In March 2016, Rissanen was the subject of a Taking Off piece in Jazzwise magazine to celebrate Amorandom, his debut release on the Edition label. It went on to garner international acclaim on a scale rarely seen for a musician or band featured in that spot, the album now widely regarded as Rissanen’s international breakthrough. That has been borne out by Another North, which has already notched over 250,000 plays across Spotify and Apple Music as of early December 2017 when this review was written. It has also enjoyed a ringing endorsement from Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest circulation daily newspaper – “A Finnish jazz band doesn’t get much better than this” – picked up rave reviews from another 10 important Finnish publications and met with equal enthusiasm in Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and here in the UK. The consensus that this is a far better album than Amorandom certainly rings true. Both Lötjönen and Mäkynen were formerly members of two great young Finnish bands of recent times, Lötjönen with Illmillieki and Mäkynen with the Five Corners Quintet (which was even given the accolade of playing for the President of Finland’s summer party, a spot occupied by rock bands for decades). These guys are talented and in the intervening months since Amorandom was released seem to have generated a higher degree of empathy and understanding with Rissanen capable of vibrating each note they play with greater meaning. Rissanen himself appears more at ease with his role of guiding this excellent ensemble through subtle moods, tempos and melodies of Another North, while allowing musical ideas and motifs to flow and develop in the sure knowledge Lötjönen and Mäkynen will respond with just the right thing at just the right moment. In short, there is a confidence in their playing that is borne out of mutual respect and can take this group far. They are shaping up to become an important band on the European scene.