Kulttuurin rahoitukseen esitetään nyt ennennäkemättömän suuria leikkauksia, jotka uhkaavat murentaa koko kulttuurielämän perustan. Sakset seis! on tekijöiden ja yleisön yhteinen hätähuuto taiteen ja kulttuurin puolesta. Se koostuu Suuresta kulttuuriadressista 1.10.–4.12.2024 sekä mielenilmauksesta 5.12., jonka yhteydessä adressi allekirjoituksineen luovutetaan maan päättäjille.
Suuren kulttuuriadressin voi allekirjoittaa adressit.com -palvelussa 4.12. saakka (linkki lopussa). Suuri kulttuuriadressi luovutetaan päättäjille itsenäisyyspäivän aattona 5.12. Helsingissä Kansalaistorilla. Luovutustilaisuus on julkinen mielenilmaus, johon kootaan laaja joukko osallistujia.
Taide ja kulttuuri kuuluvat kansalaisten perusoikeuksiin, eikä niistä voi leikata ilman radikaaleja seurauksia. Kulttuurilla ja taiteella on ollut keskeinen rooli kansakunnan syntymisessä ja sen yhdistäjänä. Taiteen ja kulttuurin merkitys korostuu erityisesti vaikeina aikoina.
Hallituksen esittämät lyhytnäköiset leikkaukset vaarantavat koko kulttuurialan toiminnan. Taustalla on vuosia jatkuneet kulttuurileikkaukset joiden jatkoksi tulevat uudet leikkaukset hajottavat paikallisen ja valtakunnallisen perustan tuottaa kulttuuria ja taidetta. Poikki taiteenkentän taidelaitokset ja ryhmittymät ovat joutuneet keskelle muutosneuvotteluja, kaupunkien ja kuntien kulttuurin harrastustoimintaa karsitaan, kollektiivien ja ryhmien on lopetetava toiminta koska ilman tukea on mahdoton jatkaa.
Kulttuurin ja taiteen yleisö, tekijät ja organisaatiot vaativat nyt yhdessä Suurella kulttuuriadressilla leikkauksien perumista. Adressin allekirjoittamiseen kehotetaan kaikkia kulttuurin ystäviä. Yhteinen huoli yhdistää suomalaiset kulttuurialan toimijat laajaksi rintamaksi.
Adressi on saatavilla suomeksi, ruotsiksi, englanniksi ja pohjoissaameksi. Sosiaalisessa mediassa adressia jaetaan tunnistein #SaksetSeis ja #SuuriKulttuuriadressi. Sakset seis -kampanjan järjestävät Forum Artis ja Mitta on täysi -työryhmä.
Tom Lönnqvist, modulaarisyntetisaattori / modular synthesizer
Annika Fuhrmann is a versatile singer, musician, and sound artist, who is most at home in the fields of experimental music theater, sound art, improvisation, and contemporary music. Annika has premiered several works composed for her and has performed in interdisciplinary projects with artists from various fields. At the moment, she is drawn to honesty, roughness, incompleteness, and vulnerability in music making instead of technical perfection. Annika is eager to experiment with new working methods and constantly seeks new ways to express herself. This has also led to collaboration with Tom Lönnqvist.
Tom Lönnqvist is a sound, space, and performance artist based in Helsinki. He holds a master’s degree in sound and has been part of several acclaimed dance and theater productions. Tom’s artistic work includes working with body, modular synthesis, video, installation, painting, drums, and ambisonic field recordings. Collaboration with Annika Fuhrmann has emerged from an interest in exploring the potential of modulating the human voice as part of instantaneous composition made with electronic modular synthesis.
The German electronic music label Mille Plateaux has released Annika’s and Tom’s debut performance Live at Asbestos Art Space.
