Unearth

Official release date: March 28, 2025

After years of honing his craft as a sideman to many of Finland's leading jazz musicians, Unearth marks the beginning of his journey as a solo artist. The music on this album was composed while he was living in New York, capturing the vivid energy and spontaneous spirit of the city. It was there that he also assembled the quartet featured on this record. Drummer Jonas Esser and bassist Simón Willson, longtime collaborators, provide a sensitive yet solid foundation for Toomas and the young trumpeter Joey Curreri to push the music in new directions.

“Before our first rehearsal in October 2023, we had never played together as this particular ensemble. I met Joey a year earlier when we were both part of the same Master’s program. We played together quite often, and I quickly came to admire his exceptional creativity in improvisation.

I had played with Jonas and Simón separately on different occasions and was impressed by their ability to adapt to every subtle detail in others’ playing. Knowing they frequently played in the same bands, I felt confident asking them to be part of this recording.

What all these musicians share is the ability to be fully present in every moment. To me, that’s perhaps the most important aspect of music—to listen without bias and to make music out of any musical situation.

We completed the entire recording in a single session at Acoustic Recording in Brooklyn. I feel that knowing there wouldn’t be time for endless alternate takes lifted the whole band’s energy to that of a live performance. To me, the tight time frame was helpful in avoiding overthinking and pushing me to give my all from the very first note.”

—Toomas Keski-Säntti

Tracklist

Album details

Press reviews