About

Juha-Matti Rautiainen creates otherworldly ambient soundscapes live, using only effected bass guitar.

He has been playing bass guitar professionally in various bands and genres in Finland from early 2000’s. In 2014 he cut the tip of his right index finger in an accident and his perception of music changed. He started to experiment on new territories with his instrument.

Playing intensely slow and concentrating on the minimalistic movements in music he found his own unique style, that encompasses ambient, experimental and Berlin school of electronic music. His music is sensitive, organic and minimalistic and it focuses on textures and moods mixed with open impressionistic harmonies.

Juha-Matti Rautiainen released his debut album “The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation” in December 2016 and his second album “Above Me Weeps the Sky” was released in November 2018. In 2020 he collaborated with graphic designer Kimmo Heikkilä and legendary Finnish ambient pioneer Nemesis resulting “Off the Map” -album in 2021 which was received enthuasiastically amongst European e-music fans. His latest solo work “Still Water” was released in July 2021.

Rautiainen performs regularly his music live in various underground clubs and festivals. His music has been featured in radioshows focusing on ambient and electronic music, such as The Hearts of Space, Star’s End Radio, Avaruusromua and Timo Kaukolampi.

…About “The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation”:

“Slowly built upon a very graceful layer of marvelous creativity, The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation is a deeply virtuous album, thoroughly exhilarated at the rapture of a cosmic journey that begins in the immense boundaries of conscience, expanding from its own panoramic axis. With a sonorous omnipresence that revolves around the universe upon which all the musicality of the album is strictly built, this work reevaluates all the nuances, colors, arrangements and sensibilities that comprehends the universe of ambient music, delightfully making a rereading of all the necessary elements in question.”

– Wagner Hertzog, Merchants of Air 12/12/2016

“…A refreshingly imaginative, ‘mindful’ album.”

– Peter van Cooten, Ambientblog 4/30/2017

“Hämmentävintä on, että Rautiainen on toteuttanut albumin ja näkemyksenä ainoastaan bassokitara raaka-aineenaan. Se osoittaa miehen teknistä ja tietoteknistä taituruutta, lopputulos syvää näkemyksellisyyttä. Ei kiireiselle matkamiehelle.”

– Retrokkiblog 3/2/2017

About “Above Me Weeps the Sky”:

“Rautiainen has obviously left the conventional view of his instrument behind, as Above Me Weeps the Sky finds him using it to explore music of stillness and space. The music slowly alternates between a trembling vulnerability to waves of strength and light – often with a deep subsonic foundation… By hearing him play the electric bass guitar in a most resourceful way, doing such imaginative things with it, eliciting sounds from out of the sky on down to the ground, with just four steel strings, it should not be hard for us also to imagine being bigger… larger than the way we find ourselves.”

– Chuck van Zyl / Star’s End 12/27/2018

…About “Off the Map”:

“Satisfyingly spacey and forward-thinking this album takes its place in the endless, purposeful reinvention this genre calls forth. Attracting us with its interactive nature – in that the artist provides an atmosphere which the listener shapes into meaning – we emigrate from the known world to a world of our own. The best Ambient Music provides a buffer, a consistent in-between time within which to reflect, reset and conceive. On a planet where we all yearn to find the future more informed listeners will use this sonic map, not to find places and things in the world, but to invent them.”

– Chuck van Zyl / Star’s End 3/18/2021

…About live performances:

“Finnish Juha-Matti Rautiainen was our main dish from Saturday, with his distinctive performance orbiting around himself exploring all the possibilities of his bass guitar. With several pedals and effects, he moved around a more dronish side of the musical spectrum, with superb results. This session really blew our ears out, with harmonic elements dissociating ourselves and working on our own perception of sound, going through very emotional passages, and ending in an almost non-human sonic adventure. It was a standing ovation for us.”

– Paranoid / Cyclic Defrost 8/9/2018