Philip Holm: Tailor’s Fiddle and Qwerty Kantele Philip Holm performs solo with string instruments built from a sewing machine and a typewriter. The music of the tailor’s fiddle and qwerty kantele sets in a landscape of meditative ambient drawing inspiration from folk music, sound art and noise. Holm is a musician from Helsinki, who plays in bands such as Barlast, Oiro Pena and Buko Shane. In 2023, he released a solo album Trådlös, played on a tailor’s fiddle. https://philipholm.fi/ •°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•
Miio Holopainen: Violins, Viola. Miio Holopainen is interested in “failure” that can happen during bow turns and instruments that in their own ways fail as fiddles but have something special as individuals. Their music pays attention to small but significant changes, decay, details and slow ways of becoming another. Scarcity, coincidence, susurrus, fumbling, mundaneness, simplicity and dust are present. https://soundcloud.com/miio-holopainen
Vuotalo Cultural Centre, Mosaiikkitori 2, Helsinki
-Performers- Thursday, April 4 •CRACKLEBOX ORCHESTRA (Antti Auvinen, Petri Kuljuntausta, Juhani Liimatainen, and Juhani Nuorvala) •JUKKA KÄÄRIÄINEN •TMS (Tina M.K. Madsen, Malte Steiner)
Friday, April 5 •LAILA SKOVMAND & CARSTEN KÆR •JENS L. THOMSEN •PETRI KULJUNTAUSTA •IMPROV ORCHESTRA
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AKUSMATA POLYPHONIC 2024 is an intensive sound art and electronic music event at Vuotalo Cultural Centre in Helsinki. Invited musicians, composers and sound artists are offering for the audience a wide spectrum of new sonic expression from the fields of experimental & electronic music, sound art, improvisation and ambient. The program includes modular sound systems, do-it-yourself musical instruments, and improvised music with attitude. The event features performers from the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Germany and Finland.
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TMS TMS is an experimental electro-acoustic noise-performance project by the artists Malte Steiner and Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen. The format of the TMS project is improvisational performances built out of Steiner and Madsen’s sonic interactions, where noise-scapes and complex structures emerge. The tools used in each TMS work and performance can depart in custom software, synths and effect pedals, or self-built controllers, where inputs are analogue as well as digital; modulated, transformed, and distorted. The physical interactions with materials have since the beginning been a specific focus point for TMS, and to create a more performative and visual sound experience. At the Akusmata Polyphonic Festival, TMS will debut their new piece “Occurrences”. They have created a cybernetic system which registers and processes their sonic inputs coming from metal percussion and tactile resonance via piezo-microphones. The computer responds to their playing and calculates control data, not only for internal sound synthesis but also for an external modular synthesizer and real-time generated visuals. Website: https://www.block4.com/musicprojects/TMS/index.php •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
CRACKLEBOX ORCHESTRA Cracklebox (or kraakdoos) is a custom-made, a touch and pressure sensitive device that squeeks and makes incredible noises. Cracklebox is based on a single operational amplifier, one of the earliest models to be produced. The history of Cracklebox starts from the late-1960s, when Michel Waisvisz designed and built the very first Crackle circuit together with Geert Hamelberg. Later the Crackle boxes were produced at STEIM center for research and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. STEIM closed the doors in 2000 and the production of the original Crackleboxes ended. The Cracklebox Orchestra is a group of composers and sound artists who continue to explore the instrument’s potential as a group and come together to perform with the Crackleboxes. The concert features compositions by cracklebox musicians Antti Auvinen, Petri Kuljuntausta, Juhani Liimatainen, and Juhani Nuorvala. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Portrait taken by photographer Bardur Eklund.
