It is often said about the trio of the Finnish jazz pianist Kari Ikonen that it is completely unrepresentative of the Scandinavian jazz scene (typically Finnish), with its lively, experimental music that does not sound like Nordic melancholy. But even the title of the new album, "Wind, Frost & Radiation", reveals that it's time to go in another direction with this constantly searching trio. On this LP, the three musicians embark on a journey to the most unpleasant places, the ghost town of Pripyat near Chernobyl, the desert wind Harmattan, the basalt and granite quarry in the Finnish town of Kuru - they all sponsor tracks on this album. Kari Ikonen and his colleagues Olli Rantala on bass and Markku Ounaskari on drums go with gripping sounds, biting cold but also rousing energy on this journey - an exciting album