Joona Toivanen

"The vocabulary of ambient electronica woven into the lexicon of acoustic jazz."

"Rather than thinking through choruses, the Joona Toivanen Trio approaches their works through variations and development, with intense focus on dynamics, colors, and sound quality."

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble fuses West African rhythms to an array of jazz, funk and rock for a high-energy sound that appeals to heart, head and feet. Born in Benin in 2009, the band has won fans with high-energy live shows on three continents.

Toivanen is an adept writer and a logical improviser with his own individual voice, who balances his output masterfully between natural-sounding harmonic beauty and bold melodic statements.