JENS L. THOMSEN Jens L. Thomsen is a composer and sound artist from the Faroe Islands. He has a BA in Music Technology from University of West London as well as an MSc in Acoustics from London South Bank University. His work often explores the relationship between art and technology. Notable sound works include NORÐ which was commissioned by the Southbank Centre and exhibited at Royal Festival Hall in London, Føroyar 5.2 which with the use of seismic technology allowed him to play on mountains as if they were instruments, and the Æðr soundscape which is transmitted in a Faroese subsea tunnel using FM signals. His main artistic outlet is through the project ORKA which he started 10 years ago by building homemade instruments out of found objects on a farm on the Faroe Islands. ORKA has twice been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Award. Jens spends a lot of time producing in the studio and is credited on close to a hundred releases. At the moment he tours as part of Yann Tiersen’s live band. On February 2, 2024 Jens released the groundbreaking EP ÆÐR via Kervið. ÆÐR (meaning ‘vein’ in English) is a uniquely atmospheric two-track EP, exploring modernity and post-war freedom through a Faroese lens. Commissioned for Eysturoyartunnil, a 12km subsea tunnel – the largest of its kind – in Jens’ native Faroe Islands, a structural marvel with striking art that has both a voice and aesthetic identity of its own. The EP currently lives as a live audio installation, broadcast around the clock on FM radio for anyone travelling through the tunnel. This is the first time a soundscape has been permanently installed and broadcast via this kind of technical solution allowing the sound to become part of the experience of the space itself. At the Akusmata Polyphonic concert, Jens will be performing the piece on stage. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Image by Juho Liukkonen
PETRI KULJUNTAUSTA Petri Kuljuntausta compose electronic music, improvises as a guitarist and with electronic instruments, plays with animals and birds, makes underwater performances and performs in different natural spaces with environmental sounds. He has a long career as an experimental electronic musician and sound artist. Kuljuntausta is currently working on two new projects. He develops the technique of how to play with nature and animals, without disturbing their sound processes. He is currently composing a new opera and writing a book about the subject of the opera. The Akusmata Polyphonic concert will feature his new works and improvisations. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
LAILA SKOVMAND & CARSTEN KÆR DUO Laila Skovmand and Carsten Kær started working together in 1996 and since then their paths have met in a variety of setups. Latest was in the 28-hour “Red List Concert” in September 2023 in Aarhus, where they were on stage for 28 hours, challenging perception of time and setting focus on endangered species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Akusmata Polyphonic features free improvisations from two collaborators who have been making music together for a long time. Music is created at the moment of performance. The audience witnesses how the musicians find open possibilities in the space between the piano and the voice. Laila Skovmand, voice The backbone of Laila Skovmand’s artistic work is a boundless curiosity and open-mindedness giving impetus for vocal and compositional inventions. As a singer and composer she deliberately places herself in the gap between genres and media. From here she explores the liminal states of human experience in order to question and challenge assumptions and narrowed perspectives. Laila Skovmand is artistic director of Between Music and is the creator of the underwater concert AquaSonic where she has invented a new underwater vocal technique. Laila graduated as a singer from the Royal Academy of Music Denmark and from Roy Hart International Voice center in France. She also holds an Advanced Postgraduate Soloist Diploma from the Royal Academy of Music as performative composer. Carsten Kær, grand piano Carsten Kær is an award-winning Danish jazz pianist and composer. First and foremost he is a curious improviser, influenced by contemporary classical music. He is also deeply connected to the cornucopia of World Music, Cuban and Brazilian music, and Indian konnakol. Carsten is “a lyrical dreamer who opens our inner landscapes with his surprising soundscapes and leads us by forgotten paths to an untouched place within ourselves.” He is initially self-taught, but graduated from RMB at the Royal Academy of Music in Århus in 1998 and has since been traveling the world, collaborating and recording with numerous well-known artist. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Portrait by Kamilla Śladowska
JUKKA KÄÄRIÄINEN Jukka Kääriäinen is a musician focused on experimental music. Depending on the situation, Jukka’s instruments of choice include an acoustic guitar with preparations or an electric guitar with a bag full of effects. Kääriäinen has performed in many European countries and at international festivals in the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. In addition to solo concerts, he regularly performs in bands and has collaborated with many leading European improvisers such as Teppo Hauta-Aho, Kalle Kalima, Harri Sjöström, Axel Dörner, Kriton Beyer, Rieko Okuda, Anil Eraslan, Mikko Innanen, and Joel Grip, premiering works by composers such as Riikka Talvitie, Sebastian Hilli, Sami Klemola, Clara de Asis, and Tytti Arola. At Akusmata Pollyphonic, Jukka will perform pieces for solo electric guitar. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
IMPROV ORCHESTRA The two-day event ends with a joint improvisation performed by the musicians present. Acoustic and electronic instruments are heard on stage, sound and tone, acoustic vibration and electric signal, ambient and rhythm meet in the performance. Whatever the musician’s instrument and sound source, the common denominator for performers is creating a meaningful performance by listening to others and reacting to their playing. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Timo Pyhälä: Modified short scale upright bass-violin, piezo mic in saddle!
