Wormhole Mystic

Few artists have navigated as many musical territories as Jimi Tenor without ever settling into a recognisable formula. For more than three decades, the Finnish composer and multi-instrumentalist has moved freely between electronic music, jazz, funk, Afrobeat and experimental pop, guided less by stylistic boundaries than by curiosity itself. His approach has remained remarkably consistent throughout: intuitive, exploratory and open-ended. Rather than following a fixed plan, his music tends to emerge from experimentation and from whatever possibilities reveal themselves along the way.

Following the release of his first album with the newly formed Jimi Tenor Band and an extensive period of touring, Tenor now returns to solo work with Wormhole Mystic, his latest album for Hamburg's Bureau B. The twelve pieces collected here all began with rhythm loops programmed on vintage drum machines from the 1960s and '70s. Their dry, mechanical pulse became the foundation for a new set of compositions, opening unexpected pathways into Tenor's ever-expanding sonic world.

The initial beats were recorded and treated with effects by Bureau B founder Gunther Buskies, himself an avid synthesist and collector of vintage rhythm machines. Travelling from Hamburg to Finland, these rhythmic frameworks became the starting point from which Tenor developed the album's twelve tracks.

Working with synthesizers, flute, saxophone and his unmistakable voice, Tenor transforms these minimal rhythmic structures into music that feels both like a natural continuation of his singular catalogue and a departure into new territory.

At times, the stripped-back drum machine grooves and synth bass lines recall the stark minimalism of Suicide or the cool detachment of late-'70s New York No Wave, particularly on the cheeky Rocking Downtown or the title track. Yet such reference points never linger for long. Tenor's musical language remains too fluid, too expansive to be confined by stylistic comparison. Wormhole Mystic moves effortlessly from the understated electric soul of opener 100 Percent Yours through the cosmic drift of Dawn In The Milky Way to the submerged, aquatic atmosphere of Captain Nemo's Secret.

Anyone who believes they already know the full extent of Jimi Tenor's musical universe is likely to discover something unexpected here. More than thirty years into an extraordinarily prolific career, his curiosity and appetite for experimentation remain entirely undiminished.