Influenced at first by Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King, Raoul progressed gradually from Frank Zappa to John McLaughlin and John Coltrane, finding great inspiration in the highly charged expression of their music. Jazz guitar lessons in New York City whetted his thirst for more knowledge, leading him to study first at the Helsinki Conservatory, then at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which he graduated in 1981. Moving back to Helsinki, he became part of a very active jazz scene.

Raoul began to find his own way, drawing from experiences playing in jazz, Cuban and Senegalese bands. He teamed up with like-spirited artists Jone Takamäki, Tom Nekljudow, Antti Hytti and Jarmo Savolainen for the Roommushklahn, a group devoted to electric improvising in a personal idiom drawing strongly from world ethnic music. He also continued his work with Arbuusi, a pugnacious trio with Nekljudow and the bassist Toppo Isopuro, which was founded already in 1976. These activities led to several important years of apprenticeship with the Finnish maestro of free jazz, Edward Vesala, whose uncompromising attitude and brilliant drumming acted as a pivotal force in Raoul's development. Rehearsal sessions legendary for their intensity and gigs with Vesala's band, Sound & Fury, served as exhilarating post-graduate study. Raoul recorded three albums with Vesala, among them "Lumi" for ECM. In 1985, Vesala, Björkenheim and the trombonist Jari Hongisto formed a trio as a satellite of S&F, with a mission to create a fireworks of improvised energy. This band was called Krakatau.

After several concerts, the original trio disbanded, leaving Raoul to assemble a group on his own. Varying between a trio and a sextet, Krakatau featured many of Finlandâs finest improvisors such as Jorma Tapio, Tapani Rinne, Jone Takamäki, Sampo Lassila, Uffe Krokfors, Lefty Lehto, Ippe Kätkä, Affe Forsman, Tom Nekljudow, Toppo Isopuro and the Canadian Michel Lambert, all of them responsible for the groupâs great popularity 1986-1996.Ê Two independently produced records opened the way for a flurry of concerts abroad and at home, confirming Raoulâs reputation as an innovator on his guitar. Rumor spread into Europe, and in the early 1990«s Krakatau recorded two albums for ECM. These were instrumental in making Björkenheim more well-known outside his homeland thanks to several European tours and a positive critical response in the international press. Reviews regularly included such expressions as shamanistic, ritualistic and poetic to describe the expressive qualities of the music.

As Björkenheim's sound reached foreign shores, new collaborators started calling. In 1996, Paul Schütze, the Australian composer and conceptualist, contacted Raoul for recording "Site Anubis" with a band called Phantom City, which featured Bill Laswell. The ensuing CD led to performances at several European festivals, and their concert at the Tampere Jazz Happening with Toshinori Kondo became the bandâs second CD, "Shiva Recoil". Two later concerts unleashed the awesome twin bass section of Jah Wobble and Bill Laswell. Raoul freelanced a lot on his own, participating in two European Improvisor's seminars, gigging with Nicky Skopelitisâ Ekstasis, recording a CD with Skopelitis called "Revelator":, traveling to Oakland to record "Palace of Love" with Henry Kaiser, performing Rachmaninoffâs "Vocalise" with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and performing Turnageâs "Blood on the Floor" with the Avanti Chamber Orchestra. All the while, Raoul continuously added to another body of work: his compositions.

Throughout the years, Björkenheim fulfilled many commissions, resulting in three suites for big band, an ambitious work for electric guitar orchestra and three pieces for symphony orchestra. The most recent, a concerto for electric guitar, violin and Orchestra titled "Situations", premiered in 2002 to outstanding critical and popular acclaim. Raoulâs efforts have been rewarded by a string of prizes and grants, among them the Young Finland Prize, the Emma prize (Finnish ã"Grammy"), Best Finnish Jazz Musician of the Year and two nominations for the Nordic Music Prize. Most of his composing goes to creating material for small groups and for solo guitar.

Moving to New York City in 2001, Raoul played for nearly a year with the sensational Ethiopian singer, Gigi, whose new album had been produced by Bill Laswell. Gigi's band played in many cities in the U.S.A., ranging from Boulder, Colorado, to New Orleans and Atlanta. In 2002, Raoul crossed the Atlantic to record and perform with the Scorch Trio, featuring the knock-out Norwegian rhythm section Paal Nilssen-Love and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Their first CD for Rune GrammofonÊ received rave reviews, and since then they have recorded two new albums for Rune.

One of the many red threads running through the fabric of Raoul's artistic life has been his ongoing commitment to teaching. For eight years he worked at the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, teaching guitar and leading an ensemble devoted to composing and recording the studentâs pieces using alternative musical vocabularies, striving to connect the conception/performance of each individual with his/her artistic ambitions.