with Kaisa Kukkonen & Jussi Ulkuniemi: dance
FML-duon musiikki on avantgardea, joka syntyy vapaasta improvisaatiosta ja nykymusiikin aineksista.
Molemmilla soittajilla on kymmenien vuosien kokemus esiintymisistä useissa eri kokoonpanoissa, ja eri tyylilajeista, konserteissa ja festivaaleilla.
Muun muassa John Cagen sävellysseminaarissa Viitasaarella 1983 törmättiin moniin haasteisiin: melu, hitaus, hiljaisuus, päällekkäisiä rytmejä, tahtilajin ja sävellajin puuttuminen, ääniä nuottien välimaastossa, preparoidut instrumentit, epätyypilliset äänet ja -tekniikat…
Free Music Lowersin soitossa on ennustamattomuutta, spontaaneja rakenteita ja rakenteettomuuksia. Jos sallit, ne voivat rentouttaa ja viedä mielen syvälle alitajunnan rajapintaan. Tervetuloa yhteiselle sisäavaruuden matkalle!
Record release: Inner Space Travel Music for (Free Music) Lovers:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=jnoktWQShmM
Kaisa Kukkonen & Jussi Ulkuniemi – tanssi
Tanssijat tuovat esitykseen kontakti-improvisaation liikekielen, joka perustuu fyysiseen kontaktiin, fysiikan lakeihin kuten painovoimaan ja kitkaan ja reagoimiseen siihen mitä on läsnä. He improvisoivat kosketuksella, läheisyydellä ja liikkeellä. Kontakti-improvisaatio on postmoderni tanssilaji, joka on alkanut 1960 ja -70 -luvuilla vapaan improvisaation ja muun muassa John Cagen vaikuttamisen aikaan Pohjois-Amerikassa.
1. [ówt krì]
2. Sounds from the Marshes
3. Vomitriste
[ówt krì] is a dark ambient project from Helsinki, Finland, weaving abstract soundscapes and dark sound textures that explore the darkest corners of humanity and the mind. The soundscapes are organic compositions that are created with sound looping, effects and DIY instruments of his own making.
www.owtkri.org
Sounds From The Marshes is a solo ambient/post-rock solo project started in 2013 by an Italian artist moved to Finland, consisting exclusively of guitar loops enriched with reverbs and delays.
soundsfromthemarshes.bandcamp.com
Vomitriste is a Finnish drone noise/dark ambient duo coining together massive evocative walls of sound and hypnotic visuals. The pair has been involved in mutual musical endeavours for years, and Vomitriste first saw the light of day in the summer of 2022 after other exhausting recording bouts led to an improvised session with analog synths on a quiet Sunday afternoon. After discovering themselves anew amidst dynamic freeform sonics, E & E knew right there on the spot that it needed to be turnt into a full-fledged band aimed at aural and visual exploration and experimentation without further boundaries.
With the initial session leading the way, the duo then went on to record three more albums live, totaling to a four distinct records each with their own main motifs and themes. The first four albums came out in 2022, with the fifth effort “Pavor” coming out in May 2023. Each album has a visual projection counterpart running throughout their full durations, each digging into different themes from the wonders of nature to ever-evolving captivating geometry, and from industrial hues to ritualistic notions, to name a few, and will be utilised in a live setting as well. Together, the projections paired with the music create an immersive and holistic
experience with a signature feel and an aesthetic unique to Vomitriste.
