Jimi Tenor Band - Selenites, Selenites!

This year, Finnish musician and composer Jimi Tenor celebrated his 60th birthday. He couldn't have imagined a better place to do so than on stage, and so Tenor came to Hamburg with his band in March, not only to celebrate his personal anniversary, but also to record new music. Partly with Hamburg producer Tobias Levin at his Electric Avenue Studio, and partly at Lauri Kallio's Kiikala Center of the Universe Studio Complex, 'Selenites, Selenites!' - the first album by the Jimi Tenor Band - was recorded in spring 2025. Tenor can now look back on numerous collaborations, including with Tony Allen, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra,Kabukabu and Freestyle Man. Having attracted considerable attention in the 1990s with his idiosyncratic fusion of lounge jazz and acid techno on Sähko and Warp Records, he turned his attention increasingly to African music in the years that followed. Yet there are no genre boundaries for the multi-instrumentalist - he effortlessly combines a wide variety of styles, from Electronica and Afrobeat to Spiritual Jazz, with his unmistakable musical signature to create a unique musical experience. During the pandemic years, Tenor decided to look for fellow musicians in his Finnish hometown of Helsinki toform a new band. As it was impossible to go to a rehearsal room or studio, the sessions took place in Jimi's kitchen as pure a cappella rehearsals. To this day, all band members are singing at the live concerts. In recent years, the band consisting of Eeti Nieminen, Heikki Tuhkanen, Ekow Alabi Savage, Lauri Kallio and Jimi Tenor has already played numerous club and festival gigs together, but had not yet released an album. Recording for the band's debut began at Lauri Kallio's studio in Kiikala, Finland - an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere that has been converted into a recording studio aptly named Kiikala Center of the Universe Studio Complex. While the band was recording, Lauri's parents cooked for them using ingredients from the Finnish forest: chanterelle mushrooms and moose meat. After two initial sessions, the recordings were sent to Bureau B in Hamburg, who invited the band to join Tobias Levin at his Electric Avenue Studio for another session lasting several days. As the band had already tried out and internalised most of the songs through live performances, the recordings went smoothly and often required only a single take. This quickly resulted in the eight songs that now make up Selenites, Selenites! As so often in the world of Jimi Tenor, it's about space, dimensions and - of course - love, conveyed in that energetic and captivating way that makes it impossible to resist this music. Also featured on the track 'Shine All Night' is Tenor's second collaboration with Florence Adooni, the queen of Ghanaian frafra gospel. Selenites, Selenites! is an impressive debut that showcases a group of virtuoso musicians in absolute joy of playing and exploring new sonic connections. This is not just any Afro-jazz album, but an extraordinary journey into a raw and unadulterated sound, as if you were standing right in front of the stage while listening to the record.