Biography
A brief history of Jääportit
Evolved since 1997.
1997 • Thru the cold forest
My name is Tuomas. I started this music project in the autumn of 1997, and it is still going on.
The original idea was to make dark yet tranquil, peaceful and harmonic music. At the time I was also making metal and industrial music on a computer, and Jääportit was meant to be the opposite of that heavier side. Over the years those other styles and sounds have merged into the sound of Jääportit and taken it to new places, but the frosty atmosphere has always stayed.
In 1998, after finishing seven tracks, I decided to release them as an EP, or demo album, and called it Halki lumisen metsän.
I self-released it on CD-R with black and white printed covers, using photos taken in the winter forest nearby.
After making a batch of CD-Rs I gave them to the distro Noitavasara, who passed them on to people interested in this kind of music. Later they wanted to release my first full album.
1999 • Kauan koskematon
The gates open, and for the first time a man touches something that has been untouched for a long time.
Making Kauan koskematon took from the start of winter 1998 to the spring of 1999. I sampled sounds from my father’s old synthesizer and from my friend’s parents’ piano, and built the compositions on those quite primitive sounds: freezing winter melancholy inspired by artists like Mortiis, Arcana and Dead Can Dance, to name a few.
The Finnish artist Aslak Tolonen painted the cover and calls it Tyhjä portti, Empty Gate in English. It is the perfect cover for this album: he really read some thoughts in my mind and heard the untold story in them. He also designed the Jääportit logo that I still use today.
Noitavasara released the album on cassette as a limited edition of 500 copies, and they sold out quickly.
“Each piece has the ability to take your mind to its own little world and tells you a story along the way.”
JJM, Lunar Hypnosis
2004 • Uumenissa
I have always experimented with sounds and looked for new ways to make music. My second full-length album, Uumenissa (Firebox Records, 2004), was dreamy, frostbitten ambient music painted with soothing electronic synth waves and atmospheric, cosmic sounds.
The first four tracks of Uumenissa were meant to be a release of their own, but I kept making more tracks until it became a full album. It took five years to finish, because I was learning new audio equipment and software along the way. I wanted more electronic ambient sounds played on synthesizer, to evoke dreamlike states.
The tales on the album are obscure patterns in the mirror of life: formations under the surface, glances from the aquarium, motions in the quicksand, the chaos of the existential state and the rhythm of purification in the deep blue yonder of spatial echo.
Some tracks were played off-tempo for a more relaxed feel. The last track has a rhythmic beat, and in a way it points to the later material, which used more and more drums as I kept learning what modern composition could do.
“You can hardly wrap your feelings into words while listening to this hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing music. Outstanding album!”
Dajana, Nocturnal Hall Magazine
2005 • Sydänyön samooja syvällä unten mailla ja metsien soilla
I took part in the compilation album Sonic Visions of Middle-Earth (Foreshadow) with a 15-minute Jääportit song, “Sydänyön samooja syvällä unten mailla ja metsien soilla”, inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories.
Session musician J-M Kenttälä played acoustic guitar on this special track.
“The combination of medieval tunes and ambient in this song is fantastic. The best song in this album, as you may think.”
Fjordi, Tartarean Desire Webzine
2006 • Avarrus
My third full-length album, Avarrus, came out on Epidemie Records in 2006. It had more detailed and sophisticated sounds than the earlier releases, and I experimented more with rhythm, electronic beats and percussion.
Avarrus starts with the sound of a very long elevator ride, which I imagined as a journey down beneath an imaginary castle. The story of the album is carried along by sound recorded in live environments.
Times were changing in other ways too. I started studying at a school of art and media in Tampere, where I got to experiment with music and learn sound design. So the album is also a kind of soundtrack for leaving one place behind and moving to a new one.
“The atmosphere on Avarrus is dreamlike. Somehow this reminds of the later albums of Ulver, but of Boards of Canada as well.”
TekNoir, Gothtronic
2007 • Gnosis
I took part in the compilation album My Own Wolf: A New Approach to Ulver (Aspherical Asphyxia, 2007) with my own version of Ulver’s song “Gnosis”.
This time I asked Vesa Partti to play electric guitar and Mindy to sing.
“Jääportit morphs Gnosis into an 11-minute monster of menacing atmospheres, rolling beats, and female vocals; it’s much, much stronger than the original.”
Invisible Oranges
2009 • Voimasuo
My fourth full-length album, Voimasuo, came out on Epidemie Records as a CD digipak on 12 May 2009.
This wide-ranging album was another metamorphosis for Jääportit: ambient electronica with a touch of frosty post-rock. I made the music at Kajekammio, Finland, between 2006 and 2009.
