Esa Pietilä with String Quartet

In recent years, Pietilä’s artistic focus has increasingly evolved toward modern art music, culminating in a series of groundbreaking projects that marry the raw, expressive power of the tenor saxophone with the rich, timbral possibilities of the string quartet. Working alongside cutting-edge ensembles—including the Kamus Quartet and the Skatta String Quartet—Pietilä actively interrogates the relationship between rigorous notation and spontaneous creation.

Central to this collaboration is his major 28-minute quintet work, Blazing Flames which takes listeners on a dynamic, multi-layered journey where the traditional roles of a soloist and accompaniment are dissolved. Instead, the music lives entirely in the moment: both the saxophonist and the string players are tasked with constructing real-time environments, exchanging unwritten dialogue, and exploring extended instrumental techniques.

This hybrid aesthetic is further explored on his acclaimed album Aphelium Journeys which features his String Quartets Nos. 2 (Icons of Blue, Black & Sun) and 3 (Valleys of Soliloquy), alongside his striking Saxophone Quintet repertoire. By unlocking the hidden possibilities of combining strings and saxophone, Esa Pietilä and his string quartet configurations deliver a vital, gripping, and deeply imaginative chamber music experience that is establishing a vital new library for the instrument.

The aforementioned works are recorded in album Aphelium Journeys (Alba Records 2025),