Tapani Rinne & Juha Mäki-Patola: Open

While playing Open, the listener might get the notion that sometimes the commandments must be broken. Proscribing the act of listening violates the first rule of ambient music. Listening, at least non-passive listening to the musician-created atmospheric soundscapes is frowned upon. Just like the outdated adage that children should be seen but not heard, ambient music is supposed to be, well, heard but not listened to.

The Finnish musicians Tapani Rinne and Juha Mäki-Patola dismiss that directive straight away with this release. Rinne is a saxophonist and clarinetist who is known for electro-acoustic music, but is comfortable in jazz, folk, and classical, and world music. Likewise Juha Mäki-Patola works with neo-classical music and ambient soundspaces with an emphasis on film and television. This collaboration between the two artists was accomplished by trading sound files, one assumes due to the pandemic.

The ten tracks are situated somewhere between the music of the Australian trio The Necks and Samuel T Shepherd's Floating Points heard on Promises (Luaka Bop, 2020) with Pharoah Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra. Much like the beginnings of a performance by The Necks, Rinne and Mäki-Patola create sonic patterns which induce an almost hypnotic effect. They differ from ambient tracks in that they are difficult to ignore. Synthesizers or piano create a painted canvas for the reeds to accompany each solo. The pair's ten explorations are hauntingly intoxicating and quite addictive.