Pianist Aki Rissanen is one of the most compelling and widely followed jazz musicians of his generation, with a career that is rapidly gaining international momentum. He attracted significant attention when the prestigious British label Edition Records released the debut album Amorandom by the Aki Rissanen Trio in spring 2016. The album received critical acclaim both in Finland and internationally, including in The Guardian and the influential jazz magazine Jazzwise. Helsingin Sanomat named it “Album of the Year,” and it also won the Finnish Emma Award for Jazz Album of the Year 2016.
The acclaimed debut was followed by Another North (2017) and Art In Motion (2019), also released on Edition Records. These ambitious and rhythmically intense albums established the Aki Rissanen Trio at the forefront of the European jazz scene. Another North was also nominated for the Emma Award for Jazz Album of the Year 2017.
On his solo piano album released in June 2021, Rissanen focuses on minimalist, melodic, and accessible ideas that reflect his wide-ranging experience in classical music, jazz, and electronic music. In addition to the grand piano, he performs on the unique keyboard instrument Omniwerk, which had never previously been recorded in jazz. Omniwerk is a new instrument innovation, and currently only one such instrument exists worldwide. Resembling a harpsichord in appearance, it combines two historical keyboard instruments: the viola organista conceived by Leonardo da Vinci and the Baroque lautenwerk. The instrument is owned by Lauri Porra, who commissioned its construction. It was built in 2014 by harpsichord maker Jukka Ollikka and electronics visionary Jonte Knif, with engineer Peter Jokinen also involved. The Omniwerk can evoke the sound of a full string orchestra and a plucked instrument simultaneously in a way never heard before.
Rissanen studied classical piano for twelve years before turning to jazz. He studied at the conservatories of Kuopio and Paris, as well as at the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy, where he graduated with a Master of Music degree in 2009. His teachers have included Jarmo Savolainen, Jukkis Uotila, Kirmo Lintinen, Jim Beard, Seppo Kantonen, Markku Hyvärinen, Jouni Kuronen, Pessi Levanto, and Mikael Jakobsson. Rissanen has also lived in Paris and studied in Cologne as a private student of John Taylor.
He was awarded a prestigious second prize in the solo piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2004. He also won the Finnish final of The Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition in 2003 and 2005. At the La Défense Festival in Paris, he received awards for Best Soloist and Best Programme in 2006.
Aki Rissanen is also known as a sought-after collaborator in leading ensembles such as the Verneri Pohjola Quartet, Mikko Hassinen Elektro GT, and Lauri Porra Flyover. He has released a total of 13 albums on various labels in Finland, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, and has contributed to over 30 recordings.
