Tunto is a NuJazz Trio from Helsinki, Finland. I spoke with Matti Wallenius, composer,guitarist, banjo and ukulele player, about their 3rd cd “lempi”.

He told me interesting facts about producing this album and getting this special sound, combining acoustic and electronic elements.

Q: short bio?

A: born 1958 I pick up the guitar at the age of 12. In the 60´s a neighbour of mine owned jukeboxes, so me and my brother bought a lot of great stuff from him. Beatles, Stones, Cream… all the english 60´s heroes and some american too. So i thought playing guitar would be a cool thing including also long hair. In school I had a teacher who was a jazz musician (saxophon player Sven Nygård), a skillfull professional, and he was the main influence to become a musician. On the other hand I was not too keen on studying anything else. So we played throught the schoolyears, and in 1976 I went to study some music on Oulunkylä pop-jazz academy, which I never graduated.

In 1979 I played guitar in a puppet theatre and that lead  me doing various theatre works in different theatres  for over ten years, playing, writing music and even acting. I played also commercial music, weddings, birthdays etc…

In 1993 I joined Rinneradio, maybe the most known finnish techno influenced nu-jazz band. At that time there was the joiker Wimme Saari joiking – joiking is sami peoples chanting, kind of singing – with Rinneradio, but after a short time Tapani Rinne ,the leader of the band, decided to form an own band round Wimme and asked if I would be interested to join. So we started Wimme and we are still working with it.

With Wimme I have toured over 30 different countries during the years and published  4 cd´s, fifth is on it´s way, so it is reasonably known band and artist in the world music scene.

Tunto started in 2003 when I met Jyri Terämaa, a musician from schooldays, and we thougth that it would be nice to play something sometimes. So we set up the date and asked other guys to rehearse, and Petri Heimonen was the only one who actually came. So we formed a trio. We decided to make a cd with our own stuff. So I wrote some music and Tunto made it´s first cd in 2004. I produce Tunto cd´s and Jyri is the technical wizard with the computer and programming. Tunto cd´s are published by Aani records, a label me and Tapani founded.

Q: alltime favourites?

A: To name a few: Stan Getz and Thelonius Monk are two players who went right to my vains when I started listening jazz. I´m a huge bossanova fan so Stan Getz is of course the man. Monk´s world just sounds right to my ears. Then there are of course a pile of jazz players, mainly sax players, all the greats you know. I always liked Jethro Tull and Ry Cooder, Randy Newman is great, Paul Simon was a huge influence when I was younger. Dispite not listening Frank Zappa so much I like his work a lot. Weather Report also. I´m not so much in guitar players as you see, but Jimmi Hendrix must be mentioned and Charlie Byrd, Charlie Christian, Freddie Green, Herb Ellis, from the “good old days”. In Finland there was a young guitar player (still is, but not that young anymore) in the beginning of 70´s called Jukka Tolonen and he, playing progressive pop-jazz, was a major influence to all young players of that era.

Q: situation in Finland?

A: In Finland we have a very good education system for musicians nowadays, maybe too good, so the country is full of wellplaying young musicians. Unfortunately the gigs are hard to find and especially gigs where you get paid. This is the reality of those who make  music in nu-jazz context, that is jazzy, modern, computer included stuff. Finland has also a quite small population, 5 million, so there is not much audience for this kind of music. But there are some clubs to play and guite a lot cd´s are publised, and a lot of young skillfull players around.

Q: your description of NuJazz and reflection in your work?

A: When I joined Rinneradio in 1993 to play few gigs I immediately was taken by the thought of being free in ones music and playing, and that has also become  the main idea for me, while making music. The other important thing I learned from Tapani was the idea of studio being an instrument and the way actually make music in studio with the studio. I got also one of the best advices from him ever, concerning playing. When we had our first  rehearsals in 1993, Tapani said to me “play anything as long as it sounds good”. I also think one must try to do fresh things and “keep the music alive” by experimenting new things, rather than do what is already been done many times before and usually better than you can. I also find working with sounds very interesting ,and to me sound “means” something and it connects to some time, place, situation, era, etc. So the computer is a ideal tool soundwise. This thought of “everything means something” is due to my theatre days, where you learn to think the connections of various things and what it eventually will mean.

To me the term nu-jazz means mostly that the music is from nowadays, not from yesterday, also it has the feel of freedom included as jazz had and still has, when it is at it`s best. Also an undescripting feel of “danger” is not  forbitten. And there must be some “thruth” in it, whatever it is. I also share the thought of music describing, as well the world one is living in, as oneself as a person. Whatever you do it describes and represents you anyway, so how would you want to be described and represented?

Q: new Tunto production “lempi”?

A: Tunto´s third cd “lempi” was published late May 2009. Lempi is an old finish word for love and affection and it also has a double meaning, dear or favourite. So all the songs are titled having “love theme” in mind. The music is moving maybe a bit more towards worldmusic and maybe some hints from the contemporary modern music also. I play more acoustic instruments myself, which I prefer, but I didn´t earlier, because I play them in Wimme, so I wanted to Tunto be different in that sense. But now I have taken the banjo, ukulele and acoustic nylon guitar in Tunto also, and I just bought a baritone ukulele (watch out!). There is also a bigger contribution from Rudi Merz, the jodeling swiss, who was jodeling one song (müesli-musig) in “kevyt”, the second album. I also wrote  two pieces for solo cello which I hadn´t done before and I like the sound of cello and bass flutes in “yearning music” very much. There is also more alto and bass clarinet on themes by Petri Heimonen and I think I will use them more on next cd and Petri just  bought  a contra alto clarinet which is a real killer.

This third one was the hardest to do, because it was very hard to find the right sounds, and there are songs that were played from soprano-sax to tenor-sax to baritone-sax to bass-clarinet, just to find the right tone. Working with saxophones in lead, feels easily too “obvious” and often too “sweet” also. It`s the same with the electric guitar and I try to avoid this by playing some baritone electric guitar instead.

Well, “lempi” is out there now and I´m reasonably satisfied with it. Now it´s up to the people to find some “lempi” of their own.

official homepage Tunto

listen and download cd on itunes