Formed in 2019, Sonic Decode is an avant-garde power trio featuring three of Finland’s most legendary and uncompromising musical boundary-pushers: saxophonist Esa Pietilä, guitarist Raoul Björkenheim, and drummer/percussionist Janne Tuomi. Described as a multi-genre “supergroup,” Sonic Decode acts as an experimental laboratory where free improvisation collision-tests against tightly wound compositions, world jazz, and contemporary classical aesthetics.

The trio’s signature sound relies heavily on dramatic shifts in dynamics and theatrical narrative. They take full advantage of their members’ distinct, highly recognizable musical vocabularies: Björkenheim’s innovative use of extended guitar techniques, alternative tunings, and raw wall-of-sound tonalities; Tuomi’s fluid mastery over everything from complex contemporary classical scores to explosive jazz-rock drumming; and Pietilä’s authoritative, texturally complex saxophone playing.

Rather than sticking to traditional free jazz tropes, Sonic Decode ruthlessly and seductively blends disparate influences. In a single performance, listeners can hear the razor-sharp, satirical complexities of Frank Zappa seamlessly interwoven with the dense, colorful soundworlds of Olivier Messiaen and the haunting, microtonal atmospheres of György Ligeti. Sonic Decode does exactly what its name implies: it breaks open the raw data of sound, decodes it, and reconstructs it into a vital, unpredictable, and brilliantly executed chamber-rock-jazz hybrid.