Juho Toivonen's Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari is a work of paradox — both intimate and expansive, tender yet eerie, a fanfare that seems to drift from the past into the present like a half-remembered dream.
A slight departure from his previous releases, this album finds Toivonen in a more song-oriented mode, though still deeply embedded in his signature world of loops, droning textures, and spectral piano melodies. The album is in stereo, with a richer, more mature palette that includes trumpet contributions from Raimo Sinnemäki on tracks 1 and 4. The inclusion of vocals — more present here than in past works — adds another human layer to its ghostly, fragmented atmosphere. At its core, Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari is an exercise in stretching time and shaping memory's shifting terrain. Toivonen describes his music as something akin to the faded recollection of a melody – what music might sound like when recalled after years of experiencing silence.
2025 Discreet Music
