РиннеРадио: Финн жаз музыкасының және электрониканың шедеврлері

Finnish jazz and electronic music band

RinneRadio is a Finnish group of electro jazz pioneers. Operating on the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, RinneRadio fused jazz into ambient music and techno years before it became a worldwide trend and added hints of world music into it. In the third part, Suomi soi 3 ‒ Ääniaalloilta parrasvaloihin (Tammi, 2005) of a book series about popular music in Finland, it has been written that RinneRadio was several years ahead of their time when they started. The biography on the band's website provides the following description of the music they produce: "As the drum'n'bass and techno rhythms are fermented with dark dub, lush ambient soundscapes and timeless saxophone and bass clarinet textures, the resulting brew becomes equally sexy trance jazz and surreal dance music." RinneRadio currently consists of Tapani Rinne (reeds), Aleksi Myllykoski (electronics), and Juuso Hannukainen (percussion). Author Petri Silas described Tapani Rinne's status as a Finnish musician the following way in the fifth edition of Finnish Jazz published by the Finnish Music Information Centre in 1998: "Forever on the lookout for new horizons, Rinne’s sexy soprano sax and solemn bass clarinet remain among the most original Finnish jazz voices."

The band was formed in 1988 by saxophone player/reedsman and composer Tapani Rinne, who still leads the band and is the musical conductor. Rinne participated in the composer and drummer Edward Vesala's Sound & Fury workshops in Helsinki, and during these workshops the band started to form. RinneRadio's eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and it featured a stellar cast of Finland's current jazz elite, including Raoul Björkenheim, Iro Haarla and Seppo Tyni. The second album Dance and Visions was released in 1990 and the album featured the Sami yoik singer Wimme Saari for the first time in RinneRadio's history. Dance and Visions also introduced Jari Kokkonen as a new member of RinneRadio. He continued in the group until 2001. Dance and Visions established RinneRadio's trademark sound, which they are best known for, fusing electronic music from ambient techno to drum'n'bass and jazzy wind instruments. In 1992 RinneRadio released the album Joik, where another one of Rinne's long time collaborators, Kimmo Kajasto, appeared for the first time. The same year, Tapani Rinne garnered the Finnish Georgie Award (Yrjö) for Jazz Musician of the Year, given by the Finnish Jazz Federation. RoK was the ultimate commercial breakthrough for RinneRadio. It peaked at number 22 in 1996 on the Official Finnish Album Chart and stayed on the chart for six weeks. According to Tapani Rinne, after "being in wrong places at the wrong time so many times earlier", the situation was now the opposite. The big audience was now ready for RinneRadio's music and suddenly they were considered trendsetters, although that was never their aim. The band found new passionate fans especially in the European club music scene, which was driven by the rising deejay culture. After this, two more smaller releases, EP's Osaka and Juju, were issued before RinneRadio started to work on a new album, G. The album was released in 1998 and was an important milestone because programmer Kimmo Kajasto had been replaced with DJ Ken One (aka Jean Johansson) in the lineup.

Work with Jori Hulkkonen continued, as he was largely responsible for the production of the next RinneRadio album, Nao (2001), along with Veikka Erkola. DJ Ken One was now replaced by percussionist Zarkus Poussa and later by Abdissa Assefa in live performances. as well as in the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival. In 2006, they were invited to play at the 40th anniversary opening night of Midem in Cannes. The following year, the band celebrated their 20th anniversary by releasing a compilation album titled 20, which featured 20 tracks from throughout their career. The tracks were chosen by radio and club DJs who were asked to give a list of tracks of their personal RinneRadio dream album. The result was a double album with tracks categorized into Side and Side
In 2009, RinneRadio released again material in the form of the album Pole Stars. Musically, it represented an upgrade to their "ethno techno" with a strong Nordic twist. The album featured artists such as Sámi joik singers Ulla Pirttijärvi and Wimme Saari, Johanna Juhola on accordion and Eva Alkula playing Finnish zither.

The next phase of RinneRadio started with Tuomas "Verneri Lumi" Norvio being replaced in the lineup with the Finnish drum'n'bass artist Konsta "DJ Muffler" Mikkonen soon after the release of Pole Stars album. The biggest evolution was the new raw and hard edged flavour combined with the moody and floating RinneRadio sound. This is also very recognizable on their next StaRRk (2012) album, which has been stylistically described as more rugged, sharper and darker than their earlier productions. The official lineup (including Tapani Rinne and Juuso Hannukainen) stayed the same for several years until 2020, when DJ Muffler was replaced in the line up by Helsinki based electronic music artist Aleksi Myllykoski, who had been filling in for him more and more often on live occasions. the second collaboration album with Wimme Saari titled Human in 2017 as well as collaboration albums Under The Ground (2015) and Inside The Temple (2012) with Teho Majamäki. The London based label published their latest two singles "Yasmin" in 2017 and "Zarkukselle" in 2018. Hence they have been working on material for their next album, scheduled to be released by Rockadillo Records in winter 2020–2021.