Bandcamp, Youtube, and Instagram pages for Vomitriste can be all found at
linktr.ee/vomitriste
Filed Under: Live, Sound Works by pk — Comments Off on Improvised Music: Kriton Beyer, Libero Mureddu & Lauri Hyvärinen and Livia Schweizer & Jukka Kääriäinen
Kriton Beyer, Libero Mureddu & Lauri Hyvärinen
and Livia Schweizer & Jukka Kääriäinen
Two sets of improvised music at Akusmata Gallery
1. set Livia Schweizer & Jukka Kääriäinen
2. set Kriton Beyer & Lauri Hyvärinen
Friday 15.12.2023, 19:00 – 21:00
Livia Schweizer (b.1994) is a flutist, improvisor, researcher and educator. Born and raised in Italy, she is now based in Helsinki. She is known for her interest in improvisation and non-conventional music notation as a tool of bringing together creative souls from different backgrounds and cultures.
After graduating from the conservatory of Livorno in Mauro Rossi’s class, attracted by the contemporary music scene in Finland, Livia moved to Helsinki to study at Sibelius Academy with Mikael Helasvuo. Since moving to Helsinki Livia had the possibility to take part in several contemporary music and interdisciplinary projects with the Nyky-ensemble, Korvat Auki, the UMUU-ensemble, Eloa ry, Tampering and has performed in festivals such as the Flow Festival, Helsingin Juhlaviikot, the UNM Festival, Tulkinnanvaraista, Luosto Soi, Hiljaisuus Festival, Jauna Muzika (Lituania), Soundscapesberlin (Germany), and Musica Nova.
Currently a member of the European Composer Improvisers Orchestra, she is also part of the Helsinki-based Septad Ensemble focused on the concept of composing music on the spot. In addition to that, she is a co-founder of the Earth Ears Ensemble mostly dedicated to performing new music written by lesser-known composers. More infos: www.liviaschweizer.com
Jukka Kääriäinen is a musician and sound artist based in Helsinki Finland. Jukka is specialized in the field of experimental music and arts and is an active performer in the Finnish scene of improvised and contemporary music. Jukka is a member of contemporary music ensemble Sähkökitarakvartetti. He has collaborated with musicians such as Teppo Hauta-Aho, Kalle Kalima, Harri Sjöström, Emilio Gordoa, Elena Kakaliagou, Rieko Okuda, Antti Virtaranta, Anil Eraslan, Mikko Innanen, Kriton Beyer and Roomet Jakapi and premiered pieces by composers such as Sebastian Hilli, Riikka Talvitie, Sami Klemola, Clara de Asis and Tytti Arola.
Kriton Beyer is a Greek-German musician and composer, who – as a performer and improviser – mainly works with the harmonium and the daxophone. He studied musicology in Greece where he collaborated with a variety of local music groups as well as musicians like Sakis Papadimitriou and Floros Floridis. In 2004 he moved to Berlin, where he got heavily involved in the improvised music scene of the city. Since then he has worked with many musicians like Phil Minton, Audrey Chen, Steve Noble, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Axel Dörner, Liz Kosack, Kresten Osgood, Tristan Honsinger, Tomomi Adachi, Richard Scott, Willi Kellers, Matthias Bauer, Antonis Anissegos, Olaf Rupp, Alexei Borisov, Els Vandeweyer, Harri Sjöström, Nicola Hein and Liz Allbee, dancers like Yuko Kaseki and visual artists like Akiko Nakayama. Kriton Beyer founded the “FRAGMENTATION ORCHESTRA“, is a member of the electroacoustic trio “uproot” and the ensembles “Redox Reaction” and FDBK EXPT. In his work with the harmonium, Kriton Beyer uses both the natural sound of his instrument and “traditional” playing techniques as well as preparations, objects and extended techniques, while his daxophone play is characterized by a very personal musical and sonic aesthetic, and an unconventional technique, sometimes also supported by the subtle use of electronics. As an improvising musician, he has performed throughout Europe. His compositions are usually characterized by conceptualism. Kriton Beyer has also conceived and commissioned the music software CinePrompt®, which was specially developed for the use for live musical performance and live recording to films. Kriton Beyer also curates and manages the concert series and record label “THE PROCRUSTEAN BED”, dedicated to Experimental & Improvised Music.
