LITTORINA SAXOPHONE QUARTET
(Estonia – Finland – Sweden – Lithuania)
Maria Faust – saxes
Mikko Innanen – ts
Fredrik Ljungkvist – bs
Liudas Mockūnas – saxes
This quartet of some of the Baltic Sea region’s foremost saxophone improvisers has been around for less than a year. It made its debut last June at the Improdimensija concert series in Vilnius. The quartet’s name is symbolic: the Baltic Sea was called Littorina in old times, thus the music of the quartet’s virtuosos is stormy and calm, clear and cloudy, sweetish and salty, like the sea waters.
Maria Faust, currently based in Copenhagen, is one of Estonia’s most renowned jazz musicians, a multiple winner of the Danish and Estonian music awards. She impresses fans with her original creative thinking and unconventional solutions. She is best known for her work in experimental jazz, avant-garde, improvised and big band music, and contemporary classical genres.
The courage to explore unusual combinations and techniques of instruments and compositional elements is her hallmark. She is inspired by the history of her native country, the phenomena of personal and collective memory and the subconscious.
Maria has a classical music background but has been drawn to jazz and improvised music since her time in Tallinn. Her desire to develop in this direction led her to the Southern Danish Conservatory of Music. She quickly became a part of the country’s musical life.
Faust’s career breakthrough was the album Sacrum Facere, which won two Danish music awards in 2014. In it, Maria combined the songs of the Old Believers living on the Estonian-Russian border with academic expression and free improvisation. Maria’s album In the Beginning, recorded in an abandoned Estonian church together with Danish singer and composer Kira Skov, a large ensemble and an Estonian choir, was awarded two more Danish music awards and the Danish Critics’ Association Prize.
Maria has won numerous Estonian music awards. In Estonia she is hailed as a cultural ambassador for her country, having been a star on the international jazz scene for years, performing with her own bands all over the world, from South America to China. In addition to her intensive concert activities, she teaches composition and improvisation at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen.
Mikko Innanen from Finland has toured Lithuania several times with his group Innkvisitio. The alto, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone virtuoso is one of Finland’s most interesting jazz personalities and one of the most prominent Nordic saxophonists of his generation.
His repertoire embraces the past, present and future of jazz, with stylistic horizons ranging from authentic blues and Dixieland to classic avant-garde and free experiments. While still a student at the Jan Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, he performed with some of the foremost Finnish new jazz artists and earned a reputation as a promising improviser.
Early in his career, Mikko won several international competitions and was named Finnish Jazz Musician of the Year. The Finnish jazz elite rallies around him. Innanen plays his own and his colleagues’ music in solo settings, in various duos and trios, in small and large ensembles, and performs with big bands.
Finland has long been too cramped for this talent. He has repeatedly probed New York and has been ranked among the best in Downbeat magazine critics’ polls. Across the Atlantic, Innanen has collaborated with Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, Joe Fonda, Lou Grassi, Steve Swell, John Ehlis, Matt Maneri, Randy Peterson and other jazz authorities. He has performed and recorded with coryphées such as John Tchicai, Paul Lovens, Barry Guy, Karl Berger, Billy Cobham, Ted Curson and many others.
The saxophonist’s discography includes almost 80 albums. He has performed in 38 countries on five continents. In addition, Innanen is a co-founder of both Fiasko Records and concert and performing arts association Hietsu is Happening!.
Swedish saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Fredrik Ljungkvist has been one of the most exciting and sought-after improvisers on the international scene for over 30 years. He has toured Lithuania with the cult Scandinavian group Atomic.
Ljungkvist chose the path of a musician at an early age and took over the profession of his father, also a saxophonist. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, he played with some of the most prominent Swedish bands of the time, including those of Fredrik Norén, Lina Nyberg and Per “Texas” Johansson. Later he formed his own quartet.
The saxophonist is the leader of Yun Kan 5 and Yun Kan 10, a member of the trio LSB (with Raymond Strid and Johan Berthling), Ken Vandermark’s Territory Band, the quartet Parish (with Bob Stenson, Mats Eilertsen and Thomas Strønen), Atomic, teams-up in a duo with bassist Mattias Hjorth. He has toured Scandinavia with various bands, performed in the USA, Canada, South Africa, the British Isles, Morocco, Portugal, France and many other countries.
His discography includes more than 100 albums, over 40 in the last decade alone. He has performed with Roland Kejser, Anders Jormin, Marilyn Crispell, Mats Gustafsson, Joakim Milder, Axel Dörner, and a host of other luminaries.
He combines his creative work with teaching jazz saxophone at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
Liudas Mockūnas, a brass virtuoso, composer, group leader and teacher, is one of the most outstanding and distinctive saxophonists not only in Lithuania, but also in Europe and all over the world, and an inspirer of significant jazz processes in his homeland. The musician constantly delights listeners with his creative initiatives and stuns with the power of his music.
The virtuoso from Panevėžys has been firmly in the ranks of the world’s improvised and jazz music elite for many years. He is undoubtedly the most dynamic Lithuanian creator, constantly migrating through the festivals and clubs on different continents, sharing the stage with such giants as Agusti Fernandez, Marc Ducret, William Hooker, Samuel Blaser, Ryoji Hojito, Otomo Yoshihide, Kazutoki Umezu, Akira Sakata, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley, Barry Guy and others.
He has also collaborated with Pierre Dorge and his New Jungle Orchestra, Mikko Innanen, Jakob Riis, Jaak Sooäär, Hugo Carvalhais, Vladimir Tarasov and many other distinctive jazz artists, and has played with Andrew Hill’s Jazz Par Octet, Ibrahim Electric, British TrioVD, Free Tallinn Trio, Raymond Strid, Frank Gratkowski and other jazz innovators. He keeps discovering new creative partners in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, Portugal and other countries.
A graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT) and the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen instantly took active stance on the European improvised music scene. In 2004, he and Stefan Pasborg received the Danish Music Award for Toxikum’s album. The saxophonist is a prize winner of various competitions in Lithuania, Latvia and France, a recipient of Vilnius Jazz and Birštonas Jazz prizes for contribution to Lithuanian jazz, as well as Gold Disc awarded by the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union. In 2011, he received the Lithuanian Theatre Award “Golden Stage Cross” for the best music for a theatre production.
Moreover, Mockūnas has written music for Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra and Chordos String Quartet. In addition, he is famed as an expert of contemporary academic music. He is a member of contemporary music ensembles Gaida and Konvoj Art and an associate of the Lithuanian Ensemble Network.
As a soloist he has performed with Kralovy Hradec Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian State and Lithuanian National symphony orchestras as well as St. Christopher and Klaipėda chamber orchestras, and Chordos String Quartet. With various formations he has toured in Europe, the USA, China, Japan and Israel.
His discography amounts to around 70 albums. He is one of the founders of the Lithuanian Jazz Federation and the record label NoBusiness Records, as well as the initiator of the master’s degree programme in Contemporary and Improvised Music at the LAMT.
This programme has become an integral part of the creative platform Improdimensija dedicated to improvisation, experimentation and education, attracted many international improvised music stars to Lithuania to teach and perform, and inspired the rise of improvisation in Lithuania. Mockūnas is the curator of the Improdimensija improvised music concert series in Vilnius.
