Biography

On her debut album A Vision of a Garden Riikka Keränen she fuses jazz aesthetic and improvisation with evocative stories.

Riikka Keränen’s A Vision of a Garden is an expressive quartet album focusing on intuition and observations about love and its many faces. It is a modern jazz-inspired piece of music, with lyrics and musical storytelling at the center.

The album aims to update the traditional vocalist-led jazz piano trio line-up to this day with new musical material: on the original songs of the album traditional standard structures have been abandoned in the forms of songs, creating new challenges and opportunities for the musicians to construct their improvisation.

In addition to Keränen the quartet consists of Finnish jazz musicians pianist Juho Valjakka, double bassist Jori Huhtala and drummer Anssi Tirkkonen.

“The jazziest moments of the set were (...) the imaginative scat singing of Riikka Keränen, which at times approached gospel and Sámi yoik.” – Finnish Music Quarterly, Wif Stenger

Tracklist

1. The Little Mermaid I(säv. Juho Valjakka)
2. Say It Isn't So(säv. ja san. Irving Berlin, sov. Riikka Keränen) 
3. Cameroonian Sky(säv. ja san. Riikka Keränen)
4. Sweet of Love(säv. ja san. Riikka Keränen)
5. Strange Flowers Bloom at Night(säv. ja san. Riikka Keränen)
6. There Is(säv. ja san. Riikka Keränen) 
7. Alone Together(säv. Arthur Schwartz, san. Howard Dietz, sov. Riikka Keränen, Teemu Viinikainen)
8. The Little Mermaid II(säv. Juho Valjakka)