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Aki Rissanen: Omniwerk

  • The Other Sound / SAT 15.8.

Aki Rissanen is one of the most internationally recognised Finnish jazz pianists of his generation, with albums on Edition Records and a reputation built across European stages. At Flow, he steps away from the piano to perform solo with the Omniwerk, a unique instrument combining two historical keyboard inventions: Leonardo da Vinci’s viola organista and the baroque lautenwerk, built by Finnish craftsmen Jukka Ollikka and Jonte Knif.

The Omniwerk can bow and pluck its strings simultaneously, spanning a sound world from harpsichord to string orchestra. Rissanen uses it to bring melodic fragments encoded in da Vinci’s own manuscripts into conversation with our time, using live sampling, looping, and contemporary abstraction.