The saxophonist and composer Eero Koivistoinen, who turned 70 this winter, is going through an exceptionally creative phase in his career. Koivistoinen celebrated his birthday together with the jazz orchestra UMO (Uuden Musiikin Orkesteri, New Music Orchestra), which he took part in founding in the mid-seventies. The orchestra played four concert hall dates with Koivistoinen at the helm both as conductor and solo saxophonist, and decided to join forces in the studio as well. Arctic Blues was recorded in Helsinki this winter and mixed and mastered in Power Sound Studio, Amsterdam. The album is a showcase of Koivistoinen's talents as composer, arranger, saxophonist as well as conductor, conducting one of the most remarkable European big bands of today. Arctic Blues is a behemoth of an album, spread over two CDs and three LPs, being the first Finnish jazz record of such magnitude. After founding UMO 40 years ago together with Esko Linnavalli and Heikki Sarmanto, Koivistoinen has often worked with the orchestra, and also acted as its director for a few years in the 1990s. Arctic Blues consists of mostly new material, recorded in the winter of 2016, but also features three tracks from a live session at UMO Concert House in 2005. The album has big band renditions of Koivistoinen's past work as well as material written for this record in mind.