It has been said of jazz drummer
Markku Ounaskari that it would be easier to list the Finnish ensembles he has not played with than those he has. Born in 1967, he studied at the Oulunkylä Pop & Jazz Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy and began his career in the '80s playing with legendary groups
Piirpauke and the
Pekka Pohjola Group. In the '90s and 2000s he played live and on scores of albums with multiple jazz formations, including all the major Finnish names, but also with big, internationally renowned artists like
Lee Konitz and
Kenny Wheeler. In 2007, he debuted on
ECM with Swedish kantele player
Sinikka Langeland on her Starflowers album (he would later go on to record several more albums with her). His work on the record so impressed
ECM head
Manfred Eicher that the producer invited him to record his own project for the label. The resulting album,
Kuára, recorded with pianist
Samuli Mikkonen and trumpeter
Per Jørgensen, was inspired by the ancient traditional folk music of Finland. Released in 2010, it won an Emma Award (the "Finnish Grammys") for best Finnish jazz album of the year. The albums Aleatoric (with
Aki Rissanen and
Robin Verheyen) and Years (with
Kari Heinilä,
Lena Willemark, and
Anders Jormin), both on Edition, followed, and in 2018 he appeared with American guitarist
Ben Monder on Estonian pianist
Kristjan Randalu's
ECM debut,
Absence. ~ John D. Buchanan