A sisterhood of four voices and a double bass, Signe have previously melted the audience’s hearts at the Finnish We Jazz Festival and Flow Festival. Their works draw from poetry and the unmapped paths of improvisation. Sonically, the group flows and meanders through contemporary classical, folk music and Nordic jazz.
Signe’s first full-lenght album ’To Sappho’ (Eclipse Music 2019) gained an honourable mention for Teosto Prize 2020 (Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Prize) as well a nomination for the Finnish Jazz album of the Year 2020. The album draws influences from the poetry fragments that have survived from the pen of Sappho, the archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sappho’s lyrical poems were originally accompanied by a lyre. Signe’s interpretation of this is New York -based Kaisa Mäensivu’s warm, yet sometimes even intimidating double bass. Along the group’s vocalists Vannesluoma and Savolainen, the composers include Mikko Sarvanne and Sampo Kasurinen with whom Signe continues working on a new repertoire, published in 2021.
The group tours Finland frequently and has performed also in London, Oslo and Germany. The group represented Finnish jazz at the Nordic Jazz Comets showcase at EFG London Jazz Festival in November 2018 and in Oslo Jazz Festival’s Nordic Showcase in August 2017. The group is currently preparing an extensive album trilogy to be published in 2021.
”To Sappho laajentaa kuvaamme siitä mihin moderni lauluyhtye pystyy. Jazzista, kokeellisesta sekä valtavirtapopista ja nykymusiikista ammentavat sävellykset sisältävät ajoittain hyvinkin pelottomia harmonisia ratkaisuja. Riisuttu toteutus korostaa sekä melodioiden rikkautta että teatraalisuutta.”
”Poised, relaxed and radiant”
Wif Stenger, Finnish Music Quarterly
”These tautly-connected quartet of vocalists—one being bassist-vocalist Kaisa Mäensivu,[…] —conjured up a compelling and malleable ensemble identity, moving between folk music links to classical and jazz sonorities, and more experimental touches. The sum effect was quite stunning, and ear/mind-opening.”
Josef Woodard, AllAboutJazz.com