| SlowHill | |
|---|---|
SlowHill are (from left) Vellu Maurola and Tapani Rinne |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Helsinki, Finland |
| Genres | jazz, electronic, lounge, downtempo |
| Years active | 2002 - present |
| Labels | Blue Note Records, Plastinka Records, Universal Music, |
| Website | http://www.slowhill.com |
| Members | |
| Vellu Maurola Tapani Rinne |
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SlowHill is a Finnish instrumental downtempo/lounge band project formed by the Slow (aka Vellu Maurola) and the award-winning saxophonist Tapani Rinne in 2002. The band fuses downtempo beats into easy listening jazz atmospheres.
Contents |
SlowHill has released three albums via various record labels.
The first album Finndisc was the first ever electronica album released by the legendary Blue Note jazz label in Finland. The album concept was to unearth and sample classic jazz records from the vaults of EMI Finland who owns Blue Note Records catalogue.[1]
The album features samples from jazz artists such as Heikki Sarmanto, Teuvo Suojärvi, Mike Koskinen, Carita Holmström and Pekka Pohjola.[2] Pohjola sample used on the SlowHill's track Valo was famously used also by DJ Shadow on his track Midnight in a Perfect World.[3]
The debut album was subsequently released by Blue Note in UK, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and The Netherlands.[4]
The band’s second album Fennika out on Plastinka Records was released in 2005 and features track composed for Pablo Neruda’s poem[5] and sample from Rajaton’s song Butterfly.[6]
The band’s third album is called Muzak and it was released in June 2010 by Universal Music Finland. The album features the violinist Pekka Kuusisto on electric guitars,[7] percussionist Teho Majamäki and vocalist Siiri Nordin among the guest musicians. It also marks the appearance of the first cover song by SlowHill: Rauno Lehtinen’s jazz classic Toiset meistä[8]