Trumpeter Jukka Eskola and saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen explore rich landscapes of sound on four recent albums from the Tampere label Eclipse Music.

The gentlest of these is Rabbit Hole, the debut album by Pauli Lyytikäinen Rabbit Hole, the multinational electroacoustic trio he has played with since 2019.

The album incorporates three tracks they released on an EP last year, including the opening “Hanami” (Cherry Blossoms), with its gentle koto-like sound. There are two other songs with Japanese floral names and the band’s name appears in Japanese characters on the cover – and the group’s minimalist but whimsical sound brings to mind 1970s and ‘80s kankyō ongaku (ambient and new age) artists such as Hiroshi Yoshimura and Haruomi Hosono.

This time Lyytinen’s saxophone is on the back burner except on the peacefully progressing “Barrelling” and the unhurried closing “Track,” which are akin to the more pensive work of British saxophonist John Surman. Instead, Lyytinen focuses more on his electronic wind instrument (EWI), live electronics, drum machine and percussion.

There’s also low-key percussion from Swiss drummer Julian Sartorius, while Norwegian keyboardist Andreas Vold Løwe adds warm, spacey synths and fanciful piano improvisations.

Løwe composed or co-composed all of the tracks except for Lyytinen’s playful fusion outing “Mooncat” and “Owls,” which is calming and slightly unsettling as a solo night in a deep forest.

Lyytinen plays in several other groups, including the long-running trio Elifantree as well as his Magnetia Orkesteri featuring trumpeter Verneri Pohjola. His sax work often involves the subtle use of electronics – but also feels deeply rooted in nature, as on his previous album, Lehto/Korpi from 2024, which included duets with field recordings of birds.

That theme carries over to whale-like songs on another recent Lyytinen release with Sámi poet and vocalist Niillas Holmberg. The two started working together with an unrehearsed, improvised live set in 2021.

Their duo album Naarattu laulu (Dredged Song) is a companion work released alongside Holmberg’s poetry collection Naarattu. He reads poems from the book and chants joiks, backed by Lyytinen’s sax and electronics.

Holmberg’s speaking voice is deep and calm, but there’s a faint sense of foreboding in his cryptic tales of conflicts between new and old ways around a river where the salmon have disappeared. It flows to a faraway sea where there are rumoured to be whales, a recurring theme through the book and album – echoed in Lyytinen’s mournful, reverberating saxophone improvisations, expanded with live electronics and a kalimba-like sound.

The tension rises on “Keinu” (Swing) with screeches, breathy sax loops, and edgy multi-tracked horns, juxtaposed against Holmberg’s calm recitation and then mellow, melodic joik, eventually entwining with soprano sax for a constricted, high-pitched duet.

In the calmer moments, the combination of drifting horn, electronics and chanting brings to mind saxophonist Tapani Rinne’s duo albums with joik pioneer Wimme Saari, albeit without the latter’s craggy gravitas.

Joik plays a more central role on Davvi Oktavuohta (Northern Connection) by Ingá-Máret Gaup-Juuso, Jukka Eskola and the Oulu All Star Big Band.

This heady mix of contemporary big-band jazz, classical, folk, blues and other influences showcases the powerful vocals of Gaup-Juuso, who cowrote several tunes. Others are by jazz drummer and longtime Värttinä member Mikko Hassinen, who’s also responsible for the deft arrangements.

Gaup-Juuso’s strongly melodic vocals come in hypnotic waves, carrying the orchestra forward. In his own way, so does Eskola, the other main soloist on trumpet and fluegelhorn. Besides Pohjola, he is Finland’s best-known trumpet player, with more of a hard-bop orientation. Since the turn of the millennium, he’s reinvented ‘60s Blue Note soul-jazz groove in bands such as the recently reunited Five Corners Quintet while delving into bossa nova, hip-hop and the New Orleans tradition.

His bright, often muscular style is well suited to this large ensemble led by Jaakko Jauhiainen, himself a trumpet player. The setting inspires some fiery playing from Eskola, for instance an intricately constructed solo with surprising twists and squeals on the instrumental “Mandir”, followed by a bluesy turn from electric guitarist Mikko Kuusiniemi.

Eskola joins his long-time Five Corners Quintet compadre, drummer Teppo Mäkynen, on another large-ensemble project from this year: the Jussi Lampela Ensemble’s Common Ground.

Compared to the sometimes-raucous Five Corners, this is more buttoned-down affair, with Lampela’s sleek Gil Evans-like arrangements centring on a string quartet. Mäkynen keeps a discreet profile while Eskola’s solos are more composed and subdued than on Davvi Oktavuohta.

Here too, there are influences from jazz, classical, minimalism and ambient, as well as vintage film soundtracks. There’s definitely a cinematic feel to moody, evocative pieces like “Poly-Uni”, with its exquisite string setting.

That’s natural since Lampela has worked on a couple of dozen films as a composer, arranger and/or orchestrator. And he seems to have an affection for ‘60s and ‘70s film scores – just like Kerkko Koskinen of Ultra Bra, a fellow keyboardist-composer with pop-jazz links and a similarly masterful touch in arranging for big groups.

Lampela paints a sophisticated soundscape in which each instrument is part of the palette – with Eskola’s horn occasionally a bright splatter on the canvas.