AKI RISSANEN TRIO / Finland

"Something new, yet unknown is undergoing change. With the rapid transformation of reality into virtual reality or hyper-reality generated by AI, we must be aware and adapt to these things and distinguish between what is real and unreal.”. A. R.
 
Aki Rissanen (born 1980) studied classical piano in Finland for 12 years and jazz and improvised music at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, France. In 2005-2008 he took private lessons in New York, USA and Cologne, Germany. In 2009, he graduated with a master's degree from the Jazz Department of the Sibelius Academy in Finland after studying jazz piano and composition for 7 years.
 
His teachers included Jarmo Savolainen, Jukkis Uotila, Kirmo Lintinen, John Taylor, Jim Beard, Anders Jormin, Hervé Sellin, Markku Hyvärinen, Jouni Kuronen, Seppo Kantonen and Frank Carlberg to name a few.
 
Rissanen quickly established himself among the few top players in Finnish jazz. In recent years, he has also established himself on the international jazz scene, especially as the leader of his own trio. Although he originally studied classical music, he always had a heart for improvised music and jazz.
 
His debut album Amorandom (Edition Records, 2016) with the Aki Rissanen Trio was critically acclaimed around the world and gained a fast-growing reputation on the European scene. The album received praise at home and abroad in prestigious newspapers such as the Guardian and jazz magazines such as Jazzwise. Finland's major newspaper Helsingin Sanomat selected the album as "Best Jazz Album of the Year". The album also won the Finnish Grammy, the Emma Award for Best Jazz Album in 2016.
 
In addition to his achievements in the solo piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the La Defense competition in France, Rissanen is best known for his work with saxophonist Dave Liebman on German Ozella Music and trumpeter Verner Pohjola on British Edition Records and ACT.
 
 
Project Aki Rissanen Trio - Hyperreal
 
Hyperreal is the latest album by Finnish pianist, composer and keyboardist Aki Rissanen. Since joining the label in 2015, he has released a number of highly acclaimed trio albums and most recently a solo piano album 'Divided Horizon'.
 
With Hyperreal, he has switched gears, with drummer Robert Ikiz and longtime collaborator trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, as Aki switched between piano and electronic keyboards. The sound is deep, rounded and polished, shining with Verneri Pohjola's emotive and impressive trumpet sound.
 
Hyperreal is an album about change, about recognizing the importance of being, awareness, renewal and release. With an empathetically delivered and unified performance, Aki created an album of testimony to his brilliance as a composer, keyboardist and improviser. Hyperreal is an album that will greatly expand its audience and take them to new places (in whatever reality they exist in).
 
Aki Rissanen (piano and compositions) 
Verneri Pohjola (trumpet)
Robert Ikiz (drums)