Juho Toivonen - Taivaskanava CD (Pre-Order)

Taivaskanava was originally a cassette on Grapefruit Records but is soon to be reissued on CD on Juho's label.

This is a Pre-Order, release date set for March 31st, 2026. If you are a shop and want wholesale copies, please reach out at grapefruitpayments@gmail.com and we can give you a wholesale price. If you are wanting one copy, pre-order here and we will ship mid-March when they arrive. Since international shipping is expensive right now, it is very helpful to know how many CDs to ship here by collecting pre-orders. Please order in advance so we can let Juho know how many copies we will need for the USA.

Limited edition of 200.

Finnish sound artist Juho Toivonen’s release, Taivaskanava, is an evocative exploration of sonic atmospheres and liminal spaces. Released on cassette by Grapefruit Records, this composition employs a sparse yet intimate palette—piano, acoustic guitar, tape loops, and ethereal vocals—to create a soundscape that feels at once deeply grounded in materiality and profoundly otherworldly. The title itself is rich with meaning, offering an interpretive framework through which we can begin to understand the work's layered complexity.

In Finnish, “taivas” holds a dual meaning, signifying both “heaven” and “sky,” blurring the lines between the divine and the celestial. Paired with “kanava,” meaning “channel” or “canal,” the title Taivaskanava translates roughly to "sky channel" or "heaven’s channel." The image conjured here is one of mediation—between earthly realms and the metaphysical, between human perception and the ineffable. It suggests that the work is not merely a sonic artifact but a portal, a space through which listeners might engage in a process of transcendence or spiritual attunement.

Conceptually, Taivaskanava operates as a meditation on the idea of channeling—both in the metaphysical sense of accessing higher planes of existence, and in the sonic sense of navigating through different frequencies or layers of sound. The notion of "skipping channels" is crucial here, as the work does not settle into any one sonic identity for too long. Instead, it moves fluidly between states, embodying the elusive and fleeting nature of transcendental experiences. There is a ruggedness to this sonic movement, a refusal to smooth over the cracks and fissures that appear as one oscillates between the terrestrial and the celestial.

Taivaskanava is an ambitious and deeply affecting work that engages with themes of time, spirituality, and the limits of human perception. Toivonen’s delicate interplay of acoustic and electronic elements, coupled with his subtle manipulation of sound and silence, creates a work that feels both meditative and disorienting. It invites the listener into a space where the boundaries between the physical and the metaphysical blur, and where sound becomes a vehicle for exploring the vast, unknowable spaces of the sky, of heaven, and of the self. Through its fragmented, recursive structure, Taivaskanava evokes a sense of being out of time, caught between worlds—an auditory "channel" that gestures toward the divine without ever fully arriving.