Earth Variations – my eleventh album – presents 10 instrumental compositions with abstract vocals.

The album is inspired by our unique, complex planet in a state of flux – a world that our political and economic ideologies, against all the actual intelligence and knowledge, continue to regard as a resource to be exploited and exhausted rather than an opportunity to be nurtured and shared.

Drawing from the notion of geophilosophy – “earth-thinking” originally conceived by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to consider the relation between thought and environment (concepts created through the relationship between territory and earth) – the album explores the idea of music as an embodied and possible geography: a milieu, landscape, terrain, situation, condition, atmosphere. In this sense, it follows the map initially drawn by artists such as Jon Hassell, Brian Eno and Bernard Parmegiani while adding its own, previously uncharted regions to it: musically it journeys in a less familiar territory between the habitats of contemporary classical, experimental electronic, world and possible musics – occasionally reaching a more elevated ground to gaze at these more familiar vistas on the horizon.

The album features contributions from soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko, bassist Omar Harb, Ginette player Petteri Mäkiniemi, guitarist Nazim Bakour, and sound artist Em’kal Eyongakpa. The music has been composed and recorded in various locations in London, Saarbrücken, Espoo, Douala and Paris between 2004 and 2023. The album has been mastered by Gregor Zemljic (Earresistible Mastering).

A digital-only release, the album is available worldwide on all the major streaming platforms as well as on Bandcamp, where the release includes higher quality audio download and extended album artwork.

Composed, performed and mixed by Ilpo Jauhiainen

Moondrift – written by Ilpo Jauhiainen and Petteri Mäkiniemi
Negotiation – written by Ilpo Jauhiainen and Omar Harb
Lapis and Ascension – written by Ilpo Jauhiainen and Viktoriia Vitrenko
Extraction and Mistral – written by Ilpo Jauhiainen, Petteri Mäkiniemi and Omar Harb

Viktoriia Vitrenko – vocals on Lapis and Ascension; voice on Frontier and Mistral
Petteri Mäkiniemi – Ginette on Moondrift, Ascension, Extraction and Mistral
Omar Harb – bass/guitar on Negotiation, Lapis, Extraction and Mistral
Nazim Bakour – electric guitar on Ascension
Em’kal Eyongakpa – field recordings on Negotiation; taken from his work negotiations, chapter 1-i, used with the kind permission of the artist

Produced by Ilpo Jauhiainen

Mastered by Gregor Zemljic at Earresistible Mastering

Cover art and design by Ilpo Jauhiainen
Original photography by Lee Clough

Released May 15, 2024