Biography

The Montreux Jazz Voice Competition awardee Elena Mîndru’s album Hope offers a positive perspective through music to the world’s eco-crisis. The virtuoso Polish violinist Adam Bałdych adds a special flavor and artistic value to the album with his exquisite playing as special guest. The jazz quintet is completed by Finnish musicians Tuomas J. Turunen on piano, Oskari Siirtola on double bass and Anssi Tirkkonen on drums.

Hope is Elena Mîndru’s fourth record as a jazz singer and a bandleader. The theme of the music goes hand in hand with the general message of the whole album, to bring hope for the future, even amid a variety of threats, and how hope and coming together for a common cause can save our planet. Through their music, the group raises an alarm signal about the prospects of humanity in a changing ecological environment as well as the challenges brought on by globalization (migration, disappearing livelihoods, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence).

The compositions mainly belong to the pianist Tuomas J. Turunen and the singer Elena Mîndru, who also wrote the lyrics, but the album also features Adam Bałdych’s compositions plus a cover of Walking on the moon by Sting / The Police. The music has been recorded and mixed by Joonas Saikkonen in Kallio Kuninkala Studios, Finland and mastered by Jarno Alho.

For Elena Mîndru, the new album is a bold step musically towards a more experimental direction. Part of the music of this album (including the title piece Hope) has been conceived during the pandemic period, as a way of escaping the times of hard restrictions, a way to Hope for it to come to an end, for a better future of the humanity. The lyrics paint dreamlike foreshadows of a future reality that looks threatening, but that also brings people together to appreciate and nurture our unique living globe.

Tracklist

1. Hope
2. Hay Moon
3. Foliage
4. Walk Away
5. Run Away
6. Blackberry
7. Blueberry
8. Lost Boys
9. Luca
10. Walking on the Moon