1. Japanese influences
For many years one of my favorite albums has been Music For Zen Meditation And Other Joys (Tony Scott, Hozan Yamamoto, Shinichi Yuize). I have owned this vinyl over 15 years before I started to study playing Shakuhachi and Honkyoku music (that happened in the year 2019). Of course with these studies in the fascinating world of shakuhachi I have vanished deeper to Japanese music (such a wide topic…), found many interesting and new ways to compose and approach also other instruments, like the saxophone. Jazz music is often considered to represent the sound of urban life and the rhythm of the metropolies. With Uusi Aika we wanted to take completely different directions, we wanted to slow down, make it slow as a frozen landscape or forest under deep snow… This might be aesthetically closer to some old Japanese music traditions rather than to the hot drive of jazz traditions.
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2. Vesala´s followers influences
Two legendary reed and flute players from Vesala´s workshops Jone Takamäki and Jorma Tapio are indeed big heroes for me. Both of them have big strong sound with kind of rebel attitude. I have listened to their playing a lot. Jone Takamäki is also experienced shakuhachi player and as I know, he might be the first musician in Finland to study this special instrument. Our bass player Tapani Varis has earlier been playing and performing with Jorma Tapio´s trio Kaski. I think also Vesala, Takamäki and Tapio all have been inspired a lot by the nature and chanelled these spiritual energies to their music.