording based album “Synthesis Of Neglected Places” on his label Akti. Working on the reissue, the artists noticed t…

*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Multicast Dynamics returns to Astral Industries for AI-26, this time collaborating with Sid Hille, the German born, Finland based instrumentalist and composer. ‘Metamorphosis’ transmutes both artists’ unique styles into a synergistic blend of transportive storytelling, a delicate dance of light and dark. Divided into two parts, ’Metamorphosis’ originates from a live performance recorded at Temppeliaukio church in Helsinki on March 2nd, 2019. The material was…

* In process of stocking. 70 copies limited edition * "Juho Toivonen is a 24-year old musician from Pori, Finland who is just beginning to flourish as an artist. In 2021 his debut solo tape arrived via Finland’s Ikuisuus label and Suurpää is his sophomore follow up. On this release Toivonen has created two sparse yet engaging side-long tracks. Toivonen’s music displays a wise-beyond-his-years patience rarely exhibited in young artists. “Suurpää I” features deep drones, gauzy swells and intermitt…

**Edition of 60 copies ** Lament & Rejoice is a debut album by a Finnish experimental musician Juho Toivonen.  Dubbed on to a 30-year old Hardcore Punk tape found from Toivonen`s rehersal room in Pori, the hissing album experiments with continuous sound created either with clarinet, viola, synthesizer and chants - or just with piano and synthesizer.  In these two pieces you`ll find sounds and energies being emancipated for the purpose of unity.

Svart Mondo presents Jappa: The Complete Jazz at the Polytechnicum Recordings 1967-1968 by Eero Koivistoinen with friends. By early 1960’s, jazz in its mainstream form had become the standard dance music for the student parties in high schools and several student union clubrooms in Helsinki. The Polytech union even organized matinée dances for high school students on Sundays. The change in the musical preference of young people’s dance music occurred with the arrival of British rock in the mid-s…

Multicast Dynamics returns with a sixth studio album but one that marks something of a new chapter. Ancient Circuits is a departure from previous works on Denovali and one that stands the project aside as a powerful electronic act that tells stories while also serving up heavy hitting soundscapes that are persuasive, unexpected and disturbing. By now, Multicast Dynamics is revered for absorbing and journeying albums that are as immersive as a film or evocative as an audio book. Since 2015, long …

Svart Records continues the Eero Koivistoinen reissue program with this 1971 super-rarity. With Vesa-Matti Loiri, Seija Simola and Eero Raittinen on vocals. Koivistoinen’s children’s music album Muusa ja Ruusa was based on the poems of Kirsi Kunnas and released by the book publishing company WSOY. Although some of these songs were revisited in the 2000s on the Ville ja Valle album, the original album has never been reissued in any format. The moods on this 1971 range from pastoral calm to the ps…

A fiery, raw burst of fusion jazz played by a large group with incendiary energy, Eero Koivistoinen’s commanding saxophone controlling the chaos! Don't be put off by the long name, or the overuse of vowels in the title – because this album's a killer batch of free jazz, filled with loads of choppy sax riffs, sweet Fender Rhodes licks, and plenty of heavy drums. The record's got a hard fusion groove – and all the tracks are long instrumentals served up with plenty of power, and plenty of ferocity…

More magic from the Finnish jazz scene from the 1970's, recorded originally for the Love label. Eero Koivistoinen 1976 album features great musicians such as Olli Ahvenlahti, Pekka Pohjola and others. Black vinyl edition with gatefold cover. 

For this heavy duty reissue of Koivistoinen’s 1977 album we went back to the original multitrack tapes and discovered a heap of alternate takes that were left unmixed at the time. Koivistoinen selected the best and most interesting alternate versions of each track and a new, fresh mix was prepared specifically for this release. The first LP in this package is the original studio album (Love Records 1977), remastered for vinyl at Finnvox. The second LP contains the alternate takes, and there’s ev…

is Eero Koivistoinen's seventh album and finds him in the company of other excellent Finnish musicians: pianist Heikki Sarmanto, guitarist Jukka Tolonen, bassist Pekka Sarmanto and drummer Reino Laine, plus American drummer Craig Herndon. Except for Tolonen, who is mostly associated with jazz-rock fusion due to his membership in the legendary Finnish bands Tasavallan Presidentti and Wigwam, the rest of the players are all pillars of the Finnish modern jazz scene and all are virtuosi on th…