ILMARI AITOAHO
Ilmari Aitoaho (b. 1988) is a Finnish musichead who plays piano and keyboard instruments to exist.
PROJECTS
EFA is Helsinki based group lead by drummer Tomi Salesvuo. Their 3rd album came out in February 2021
Punomo is Finland’s own Motown, where aesthetics that respecting the traditions of African-American soul music are interwoven with Finnish lyrics in an unprecedented way.
Grand is an experimental project of two musicians from Finland. The music is composed and performed entirely live using sounds only from a grand piano. The result is a combination of electronic, jazz and neo-classical music.
Manoel Pinto and Ilmari Aitoaho joined forces to save Finnish hiphop.
With the combination of original beats and meaningful lyrics, you can’t go wrong.
Turku located indie-rock cult band, Yournalist, is still alive and kicking.
Brothers Ruohonen, Mikko Koskinen and Ilmari Aitoaho are making new music atm.
The most talented person in Finnish music industry has assembled a group of experts in swing. Well-known pop & rock songs are revived with new arrangements for a 7-piece band.
”I think I’m beginning to figure out what
I’m about to figure out.”
About ME
In 2016, I received my bachelor’s degree in music studies. Afterwards, I started to put effort into deepening the relationship with sonic waves. Today I understand that there are no genres in music (nor in life). Just interpretations and constructions of what we hear: renewed versions of something already done. To create something fresh, we have to know the old.
Growing up I’ve been surrounded by music within my family since I was born (even though my parents are not musicians). My first touch with ivory blacks and whites happened when I was tall enough to reach the piano on my own. I started taking lessons at the age of four and I’m still on that path. After high school, I moved from my dear hometown of Turku to Helsinki to study at Pop/Jazz Conservatory. Back in those days, I was a real puritan about music. Jazz from the 50’s and the 60’s was the only truth. My piano heroes were Herbie Hancock, Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Wynton Kelly and Kenny Barron. I had amazing teachers (Rob Dominis, Mika Säily, Neff Irizarry etc.) and fellow students (Ilkka Arola, Aleksi Kinnunen, Linda Ilves, Joonas Kaikko, Urho Särkkä, Ben Rogers etc.) to share my passion with.
I continued my studies at Metropolia University Of Applied Science and graduated 2016 with a Bachelor of Music degree with high grades (I want to thank my teachers Mikael Jakobsson, László Süle and Tomi Salesvuo and all the fellow students). During these years, I became interested in European neo-classical/jazz -music and pianists like Michael Wollny, Jacky Terrasson, Colin Vallon and Hauschka. I was especially fascinated with Hauschka’s concept of the prepared piano. I started to figure out the ways to combine digital and physical preparation of an acoustic piano. The project called GRAND was born as a result, and it was the topic of my thesis as well.
Today I still practice the piano daily. I think I’m beginning to figure out what I’m about to figure out.
I play piano and keyboards in several groups that perform original music varying from indie rock to funk with full power to rap & hip hop. Additionally, I produce and write music for myself, as well as for others. My real pet project, however, is MUSCULAR. This is the project I always wanted to develop (and I always have done so in the back of my mind). MUSCULAR’s first album ”On The One” was released on the 23rd of September 2022.