Tag: composition

  • Don’t be restless

    Don’t be restless

    Yesterday I saw a quote from Tove Jansson in my social media feed. It was a short and frankly a quite forgettable quote that would be easy to pass without even noticing it but for some reason it resonated strongly with me in all of its simplicity and optimism.
    The last couple of years I’ve been really thinking a lot about time: everything between seconds and years and eons. This has led me to do all kinds of music experiments: polytempo, dynamic time, irregular rhythms, too slow or too fast tempos, parallel moving tempos… Weird stuff. Not very easy to dance to.
    As exciting, inspiring and awesome I’ve personally found these experiments, I’ve been very well aware of the practical problem tied to this kind of non-commercial music. I’m trying to make my living with music after all…
    Anyway, today I got a phone call from YLE (Finnish Broadcast Company) that they are making a new radioshow about time. ”Could you make some weird, funny music where time behaves in a strange way?”
    Yes. You called the right guy!
    Can’t help but laugh how Tove Jansson’s stoic optimism feels so spot on.
    ”Don’t be restless. Things will usually fall in their right places if you’re patient.”

  • Our sound poem nominated at Shortdox 2020

    Some good news during the pandemic! Some months ago me and the poet Kaija Rantakari made a project based on Kaija’s poem Suutelen sinua / I kiss you, and now it has been chosen in the finals at Shortdox 2020 run by The Finnish Broadcast Company (Yle).

    The audio poem was originally released online together with an artist’s book I helped Kaija to create (Kaija is also a master bookbinder and book artist).

    On the sound poem Kaija reads her text (which is a poetic collection of real kisses, represented by lines starting with “I kiss you…”) in multiple voices that I layered upon each other and composed together with a minimalist electronic ambient composition.

    The original version is five and a half minutes long, but for the competition I made a radio edit of just under three minutes. You can listen to the long version at www.suutelensinua.com, where you can also order the Finnish-English bilingual artist’s book — if there are any copies left! The competition version is available along other finalists at Yle.fi.

    The finals take place in September 2020.

  • Olen jossain (I’m Somewhere) wins at Koura Awards

    Last week I was working with the young people in Sipoo with Gutsy Go so I couldn’t attend the award gala, but on thursday night a friend sent me a fairly cryptic message, which made me suspect our documentary had won something. Next morning I learned that Olen jossain (“I’m Somewhere”), the multimedia documentary about memory loss was awarded the main prize in the category of best documentaries (along with the tv documentary Operaatio Alaska)!

    Koura is awarded to the best tv, radio and web productions in Finland.

    This is from the website (https://www.koulutusrahastokoura.fi/palkinnot/palkitut/2017/):

    DOKUMENTIT JA JOURNALISTISET SISÄLLÖT -SARJAN KOURA-PALKINNOT

    Olen jossain
    15 000 euroa

    Kanava: Yle TV1, Yle Radio1, yle.fi
    Tuotanto: Yle Asia, Dokumentit

    Palkitaan: Tuula Rajavaara, Kirsi Kukkurainen, Marja Söderlund, Teemu Kokkonen, Lauri Wuolio, Viivi Berghem,  Kai Rantala, Tiina Klemettilä, Hannu Karisto,  Ari Lehikoinen

    Tämän tuotannon sisältö ei jätä ketään kylmäksi. Se myös koskettaa yhä suurempaa osaa suomalaisista, joko oman itsensä tai läheisen kautta. Miltä tuntuu kun arki ei enää suju tai se saa jopa tragikoomisia piirteitä. Miltä tuntuu kun äiti ei enää muista edes syödä ilman muistilappua. Muistisairaan ihmisen ja hänen läheisensä maailmaa avataan poikkeuksellisen onnistuneesti Olen jossain -dokumentissa. Dokumentti on moniulotteinen ja vuorovaikutteinen kokonaisuus: nettisivusto, valokuvanäyttely-tapahtuma, tv- ja radiodokumentit.

    I’m happy! The project was meaningful to me personally as it gave me a chance to reflect on my own experience with memory disease in my family.

    Check out the documentary at YLE/Finnish Broadcasting Company website!

    Read more about my music in the documentary by clicking here.