Libero Mureddu, born in Milan in 1975 and based in Helsinki since 2003, he has studied composition at the Conservatory “G. Verdi” of Milan and music technology at the Centre for Music and Technology, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. He is currently doing his artistic doctorate at the MuTri Doctoral School at the Sibelius Academy. In his research, Libero Mureddu investigates the role of embodied knowledge in a free improvisation performance, and how this knowledge can be observed, analysed, and used to develop free improvisation languages. Libero Mureddu’s doctorate is generously supported by the Kone Foundation. Since 2009 Libero Mureddu is the general manager of the NYKY Ensemble, the contemporary music ensemble of the Sibelius Academy. The NYKY Ensemble is nowadays considered as an important member of the Finnish contemporary music scene. Active as a teacher, he teaches free and electroacoustic improvisation at the Sibelius Academy. Libero Mureddu is the Sibelius Academy’s representative of the METRIC (Modernising European Higher Music Education through Improvisation) project, a cooperative forum between several European conservatoires that focuses on curriculum development and cooperation in the field of improvisation in higher music education.
Lauri Hyvärinen (b. 1986, Helsinki) uses guitar as his main sound source. His sound and music related activities are of theoretical and practical nature, of which improvisation remains as his primary medium and interest. Hyvärinen utilises the possibilities of improvisation with minimalist structures in search for shared and intensified social and spatial constructions. His discography includes several solo and collaborative releases on labels in Japan, Europe and US, including ftarri, AKTI and Dinzu Artefacts. His latest solo release Cut Contexts, a series of multilocational and processual electroacoustic compositions was released in November 2021 by Intonema. He has toured and performed extensively across Europe, Japan and the US at venues and festivals such as Wien Modern, Cafe Oto, Fort Process, Rhizome, Fylkingen, Le Non Jazz, Mengi and Musica Nova, collaborating with artists such as Seijiro Murayama, Taku Sugimoto, Angharad Davies, Clara de Asís, Daichi Yoshikawa, Jone Takamäki and Ilia Belorukov. As part of Sähkökitarakvartetti, he has premiered music from composers such as Clara de Asís, Kalle Kalima, Sami Klemola, Meriheini Luoto, Laura Naukkarinen (Lau Nau) and Riikka Talvitie.
There is a tower by the sea. An artist is in a pocket of the tower, works, lives in the tower, is still in the tower. The tower speaks, the artist listens. In the night, when the tower is silent, the artist sings and the tower listens. In the night, when the tower is silent, the artist can hear the sea in her pocket.
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The Silence of Sea Tower is an auto fictional, site-specific sound art piece, painting a sonic portrait of a building and the liminal aural space between its inhabitants.
9 months of recordings, of the noisy silence in the artist’s studio, is released as soundscape on cassette tape. The work situates itself between ambient noise music, field recording and conceptual spatial art, curating an experience of a place and allowing that place to travel.
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The Silence of Sea Tower is performed as the concert iteration Narrative Noise, incorporating elements of storytelling and opening hidden, anthropomorphic aspects of the work.
The composition is deconstructed and reconstructed live, every performance presenting a unique version of the piece.
The concert is played by an orchestra of analogue tape players, each adding their own mechanical sounds and characteristics to the mix.
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This event is the second release party for The Silence of Sea Tower, self-released by Xenia Ramm / Merry Thorny Productions.
The tape can be purchased at the event.
Upcoming cassette performances:
22.9.23 / Levoton Tutkimus / Uniarts Fest -taidefestivaali, Taideyliopiston Kuvataideakatemia HKI
11.10.23 / The Silence of Sea Tower / Release #2 / Akusmata HKI
October / The Silence of Sea Tower / TBA CPH
