Kari Ikonen Trio
Kari Ikonen piano, Olli Rantala bass, Markku Ounaskari drums
The career of pianist/composer Kari Ikonen is full of contrast. Following the ‘ultra-positive’ afro-pop-jazz project Trio Troffa and the space fusion of Ikonostasis he returned last year with an album closer to his Finnish roots: Wind, Frost and Radiation, in which he conveys the biting cold and the inhumanity of the threatened Finnish landscape. Still, the music is less unforgiving than the title suggests, with room for melody and beauty.
Five years ago Kari Ikonen won the most prestigious Finnish jazz prize, the Yrjö Award. He has previously performed at the BIMHUIS with Orchestra Nazionale della Luna and the Lee Konitz & Jeff Denson Trio. Alongisde piano he often performs on Fender Rhodes and Moog. In his own trio the drummer is Markku Ounaskari, who previously played at the BIMHUIS in the bands of Eric Vloeimans and Paul van Kemenade.
‘Kari Ikonen Trio achieve an ensemble sound that is fresh, subtle, and tickled by gentle surprises’ (Downbeat).