LP version. Jimi Tenor presents an instrumental album with the de facto Finnish national big band, UMO Jazz Orchestra. UMO is a professional 16-piece orchestra specializing in jazz and contemporary rhythm music. Throughout it's history UMO has had a focus on Finnish composers and has performed hundreds of compositions that were made especially for UMO. Jimi Tenor is a Finnish composer and performing artist perhaps best known for his electronic music from the '90s. Mysterium Magnum is his first album composed entirely for a big band. In 2003 Jimi Tenor took his own big band on a six-week European tour, which included stops at Montreux Jazz and North Sea Jazz Festival. Jimi Tenor then made three albums with afrobeat group Kabukabu: Joystone (2007, Sahko), 4th Dimension (2008, Sahko), and The Mystery of Aether (2012, Kindred Spirits); and in 2009, Jimi Tenor made an album with afrobeat legend Tony Allen called Inspiration Information (Strut). Mysterium Magnum was recorded at UMO's rehearsal space at the YLE studios in Helsinki. The music on Mysterium Magnum is not typical big band music. It varies from mystical contemporary compositions like Koneen Sydan, Huumatun Pako, Mysticum Minus, and Sahkoinen Laji to soundtrack themes like Kratera and I Was Here. On the album Jimi Tenor himself plays a Russian Ritm-2 synthesizer, tenor saxophone, and flute. All compositions and arrangements by Jimi Tenor.
