Timo Lassy and Jukka Eskola have been collaborating since the late 1990s. Their most notable co-endeavour was The Five Corners Quintet, an internationally successful jazz band and a trailblazer for the new generation of Finnish jazz in the 2000s.

Since then, both have pursued their solo careers, releasing several albums each. Their first joint project has been a long time coming, but they recently realised their long-held dream and travelled to New Orleans to record their own music with local first-rate musicians. The result is Nordic Stew, a blend of Lassy’s and Eskola’s musical experiences combined with a deep love for the birthplace of jazz music.

One source of inspiration for the album is the story of the ship Andania, through which American-Finnish musicians brought jazz to Finland in the 1920s. Now, 100 years later, Lassy and Eskola have taken it back to its roots and put their own spin on it.

Lassy and Eskola take the listeners for a journey full of different rhythmic environments combined with lyrical beauty of the nordic jazz music. Nordic Stew is a rich mixture of rhythm, melodies and harmonies, a dynamic horn front line, and the cream of Finnish younger generation jazz musicians.

Jukka Eskola – trumpet
Timo Lassy – saxophone
Severi Sorjonen – drums
Antti Ahoniemi – bass
Juho Valjakka – piano
Kenneth Ojutkangas – sousaphone

 
On his new solo work Lehto / Korpi, Pauli Lyytinen plays tenor, soprano and alto saxophone, with live effects, mellotron & percussion, and adds a subtle layer of field recordings to tie the entity together. Cranes, swans, and other voices familiar in the Finnish aural summer landscape, bring their distinct character to the music, connecting back to the album’s dual title. Lehto, Finnish for grove, and Korpi, which roughly translates to deep forest, are two sides of the same coin, working together to form a full image of an artist using his surroundings to create a deeply emotive and singular piece of work, echoing love and respect for our natural environment.

Lehto / Korpi won the Jazz Emma prize in 2025 and was also nominated at the Indie Awards of the same year. Lyytinen has worked solo since 2012 and released two albums. He is known for his adventurous and uncompromising work within rhythm and art music that transcends borders. Of his discography, which covers fifty titles, over 30 records contain music composed by Lyytinen, and the artist has performed his own music at hundreds of prestigious clubs and festivals in 35 countries around the globe.

Pauli Lyytinen – saxophones, mellotron, percussion, live electronics

 
Singer-composer Selma Savolainen is known for a fearless approach to music, as well as her striking use of voice, which have “raised Finnish vocal jazz to a new level” (Finland’s leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat). Her compositions and lyrics in English draw equally from the rich, multifaceted history of modern jazz and singer-songwriter tradition. They are infused with memorable, deeply personal storytelling that turns each piece into a compelling narrative. Savolainen’s debut album Horror Vacui won the Jazz Emma award for Jazz Album of the Year in 2024.

The UK-based Whirlwind Recordings will now release the second album of Savolainen, in the shade, which takes the expression of her six-piece ensemble into new directions. The music echoes influences ranging from Radiohead to The Doors. The album is produced in collaboration with, among others, Lauri Kallio (known from Pambikallio), its themes spanning from family relationships to angry men and mass hysteria. In the shade drew its title inspiration while Savolainen was in Paris writing new material: “It felt as if the rays of sunlight illuminating my apartment had come to peek in on how the album was coming along,” she says.

Selma Savolainen – voice
Tomi Nikku – trumpet, flugelhorn
Max Zenger – woodwinds
Toomas Keski–Säntti – piano
Eero Tikkanen – double bass
Okko Saastamoinen – drums