Huge Tip! ** Edition of 500, with insert. **  In the expanding universe of contemporary ambient music, few artists navigate the liminal spaces between memory and imagination as sensitively as Juho Toivonen. His latest offering, Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari ("The Child King's Fanfare"), emerges as a work of profound paradox—simultaneously intimate and expansive, a fanfare that drifts from forgotten past into uncertain present like remnants of a half-remembered dream. This third installment in Toivonen's self-mythological trilogy marks a subtle evolution toward more song-oriented territory, while remaining deeply embedded in his signature world of loops, droning textures, and spectral piano melodies. The album benefits from stereo recording that allows his delicate soundscapes newfound spatial awareness, enhanced by Ramo Sinnemäki's trumpet contributions that feel like transmissions from a distant radio station.

Toivonen describes his music as "the faded recollection of a melody—what music might sound like when recalled after years of experiencing silence." This places his work in fascinating dialogue with William Basinski's temporal investigations and the memory-based compositions of Grouper, while maintaining a distinctly Nordic sensibility that recalls Biosphere's more introspective moments. The album's blurred sonic approach centers on Toivonen's relationship with his off-key Walheim piano, whose imperfections serve as portals into alternative emotional territories. His continued allegiance to four-track tape recording imbues the music with organic, tactile qualities that echo Liz Harris's lo-fi aesthetic strategies while remaining distinctly his own.

Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari unfolds with "the logic of a fever dream," drawing inspiration from childhood fragments: stuffed animals, bridges, the complex terrain of love and hate. This autobiographical approach recalls the nostalgic drift of Sarah Davachi's extended compositions while maintaining Toivonen's unique Nordic melancholy. As the second chapter in his planned trilogy, the album functions as bridge between birth and early childhood themes and what Toivonen describes as "imagined futures and alternative realities." Tyko Tuulivaara's mastering preserves the album's essential fragility while ensuring emotional impact—crucial for such delicate, space-dependent music. Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari functions as invitation into a world where memory is fluid and music exists as ghostly echo of what once was or could have been. Essential listening for anyone following the current evolution of memory-based ambient composition.