Soul Bird by Rent Romus, Heikki Koskinen, Otherworld Ensemble

Birds have played an important role in human history in stories and myths that describe the creation of the world, the birth of life, the creation of fire, the changing of the seasons, and the messengers of omens. The music contains elements of both the playful and the sacred while combining jazz, Finnish folk, and improvisation.

Rent Romus, Heikki Koskinen and The Otherworld Ensemble present Soul Bird, a musical odyssey of mythic Finno-Ugric/Uralic bird stories. The spark originally came from the stories of the Siberian Jay, also known in Finland as ‘kuukkeli’, which is found throughout the Arctic regions of the world. In Finland, as well as in other Finno-Ugric cultural myths, this small, brave and charismatic bird is considered to be the carrier of human souls to and from the afterlife of Manala (the Underworld).

Working with mentor and fellow composer Heikki Koskinen, the creation of Soul Bird is a representation of the growth and development of their ongoing cultural rediscovery through the lens of music. Heikki is a native of Finland and is a key musical figure in the Bay Area and Finnish music communities who was awarded jazz legend status in 2019 by the Music Archive Finland institute. His insights and partnership have provided a guiding resource in Romus’ research of the Finnish traditions in music, culture, and myths. In addition to Heikki’s contribution the Otherworld Ensemble plays a key role in the presentation of these compositions. Their collaborative musical work have contributed to the creation of previous albums exploring the Finnish and American cultural interplay including titles such as Live at Malmitalo, Northern Fire, Manala, Return to Manala, Itkuja Suite, Lament to Joy, and Elegies.

Research for this project began on tour in 2023 in Finnish Karelia and continued with documentation collected from the Nordic University post-doctoral research repository, the Kalevala, and ornithology books on Nordic birds. In addition, both Romus and Koskinen share their family roots in the Western Finnish region of Southern Ostrobothnia.

Rent Romus hailed by Downbeat as having "a bold sound, unmistakable sincerity and conviction". A third generation Finnish American born in the great north of upper Michigan and growing up in the San Francisco Bay ,Romus' work on the saxophone has been dubbed “ferocious” by the San Francisco Weekly and “central to the creative music world of the West Coast” by writer jazz critic Frank Rubolino.

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