Location: Kulttuurikellari |Tickets 20€ | Fri 18.8. from 18.30 to 20.00 | In cooperation with: Olavin Jazz ry

Otherworld Ensemble is a joint project of Finnish jazz legend Heikki "Mike" Koskinen and

Finnish-American saxophonist and composer Rent Romus. On the Finnish tour in 2023 Otherworld Ensemble will perform music from the new ”Itkuja”/invocations on lament, from the series of compositions whose album release concerts were successfully performed in late May in the San Francisco Bay Area. This unique multi-cultural project which stems from the tradition of Finno-Ugric mythopoetic poems, is a series of compositions made collaboratively. The music combines in a new way the healing and life-promoting aspects of the Finnish cry, as well as the elements of improvised  jazz that pulsates American life.

Otherworld Ensemble's music is built on composed and arranged themes and improvised interludes inspired by Kalevala’s themes, folk songs of northern regions, animistic elements and modern jazz. Among the instrumental arrangements we hear sung or recited poems, and they are complemented by traditional instruments such as kantele, bells, handmade brass instruments and flutes.

Otherworld Ensemble 2023 is comprised of vocal artist and professor emeritus Heikki Laitinen, Rent Romus, Saxophones and flutes, Heikki “Mike” Koskinen, e-trumpet, flutes and kantele, and multi-instrumentalist Otto Eskelinen, bassist Eero Tikkanen and percussionist Arwi Lind.