Sid Hille – Markus Ketola – Jori Huhtala
F# (F sharp or FIS) is the name of Sid Hille’s new trio.
The band started rehearsing in March 2016 and played their debut concert at the legendary Pori Jazz Festival on July 15th, 2016.
With Sid on piano, Jori Huhtala on bass and Markus Ketola on drums, F# is essentially a piano trio, but with a couple of twists:
Hille plays the Fender Rhodes piano instead of the traditional acoustic piano, using all sorts of effects, sound modifications, expression and loop pedals. Also Huhtala is using electronica to modify his beautiful acoustic bass sound and Ketola employs loops and samples of his own live playing, manipulating them through the Ableton Live application and thus creating spontaneously complete soundscapes.
Here is a clip from their first rehearsal in March 2016:
F# performs as a trio as well as in combination with various (mostly international) guest musicians.
In the run of years F# has toured with the Estonian singers Laura Põldvere, Ivi Rausi and Liina Saar.
Hille – Rausi – Huhtala – Ketola – Põldvere (photo by Raul Ollo)
Liina Saar visited the studio in Viljandi while F# were recording their debut album ‘the wannsee punk’ (released in spring 2018) and spontaneously participated in three of the tracks on the entirely improvised album.
The fact that all members of the band are acclaimed composers in their own right contributes to the extreme cohesiveness of the improvised material.
Many a critic noted just that: ‘The album being so well organized and aurally multi-faceted, it is at times hard to fathom that all the music on the album was improvised and recorded during a single session’ (Finnish Music Quarterly 10-2018).
Also Austrian saxophonist Herbert Könighofer has been a frequent collaborator visiting Finland in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Italian saxophonist Enzo Favata visited Finland in spring 2019 and F# returned the favor in summer 2019 when they performed an explosive set at the Musica sulle Bocche Festival in Sardegna.
In 2019 F# recorded a sound installation for the contemporary art museum in Espoo, EMMA.
They were joined by the Finnish saxophone legend Pepa Päivinen.
Their second album ‘Scientifically proven & clinically tested’ will be released in two portions, the CD-version at the Porvoo Jazz Festival on Dec 17th, 2021 and the LP-version at the Koko Jazz Club in Helsinki on March 3rd, 2022.
Check the gig calendar for an updated schedule.
Sid Hille