A Finnish-born guitarist based in Brooklyn, Olli Hirvonen has a raw, textural style that bridges his love of artful post-bop, fusion, and ambient noise rock. He first caught audiences' ears with his 2014 debut, Detachment. Since winning the 2016 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, he has deepened his approach, working with experimentalists like Brian Krock and leading his jazz-metal project Red Reiter trio. Hirvonen's own albums, like 2018's Displace and 2022's Kielo, are no less evocative, recalling the ECM recordings of Ralph Towner and dissonant shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine in equal measure.

Born in 1989 in Lappeenranta, Finland, Hirvonen started on guitar and piano at age nine, taking classical lessons. After high school, he attended Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, where he studied with jazz artists like Tim Hagans, Raoul Björkenheim, and Teemu Viinikainen. In 2011, he was nominated for Artist of the Year of the Pori Jazz Festival. That same year, he made the move to New York City and earned his master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music, focusing on jazz, as well as taking classical and electro-acoustic composition courses. In 2014, Hirvonen made his debut as leader with Detachment and toured as Performer of the Year for the Finlandia Foundation. In 2016, he gained wider prominence winning the Montreux Jazz Electric Guitar Competition. He has also contributed to projects by Brian Krock, Tarun Balani's Dharma, and more.

Along with his solo work, Hirvonen co-founded the edgy jazz and metal project Red Reiter with bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell. In addition, the same lineup performs more jazz-oriented material under the name New Helsinki with pianist Luke Marantz. It was also with Red Reiter that Hirvonen recorded his sophomore full-length, 2019's Displace. In 2022, he pared the group down to a trio for the atmospheric Kielo. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi