Elifantree (FI)

Based in Helsinki, the trio Elifantree has been making music for almost twenty years. Last spring they returned ‘home’ when it comes to their recordings. Their previous album Hachi (2021) was recorded in eight different countries with eight different percussionists, and Blood Moon (2019) that preceded it was improvised with the electro-acoustic Tölölab quartet specialising in contemporary music at a concert of Meidän Festivaali festival in Tuusulanjärvi.

On their seventh album released in May, the trio went back to their old ways, with only vocalist Anni Elif, saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen and drummer Olavi Louhivuori in the studio. The botanical title of the album, Florescence, would still suggest some kind of a new phase, perhaps a private opening, flourishing or growth. And it soon turned out that each musician has a new arrival at home, a bud of a new person.

This may explain the sensitivity of the English lyrics by Anni Elif and the focus on jointly composed pieces, a more tangible presence. Or perhaps it is simply about a feature that has been part of the group from the beginning: a natural transformation, the intertwining of music with the musicians’ personal growth. However, the group’s founders, Anni Elif (b. 1986) from Sweden and Pauli Lyytinen (b. 1983) who studied in Sweden, were only in their twenties when they represented Finland in the joint Nordic band competition, ‘Young Stars’.

We only know for certain that pinning down Elifantree’s style precisely remains difficult: the group was initially presented as a jazz ensemble, but this was slightly misleading. On the other hand, over time the definitions of jazz have become less narrow – also at Telakka, where Elifantree most recently performed at the Jazz Happening of 2011.