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Raoul Björkenheim was born in Los Angeles on the 11th of February 1956. Because his mother is an actress and a singer, the boy spent his formative years shuttling through metropolises like Rome and New York all the while surrounded by his mother's inspiring entourage of friends - musicians, actors and other artists.
In his teens Raoul settled in Finland, got interested in the music of Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus, bought a guitar and enrolled himself in the Conservatory of Helsinki. He was also fascinated by percussion and ethnic musics from around the globe and soon participated in the forming of a trio called Arbuusi. After a year at the Conservatory and some private lessons with guitar tutors in New York Raoul headed for Berklee in Boston.
The young musician's main incentive was to study composition, because at this point in his life the works of Béla Bartok and lgor Stravinsky were a great inspiration. Björkenheim graduated from Berklee in 1981 and after returning to Finland not only continued work with Arbuusi but also set up a second group, Roommushklahn. At around this time the influence of Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane began to emerge in his playing. The true musical revelation in Raoul's career came disguised as the quixotic drummer-composer Edward Vesala and his workshop Sound & Fury. The legendary Vesala employed Bjöbrkenheim to appear on three of his albums (Bad Luck, Good Luck, Kullervo and Lumi) and offered him the spot of a tour guitarist during 1986 and 1987. In 1989 Raoul toured with the Finnish rock group Sielun Veljet, which some may remember more easily by their international name L' Amourder. s the 8O's turned into the 90's, Raoul Björkenheim 's time was more and more consumed by his new band Krakatau, but the guitarist also continued the composing career he had kicked off in 1982 with works for dance and theatre groups, movies and TV. 1982 also marked the start of a fruitful string of co-operative works between Raoul and UMO Jazz Orchestra: Other Places in 1982, Some in 19B4, Primal Mind in 1991 and again in 1996. In 1992 Björkenheim completed Whales, a commission for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and two years later Ballando, a commission for the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. A very interesting piece - and in Raoul's own mind also one of the most rewarding was a commission for the Helsinki Festival in 1996. Apocalypso derives its inspiration from Korean sinawi trance music and was performed by a custom ensemble of 30 guitarists, 8 bass players and 4 percussionists. In the fall of 1996 Raoul toured Finland with the Swedish jazz group Surge, but by far the most stimulating project in Which the 41-year old guitarist-composer has recently participated is Phantom City, a multinational conglomerate led by Australian ambient conceptualist Paul Schütze. The group first got together at the Bern Taktlos Festival'in the spring of 1996 and released their debut CD Site Anubis at around the same time. In November 1996 the group climbed on the Tampere Jazz Happening stage, recorded the show on multitrack and after some edits and other manipulations by Schütze, released it in April 1997 under the name Shiva Recoil. One of the participants in Phantom City is Bill Laswell, and through this connection he got interested in Björkenheim 's playing. In March 1997 the visionary producer invited the guitar wizard to his studio in New York to record a CP with Nicky Skopelitis, another guitar maverick.
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