Pajazzo is a new LP by the Finnish/Italian free jazz ensemble Muumiot, recorded during a break in their busy touring schedule in the winter of 2023. Muumiot had the opportunity to spend some studio time at Pelto Studio. The group comprises Virginia Genta on soprano sax, winds, and keyboards, Sami Pekkola on tenor and alto sax, as well as percussion, Tuure Tammi on trumpet, Topias Tiheäsalo on electric guitar, Tero Kamppainen on double bass, and David Vanzan on drums and percussion. Throughout the session, which spanned several hours of improvised material, the group maintained a loose, moody atmosphere with thematic elements and occasional surprises.
Pick up a copy of Pajazzo HERE.
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You recorded this album not before or after a tour but in the middle. Why? Just because the studio was available at the time?
Virginia Genta: If you want to know the whole story, it dates back to October 2022, when David and I were in Napoli for a Jooklo Duo gig. Hanging outside the venue, we met Marek Pluciennik, a Helsinki-based artist, also in Napoli for one of his projects. He invited us to play at his exhibition in Helsinki, which was going to be in February 2023. Sami Pekkola and the rest of the Muumiot crew were excited about the news and started looking for some more gigs in order to put up a small Finland tour. But February up there is a very harsh month, with nasty flue and ice and lethargy and so on… So the tour was becoming more and more microscopic every day. And here came into play our man Fredrik Lavik, the head and body of record labels Jazz Aggression and Afro 7. He somehow learned that we were around and called Sami, telling him that he liked our previous Muumiot 10″ and would have liked to have us for a session in his studio in the countryside in Siuntio. The deal was pretty cool, we had total freedom and if everyone had been happy about the recording, he would have gladly released it on Jazz Aggression. If not, we were free to just let it go and forget it… No stress, no pressure from Fredrik, during the whole process… quite amazing.
The album was recorded in one day. How do you remember the day of the recording? How do you remember the recording session?
The day of the recording Tuure Tammi and Sami picked us up early in the morning from Tuure’s studio in Hämeenlinna, where me and David were staying. I was feeling horrible, I had a nasty cough and probably a very high fever but was trying not to think of it and just hold it back… Sami asked me: how are you doing? And I said: fine. He probably knew it was a lie! We drove a couple of hours to Siuntio, through a snowy landscape, quite desolating since what was once all woods is now looking like prairies, due to the heavy deforestation that Finland is sadly going through…
Finally, we reached Studio Pelto, where we met our fellows Tero Kemppainen and Topias Tiheasalo. And Fredrik, who promptly distributed funny furry slippers for all our feet. Studio Pelto is just heartbreaking because of how beautiful and cozy. A little single house equipped with a nice kitchen with a fire stove and good records, an extra-cozy session room, and a maniac-like keyboards room, with a simple but perfect assortment of digital and analog keys. We already knew that time was running fast. Fredrik was relaxed and gave us all the time we needed, but the rest of the band had to go back to their families and jobs already in the evening… so we had to hurry up. The session was not easy at all. Despite the fact that we are all old friends and were very happy to finally hang out and play together, it was somehow hard to get it to flow. You must know that some years ago we had 2 different bands with all these guys except Tuure, whom we got to know later. Jooklo Finnish Quartet was a blast-off band with myself and Sami on reeds, David on drums, and Tero on bass, active from around 2008-2009.
Jooklo Quartet (mostly active between 2010-2019) was the following experiment, going towards something more “melodic” (at least to our ears at the time) …instead of Sami, who was super busy with his life matters at that time, we had the incredible guitar wizard Topias on board, leading us all towards jazzlands we never touched before. So here we were: all of us in one room under the name Muumiot, trying to melt all our several experiences into one creature.
