RinneRadio is a Finnish group of electro jazz pioneers. Operating on the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, RinneRadio fused jazz into ambient music and techno years before it became a worldwide trend and added hints of world music into it. In the third part, (Tammi, 2005) of a book series about popular music in Finland, it has been written that RinneRadio was several years ahead of their time when they started.
The biography on the band's website provides the following description of the music they produce: "As the drum'n'bass and techno rhythms are fermented with dark dub, lush ambient soundscapes and timeless saxophone and bass clarinet textures, the resulting brew becomes equally sexy trance jazz and surreal dance music." RinneRadio currently consists of Tapani Rinne (reeds), Aleksi Myllykoski (electronics), and Juuso Hannukainen (percussion).
Author Petri Silas described Tapani Rinne's status as a Finnish musician the following way in the fifth edition of Finnish Jazz published by the Finnish Music Information Centre in 1998: "Forever on the lookout for new horizons, Rinne’s sexy soprano sax and solemn bass clarinet remain among the most original Finnish jazz voices."
Early history
The band was formed in 1988 by saxophone player/reedsman and composer Tapani Rinne, who still leads the band and is the musical conductor. Rinne participated in the composer and drummer Edward Vesala's Sound & Fury workshops in Helsinki, and during these workshops the band started to form.
RinneRadio's eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and it featured a stellar cast of Finland's current jazz elite, including Raoul Björkenheim, Iro Haarla and Seppo Tyni.
The second album Dance and Visions was released in 1990 and the album featured the Sami yoik singer Wimme Saari for the first time in RinneRadio's history. Dance and Visions also introduced Jari Kokkonen as a new member of RinneRadio. He continued in the group until 2001. Dance and Visions established RinneRadio's trademark sound, which they are best known for, fusing electronic music from ambient techno to drum'n'bass and jazzy wind instruments.
RinneRadio's club-friendly sound with strong electronic influence caused stir and confusion in the Finnish jazz scene as well as abroad when the band performed in the beginning. In an interview with Markus Partanen on his book , Tapani Rinne described their early years: "We probably focused performing too much at jazz and art music venues. Techno scene and clubs were a different thing, but we got into these circles only afterwards after the band had achieved more commercial success."
In 1992 RinneRadio released the album Joik, where another one of Rinne's long-time collaborators, Kimmo Kajasto, appeared for the first time. The same year, Tapani Rinne garnered the Finnish Georgie Award (Yrjö) for Jazz Musician of the Year, given by the Finnish Jazz Federation.
The group's fourth album, Unik, was released in 1994. It followed an EP titled DiorInNera released one year earlier. Unik received one of the highest record industry accolades in Finland, the Jazz Emma Award, which could be called the Finnish equivalent of the Grammy Award. By this time, word had spread about the new concoction of jazz, techno and ambient sounds played by RinneRadio, and the band toured extensively in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Japan, Spain and Sweden.
The band's core group was now Rinne, Kajasto and Kokkonen. The trio continued to develop the sound further particularly on RinneRadio's fifth album RoK (1996) consisting of influences from hip hop, drum and bass and jazz. The same year they won the Golden Pumpeli Award at the Oulu Music Video Festival for the visuals for "Aromaa AltToo".
RoK was the ultimate commercial breakthrough for RinneRadio. It peaked at number 22 in 1996 on the Official Finnish Album Chart and stayed on the chart for six weeks. According to Tapani Rinne, after "being in wrong places at the wrong time so many times earlier", the situation was now the opposite. The big audience was now ready for RinneRadio's music and suddenly they were considered trendsetters, although that was never their aim. The band found new passionate fans especially in the European club music scene, which was driven by the rising deejay culture.