Aki Rissanen

Check out also www.akirissanen.com!
Pianist Aki Rissanen was born in Kuopio, central Finland in 1980. He studied classical piano for 13 years but early on became interested in improvised music. Rissanen has studied at the Sibelius Academy Jazz Department in Finland and at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris in France with Jarmo Savolainen, Jukkis Uotila, Hervé Sellin and John Taylor among others.
He released his debut album as a leader in March 2005 with the group Warp!. The album has got appraising reviews in Finland and abroad. He has performed in all over Europe, in United States and Africa. In 2004 he won the second prize in the international Montreux Jazz Solo Piano competition. In 2003 the band Warp! won the first prize in Finnish trial for the YNJC contest.
In addition to playing music, Aki has composed music for years, with thecourage to trust his own style. He has been involved in both classical music and jazz all along, with the two styles interacting. Aki believes in intuitive playing and the power of music that is created when musicians open their ears and trust one another.
Discography 1998-2006
Warp!: One Note Stories, available at www.cdbaby.com and www.levyvirasto.net
- Aki Rissanen Solo Piano: La Lumière Noire ( Ilma Records/ AEON, France, 2008)
- Jukka Eskola Quintet: Hub Up (Stride/Inpartmaint in Japan, 2006)
- Warp!: One Note Stories (Dps Records/Aki Rissanen, 2005)
- Eeppi Ursin Band: Violet (6th sense Records, 2005)
- Aki Rissanen Solo Piano: Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition (Montreux Jazz, 2004)
- Rauno Tikkanen Quartet: Foolin' Myself (HKY CD, 1998)
What's up now?
My solo piano album is recorded and mixed and is waiting to be released by www.aeon.fr . I recorded an album with a group called "Suomisolmu" featuring Jim Beard. Also I recorded a session for the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE with Rick Margitza.
Lately I've been very much into electronic music production. Here's my kit list, some new keyboards added:
- Macbook 2GHz- laptop computer running Cubase Studio 4 with Novation X-station midicontroller/ audio I/O w/ analog modelling synth
- Yamaha C2 grand piano
- Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano 73
- Moog Micromoog synth
- Korg Z1 synth
- Korg Poly-61 synth
- Roland SH-09 synth
- Casio CZ-1000 synth
-Yamaha TX802 sound module
-Roland D-550 sound module
- Yamaha P-80 digital piano
- Baelani Musicorgan
Outboard Effects
- Lexicon LXP-5 multieffect
- Danelectro Back-Talk delay
- Alesis AirFX multieffect
- Morley Wah
- Sony cassette-corder
Monitoring
- Genelec 1029a monitors
- Behringer Eurorack MX 802A mixer