We decided to have some simple themes where to start from. So within less than 7 hours we had to set up the instruments and the recording equipment, make the levels, find a good number of themes, play, record, and last but not least, have some rice and lentils cooked on the stove. But 7 people can make a good crew, so somehow it worked out. And speaking of myself, I was all day in some sort of fever delirium, trying to hide a red running nose. Playing was anyway a lot of fun, as we all decided to forget about the pressure of time and just enjoy as much as possible, without even caring too much anymore about the result. Fredrik kept being cool and enthusiastic all day, his smile infusing trust and good vibes into the session.
How much music was recorded that day? How do you decide which music gets on an album? Simply: the best parts? Or the parts that fit together the best?
I think a couple of hours were recorded. None really dared to listen to them for a while. But, a few weeks later in Italy, we talked about the session with our friend Andrea Davì, who had been digging a lot for our Jooklo Quartet LP “Where has jazz gone?”. He said he wanted to hear the new material. We said: are you sure? We asked Fredrik if he had any mixing plans yet and if he would mind just sending the raw files to Andrea. Some other few weeks later we were visiting Andrea in his studio near Padova and he played some music for us. We took a while to figure out it was the Pelto session, we couldn’t believe it. He had done a proper mix, as he really liked the tunes and got easily into them. He also already edited the parts that were visible to be put in the trash but saved as much as possible in a good way. We sat down together a couple more times to finalize the album, and then David gave it a last mastering touch. When we sent it to the rest of the band and to Fredrik, the record was actually a little longer… almost too long for an LP. In the end, we all decided to cut out a couple of tracks to make it a little lighter, even though they were two good tracks… This is the story behind Muumiot’s “Pajazzo”. It has been a happy series of “coincidences” that made it come together easily and quick, despite the mixed feelings we all had during the session.
Every record has a different history. There are no rules about how to make an album, it just has to be coherent, whatever music it features. Some other recordings take years to see the light, not because they are bad, but simply because the magic touch takes longer to come…
Muumiot is a Finnish / Italian band, how did you get to know each other?
In 2007 Qbico Records released our first Jooklo LPs. At that time we often hung out with Qbico’s man Emanuele Pinotti, who was an expert on weirdness and psychedelic music. He of course knew and already smashed on vinyl some of the Finnish ’00s freak scene, and invited Neokarma Jooklo Sextet to the next Qbico U-nite he was organizing in Turku.
So in late November we all jumped on a plane (actually that was the first flight for half of us!) and flew into Turku, where we met the first Finnish person, bassist Tero Kemppainen. We got along immediately… I remember a tiny acoustic trio jam that David, Tero, and I did before the show at Dynamo Klubi. Tero said: I like this sound, it’s just so natural! Indeed, we invited Tero to Italy the next spring, and we did a recording that we actually titled “Natural”, honoring his vision. We then went back to Finland the next summer for a tour that brought us straight up North to Lapland, a tour that was actually once again pushed and encouraged by Mr. Qbico… Crazy motherfucker! During that tour, we jammed with Sami. We liked that quartet with two wild horns and the rhythm section, and they both came to Italy the next year. And so on and so on, for several years we’ve been meeting here and there and the music has been constantly changing.
What does Muumiot mean?
The Mummies. I think Sami came up with that name when we were looking for a new band name for some material that we recorded at Tuure’s Odd Funk Studio and partly released on 10″ vinyl by Ultraaani.
How do you look at a record? Should it be a statement? Or is it more an audio snapshot, a document of what happened at a certain moment, at a certain place, between a certain group of people?
A record is a record. It’s something you put on and listen to. You also watch it, touch it, eventually. Of course, there’s always a story behind a record and we can look at its chronological value and so on. But in the end, someday in the not-so-far future, not many people will remember that story anymore, and the only thing that will be left will be: the record. The music. A fragment of time that managed to be captured and sculpted from someone, for someone else.
Foxy Digitalis depends on our awesome readers to keep things rolling. Pledge your support today via our Patreon or subscribe to The Jewel Garden. You can also make a one-time donation via Ko-fi.