I started working on Voimasuo in 2006, while I was also composing music for short films as school projects. Scoring a film the way the director wants, and the way that serves the story, took a lot of work, and alongside it I had the urge to keep making music freely on my own. I wanted louder music than before, with more distorted sounds and more drums, to sound like a bigger band. That took me towards post-rock and progressive rock ambient, places I am still exploring in many ways. The music is both played and electronic: I played most of the instruments myself, mainly keyboards. On a few tracks Mindy played violin from notes I composed and conducted.
The album got good feedback from many places, and the track “Suon sulaessa” was played on Finnish national radio on a show for new music.
“There are only a handful of artists who can produce meticulous and intelligently crafted ambience. We all know what the likes of Brian Eno, Peter Christopherson and Brian Williams are capable of, but few are aware of Finland’s Jääportit.”
Will Stone, Terrorizer
2010 • Kuihtuman henkivi
My long track “Kuihtuman henkivi”, made between 2005 and 2007, opens the compilation album YOGSOTHERY – Gate I: Chaosmogonic Rituals Of Fear (I, Voidhanger Records, 2010), the first in a trilogy of compilations dedicated to H. P. Lovecraft.
“Kuihtuman henkivi” has no beats and sounds quite different from all my other material. I made it to stand on its own, as a horrid tribute to the famous writer.
“At more than 25 minutes, ‘Kuihtuman Henkivi’ is a masterpiece for fans of drone and blackened ambiance.”
Octavio Ramos, Santa Fe Metal Music Examiner
2018 • Jääportit
My fifth full-length album, simply titled Jääportit, came out on 8 February 2018. In a way it is a journey back to the roots, but it still brings something new, using everything I had learned over the years.
In 2016 I found more time and interest for new Jääportit music. I got an LTD electric guitar and started playing it more, using it as the main instrument, both clean and distorted, for heavier and more intense sounds. Guitar is easier to play with a beat and bass behind it, so the backbone of the music is digital drums and bass that I play or program. On top of that I played guitar, keyboards and synthesizers for the sounds and melodies. Here and there you can hear me singing through a vocoder.
In 2017 I decided to release an album and asked Epidemie whether they would put it out on CD. I was glad when they said yes. This time I also made the cover artwork myself, and in 2018 the album was finally out.
“Jääportit is the prime example of what ambient music should sound like (in my very humble opinion). The fusion of melancholy guitars with subtle electronic sounds will sweep you away to a frozen Nordic landscape.”
Kayla, MetalSucks
2020 • Old gates open again
The first two releases kept finding new listeners long after they came out. In 2018 Old Captain/Faust put Halki lumisen metsän and Kauan koskematon on CD for the first time, a digipak of 300 copies with Aslak Tolonen’s cover.
In 2019 the Finnish metal magazine Inferno interviewed me for its dungeon synth special, next to Mortiis and Druadan Forest. Then in February 2020 Out Of Season, a label from Maine, USA, brought both releases back on cassette: two pro-tapes of 100 copies each and a deluxe box with a patch. By the start of 2021 every tape was gone.
2022 • Twenty-five years
Jääportit turned 25, and I marked it with new music. The single “Kaikkeuden korvennus” (Scorching Universe) came out on 26 August 2022, the first piece of the next album.
In September Kauan koskematon came out on vinyl for the first time: 300 copies on ice blue vinyl from Out Of Season, remastered for vinyl by Dan Randall at Mammoth Sound Mastering.
2023 • Taianomainen
The second single, “Taianomainen” (Magical), came out on 1 December 2023.
That autumn Dungeon Synth Zine #9 ran an interview with me, in the same issue as Quest Master and Forgotten Pathways.
2024 • First time on stage
After more than 25 years of making this music in the studio, I played Jääportit live for the first time, at the Northeast Dungeon Siege festival at The Raven in Worcester, Massachusetts, in March 2024.
The set went from the first release to the newest tracks and ended with “Muinaisvoimaa”, a song nobody had heard yet.
In September Out Of Season repressed Kauan koskematon: 300 copies on “frozen lake” vinyl and 200 tapes in ice blue and blue glitter.
2025 • Muinaisvoimaa
The year started with two shows: Kuudes Linja in Helsinki on 30 January with Quest Master, and Echoes from the Dungeon Fest in Amsterdam on 28 February.
“Muinaisvoimaa” (Ancient Power) came out on the festival’s compilation, with vocals by TikSu. In October the single “Syksy saapuu” (Autumn Arrives) arrived with the first Jääportit music video, also filmed by TikSu. The year closed with four tracks on the Yule Tales Volume I and II compilations.
2026 • Berlin and Turku
The shop on this site opened in February, with the original tapes, the vinyl and patches from my own archive.
In April I played Berlin for the first time, at Neue Zukunft, on a night celebrating ten years of Out Of Season.
On 3 October I played Turku, at Fuusio / Nirvana, my first show in Finland since Helsinki.
And the story goes on
The singles since 2022 are the first pieces of the next album. You can hear them at the top of the discography, next to every album that came before.
New releases and shows are announced on the news page first.