The duo album Behind The Mask by two guitarists, the Finnish Heikki Ruokangas and the Belgian Julien Tassin, will be released on August 29. It is published by the respected Dutch label Challenge Records. The pair will do a one-week tour in Northern Finland in October, a two-week tour in Central Europe in December, and in early next year they will be heard in Southern Finland.
Ruokangas and Tassin became acquainted through the Australian label Ramble Records. Both have recorded for this label. According to Ruokangas, the guiding thread of the duo’s expression is the interplay of two guitars, which creates the impression of one large instrument. Melodic lines merge with atonal storytelling that contains both ruggedness and beauty, without forgetting humour.
The new album is already Ruokangas’s third this year. Earlier releases include Live in Berlin, recorded before a studio audience, and Live in New York, recorded at New York’s Forward Festival.
Ruokangas, an Oulu-based guitarist (b. 1987) who describes himself as a jazz/avant-garde guitarist, has performed not only in Finland but also in the United States and widely across Europe, playing with numerous musicians—mostly from the avant-garde scene—at clubs and many festivals.
He has also accumulated an extensive discography, appearing on more than twenty solo and compilation albums. In addition to the Finnish labels Rockadillo and Eclipse, his music has been released by, among others, 577 (USA), Habitable (PT), Dear Life (USA) and Ramble (AU). Some of Ruokangas’s albums can be heard on streaming services.
In Ruokangas’s music, the dialogue between melody and atonal language characterizes his expression. His melodic storytelling draws from the wistfulness of Finnish waltz, the unadorned nature of Delta blues, surf-rock guitar, and jazz. The atonal language, on the other hand, is based, according to him, on a combination of jazz and the geometric musical language he has developed.
“Tonal and atonal elements together create a soundscape where melodic ideas offer something to grasp, while atonal forms bring something new and wondrous,” is how he describes the combination.
