Jarmo Saari is a musician from Finland. A recipient of The Finland Prize, he can be heard on more than 100 albums, has appeared live in concert in over thirty countries and also enjoys a career writing and performing film scores and music for contemporary dance. He plays guitar, theremin, viola da gamba, trombone, glass harp and also sings, and has been praised for his multi-layered sound collages and having a “cinematic compositional style”.

For the upcoming second album by his supergroup Jarmo Saari Republic, his first ‘international’ release, he is joined by three very individual and inspired drummers – his “dream line-up”, which is no surprise given that his favourite instrument ever since childhood has been the drums. “In 2012, a decade of fantasising about a band with three drummers came to an end,” he recalls. “Why three drummers? Why not? I had played with all three of them, but had the vision that we could create a whole different world together – and we have.”

Together, the quartet creates a hypnotic, ritualistic and highly dynamic flow full of polyrhythms and timbres, somewhere between Hendrix and Voodoo. Call it tribal sci-fi jazz, avant-garde prog rock, folk punk, or simply “a flash of colours and emotions”, as Saari prefers, it is an irresistible sound.  

All four musicians have gained experience in countless world music and jazz projects with artists such as Trilok Gurtu, Tomasz Stanko, Timo Lassy and Kimmo Pohjonen, with Saari saying of his colleagues: “I have a great team that, like me, was curious about how we can sound in this unique instrumental setting. Very quickly, we grew together into a tribe. Even a Republic of our own!”