This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970).”Ĭircus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. The world we live in sometimes feels like an absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. “These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet “attacks” when needed. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. There’s plenty of diversity within Lötjönen’s compositions and the band’s dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts.

The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen’s inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.Ĭircus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records.

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