DISCOGRAPHY
The Dead Don’t Dream
Edition Records
LP. CD. DN Streaming
Verneri Pohjola trumpet
Tuomo Prättälä piano & electronics
Mika Kallio drums and gongs
Antti Lötjönen bass
Verneri Pohjola has earned a formidable reputation as one of Europe’s most creative and original innovators in Jazz for his commanding sound, expressive tone and the rich intensity of his improvisations. With a series of highly successful and praised albums behind him, in 2020 he will release ‘The Dead Don’t Dream’, his fourth album on Edition Records, that sees him incorporate influences of his last three albums into one defined and beautifully crafted work.
Featuring Tuomo Prättälä on piano, Antti Lötjönen on bass and Mika Kallio on drums, the band share a deep sense of collaboration and common purpose. They are explorers of sound through Verneri’s captivating and vibrant music, balancing freedom and composition, expression and voice. It’s a defining work of art for Verneri, for Finnish culture and a statement of intent for an artist immersed in the world of European Jazz.
“For me this album is about breathing in and out, letting go of unnecessary stress, accepting who you are and hopefully becoming a more balanced person. And then again rushing head on to dream into existence the next musical adventure. It’s about embracing life in all of its complex emotions, while we still have it. After all, the dead don’t dream.” -Verneri Pohjola
2020
2018
Animal Image
Edition Records
LP. CD. DN
Verneri Pohjola trumpet, electronics
Mika Kallio drums and gongs
Animal Image is a soundtrack album to a poetic documentary about the infinite relationship between man and animal. Edited to an improvised score by Finnish trumpet Verneri Pohjola and percussionist Mika Kallio, the film illustrates the emotional bond between man and animal beyond the boundaries of written language or fictional storylines.
The movie depicts nature-photographer and writer Heikki Willamo's journey to the landscape of the post ice-age northern wilderness to explore man's ancient relationship to his prey and Willamo's personal encounters with the inhabitants of the northern woods. Man, bear, sky and fire: the Finnish forest is a place like nowhere else, a place of dreams and the imagination, an ancient place where its denizens live in the shadows.
2017
Pekka
Edition Records
LP. CD. DN. Streaming
Verneri Pohjola Trumpet
Tuomo Prättälä Fender Rhodes
Teemu Viinikainen Guitar
Mika Kallio Drums
Antti Lötjönen Bass
‘Pekka’ is the new, epochal album in Finnish trumpeter/composer Verneri Pohjola’s already illustrious and prolific career. An album that promises to be a defining moment in Finnish culture, Pekka reinterprets the music of Verneri’s late father Pekka Pohjola, the internationally acclaimed and revered prog-rock bassist and composer, through the prism of his son’s unique vision. Due for release worldwide on 2 June 2017, Pekka is one of the most anticipated albums to emerge from the Finnish progressive, rock and jazz scenes for some time. Seeking to combine Pekka’s music, adored in Finland and internationally during the last four decades, with Verneri’s powerful sense of music making, ‘Pekka’ is an album that will excite, inspire and move many fans across borders, generations and genres.
2015
Bullhorn
Edition Records
LP. CD. DN. Streaming
Bullhorn is the new album by Finnish trumpeter/composer, Verneri Pohjola, his third as leader. Based in Helsinki, the thirty-six year old has been in the international spotlight for the past few years and is acknowledged as a jazz star in the making. His distinctive tone, with its deeply affecting purity and lyricism, and highly melodic improvising is embedded in self-penned compositions marked by memorable and imaginative themes that steer clear of any hackneyed notion of ‘Nordic’ jazz.
Bullhorn is a key album in Pohjola’s career, marking the shift from a rising start to an artist of real substance with a powerful, unique sound and a sense of deepening maturity and clarity of vision. Bullhorn is the album that finally realises Verneri’s enormous creative potential.
Featuring his long term associates and friends: pianist Aki Rissanen, bassist Antti Lötjönen and drummer Teppo Mäkynen, Bullhorn undertakes a panoramic overview of Verneri’s wide-ranging, evocative yet energetic approach to music-making, anchored in his strong, personal sound. As Pohjola explains: ‘It has the intimate sounds and lyricism in improvised passages that I love, but also the rough energy and emphasis on the compositions – everything I want to express in my music’.