Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on October 27, 2025
Acclaimed Finnish guitarist and oud player Jussi Reijonen unveils sayr, a deeply personal new series of improvised recordings for solo string instrument. The project debuts with a double release: sayr: salt | thirst and sayr: kaiho – live in helsinki, both available worldwide October 24, 2025.
Following the expansive 2022 large-ensemble album Three Seconds | Kolme Toista — hailed as “unlike anything in memory” by All About Jazz and “a stunner” by JazzTimes — Reijonen turns inward, exploring the solitary, spontaneous, and spiritual side of his artistry.
In sayr: salt | thirst, recorded in one fully improvised take at Reijonen’s home studio, the artist performs on a 1940s Gibson LG-2 steel-string acoustic guitar, dividing the music into two contrasting arcs — “salt” and “thirst.” The performance weaves textures from string instruments around the world — guitar, kantele, oud, sintir, and kora — into a single voice that shifts between lament, unease, and transformation.
The companion album, sayr: kaiho – live in helsinki, extends that journey through three improvised arcs — “halla” (“frost”), “fes” (in homage to the Moroccan city where Reijonen bought his first oud), and “vielä” (“yet”). Recorded and filmed live at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, the album captures Reijonen performing on both steel-string acoustic guitar and Arabic oud, highlighting the entwined sonorities and historical lineage of the two instruments.
Early reviews praise the project’s artistic depth. HIFImaailma (Finland) awarded sayr: salt | thirst ★★★★★, while Paris Move called it “an atlas of musical voices… a statement of artistic identity: uncompromising, borderless, and profoundly human.”
The word sayr—Arabic for “course” or “motion”—refers to a musical pathway unfolding through improvisation. For Reijonen, it represents a personal exploration of memory and time, an improvised journey through a “musical memory palace.”
Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and the search for “the still point of the turning world,” Reijonen explains:
“For there to be motion, there must be stillness as its counterpoint. Through their dance, each defines the other.”
Each improvisation becomes a diary entry in an evolving series that Reijonen plans to release between ensemble works. Nothing is edited or overdubbed — aside from the removal of a sneeze — leaving the music as immediate and raw as it was performed.
Born in Rovaniemi, Finland, and raised across Jordan, Tanzania, Oman, and Lebanon, Jussi Reijonen is a rare artist whose music bridges continents. Equally fluent on fretted and fretless guitar and the Arabic oud, he draws from Nordic, Middle Eastern, African, and American traditions to create something borderless and new.
His previous release, Three Seconds | Kolme Toista, received five-star reviews worldwide and was named one of the Best Creative Albums of 2022 (All About Jazz) and Best Jazz Albums of 2022 (Glide Magazine). The album’s nonet was also an official showcase artist at Jazzahead! 2023.
As a collaborator, Reijonen has performed with Jack DeJohnette, Robin Eubanks, Pepe de Lucía, Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba, Arto Tunçboyacıyan, Dave Weckl, and others, appearing at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, and festivals across Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
sayr: salt | thirst
Label: unmusic – UNCD12025 / UNLP12025
Recorded: March 1, 2025
Formats: Digital, CD, LP
Release Date: October 24, 2025
sayr: kaiho – live in helsinki
Label: unmusic – UNCD22025 / UNLP22025
Recorded live: September 19, 2025, Musiikkitalo, Helsinki
Formats: Digital & CD (October 24, 2025); LPs to follow
Pronunciation:
sayr — “sa-yeer”
Jussi Reijonen — “You-see Ray-yo-nen”
Visit: www.jussireijonen.com
