Prior to his solo work, Tenor fronted Jimi Tenor and His Shamans, who starting in 1988 released several albums on the Poko, Euros, and Bad Vugum labels (including Total Capacity of 216, 5 Litres, Diktafon, and Fear of a Black Jesus, which included 3-D sleeve and glasses). Despite the studied imperfection of his recordings (Tenor chides modern electronic music for sounding lifelessly exacting), he spent 12 years studying piano, flute, and saxophone at a Finnish music institute. After dissolving the Shamens in the late '80s, Tenor moved to New York, where he worked as a tourist photographer at the Empire State Building. He finally hooked up with Sahko after receiving a copy of a solo recording by Mika Vainio (of Pan Sonic and ?). Impressed with the label's openness to experimentalism (Sahko had previously been known as something of the muso's minimalist techno label), Tenor sent along some tapes and landed a recording contract, releasing his debut, Sahkomies, in 1994. While in New York he also recorded with Khan/4E's Can Oral (under the name Bizz O.D.), releasing the "Traffic" single on Ozon in 1995. Tenor returned to Finland in 1995 to film a documentary of Sahko (funded, oddly enough, by a government grant) and has remained there since, releasing Europa in 1996 and securing licensing and recording arrangements with Warp. The full-length Intervision was released in 1997, followed two years later by Organism. After the release of Out of Nowhere in 2000, Tenor and Sahko parted ways with Warp. His sixth full-length, Utopian Dream, an overtly solo-electronics record, still received import distribution. Tenor was performing with a large band for 2004's Beyond the Stars, distributed widely through Kitty-Yo, and 2007's Joystone (Ubiquity, again through Sahko).
Jimi Tenor biography by allmusic.com
