On his solo piano debut Polarities, Joona Toivanen explores new ground by studying the possibilities of the piano as an instrument. In addition to using the traditional sonic landscape of the grand and upright piano, he also stretches the sound by the use of prepared piano and adding multiple layers into the music. “The prepared piano often sounds very percussive but I tried to find some softer tones within that realm. The most important thing for me is to make the new sounds serve the compositions at large, to strive for the main goals of the music: the melodies and the moods”, Toivanen says. He uses for example magnets in altering the sound of his instrument, and the music also differs from the more traditional solo piano works in terms of structure. A large part of the music is composed, as opposed to often more freely improvisational solo piano concepts in jazz.

The aesthetics, stifled by torpor and chilled by ice, become a qualifying element of the work, even the most significant, by this young Finnish trio. Together with the eulogy of melody, singability of the themes and improvisations. A glorious example of how it is possible to overcome idiosyncrasies with one’s own roots. (F. Scoppio)

All original compositions.

In 2006 EMI Music Finland released the Joona Toivanen Trio’s third album internationally on the legendary Blue Note record label.

”The trio’s unique sound is dominated by a certain kind of folk-jazz lucidity. Their Frost album is an entity in which ballads are to the fore and whose fabulous compositions conjure up Finnish melancholy and low-spirited emotions, which doesn’t always need to be a negative thing”, says the album’s producer, J-P Virtanen.

”Frost’s strength is the honest, beautiful and juggle-free way in which it’s worked. The album’s music possesses an exceptional ability to express the sort of longing in which melancholy and joy find combination.” Helsingin Sanomat/Jukka Hauru 18.1.2006

”Courageously beautiful jazz. The trio has an uncanny skill to connect what are essentially elements of traditional jazz to light music. They succeed in turning miniatures into a large fresco, which sounds fantastic and admirably depicts the group’s deep musical landscape.” Suomen Kuvalehti/Petri Sajari 3/2006

”…redolent of Bill Evans, Joona Toivanen’s piano jazz sounds simultaneously fresh and individual, timeless and unbounded.” Keskisuomalainen/Pentti Ronkanen 23.1.2006 *****

”’Frost’ is a coherent and solidly-constructed album, but at the same time it is also understatedly rich in nuances. It sheds light on limpid, melancholy Nordic romance from a variety of different perspectives.” Suomijazz.com/Jukka Piiroinen 1.2.2006 ****

The trio’s first album Numurkah, released in 2000, literally took the group to the world: the doors were opened to France, Greece, Sweden, Norway as well as Iceland, where they won the 1st prize of a Nordic jazz competition in the autumn of 2000. The album also raised interest in Japan, where it was be released by the production and distribution company Sawano Shokai in 2002. In 2006 the album was also released in South Korea by Sail Music. In Finland Numurkah was chosen to be a jazz CD of the month by a Finnish broadcasting company and received excellent critics from both media and the public.

The album was recorded on analog tape in one of Sweden´s finest studios, Studio Epidemin in Gothenburg, and mixed by Mikko Raita at Studio Kekkonen in Helsinki, creating a warm and wonderful sound that suits the band´s music perfectly. Slow Walking Water is fresh, sparkling jazz music of the highest quality, swaying all the way from the lyrical to the ecstatic, everything executed with an acute Nordic sensibility.

It all started in Helsinki in 2008. Two young men met in a pub and came up with the ingenious idea of putting together a jazz band of fly fishermen – and film it. Finally available on DVD, Season One tells the true story of the band´s 2009 tour in northern Scandinavia.