Iiro Rantala, Kaisa Mäensivu, and Morten Lund are set to release Trinity Edition Palmer III on November 14, 2025, via ACT Music. The piano–double bass–drums set presents the third entry in the Edition Palmer series, recorded at Château Palmer.
The lineup came together quickly. Rantala and Lund first collaborated for ACT in 2012 on My History of Jazz, and the pianist later crossed paths with Mäensivu at a Helsinki jam session during the COVID-19 period. The trio had not performed as a unit before the Château Palmer date.
The Edition Palmer concept favors first-meet chemistry over road-tested arrangements. Conceived by Château Palmer director Thomas Duroux and ACT CEO/producer Andreas Brandis, the series pairs artists for one-off sessions that echo the winery’s vintage-by-vintage approach.
The repertoire leans on standards, by design. Rantala frames the material with minimal arranging, seeking direct, song-first readings rather than reharmonized detours. Familiar titles such as “I Love You,” “Smile,” and “In A Sentimental Mood” appear on the set, with the last captured as a solo piano piece.
A nod to French popular heritage also appears. The trio interprets “Hymne à l’amour,” and Rantala and Mäensivu perform the lullaby “Fais Dodo, Colas Mon P’tit Frère” as a duet; Mäensivu recorded the piece while expecting her first child.
The session prioritized immediacy. Engineer Arnaud Houpert recorded the musicians together in a ground-floor salon, using a transparent screen to manage bleed while preserving an in-room feel. Most tunes wrapped within three takes. Four first takes made the final cut, with Brandis selecting alongside Rantala from the control room.
Trinity Edition Palmer III follows earlier Edition Palmer releases, Joachim Kühn & Michael Wollny’s Duo (2023) and Lars Danielsson’s trio session with Verneri Pohjola and John Parricelli (2024), and continues the project’s aim: distinctive, single-vintage encounters shaped by place, moment, and trust.