Ilmari Heikinheimo Northern Garden

Ilmari Heikinheimo: drums, percussion and flute
Adele Sauros: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute
Samuli Mikkonen: piano
Eero Tikkanen: double bass

Drummer Ilmari Heikinheimo, also titled as the bearer of the torch of domestic free expression, known for several top bands of recent years (e.g. Raoul Björkenheim, Piirpauke, Juhani Aaltonen, Jimi Tenor, Edward Vesala’s reborn Sound & Fury), performs in his first Northern Garden solo project as a composer – bringing out his more sensitive, lyrical side.

The concert is also a prelude to Heikinheimo’s solo debut album, which will be released later.

Most of the music was composed in the spring and winter of 2022 while Heikinheimo was living in Oslo. The thematic line and the most important building material of the composition work then became an inner dialogue with his father, who passed away a year earlier, to whom the upcoming album is also dedicated.

In Heikinheimo’s music, e.g. the influences of jazz, prog, western art music and folk music blend seamlessly together in a way where the key phrase is the inner legacy left by a loved one – where even grief is rich and essential to move forward. The theme of the upcoming album is both remembering and, on the one hand, the change of perspective following loss – ”rebirth” – and a dynamically flowing dramaturgical dialogue between them. The music composed with emotion is a condensed life lived and influences, which together paint a retrospective picture from childhood to the present day and a utopia of the future.

Photo: Sakari Puhakka

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden, The Finnish Music Foundation and The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike).