Bloom & Gloom is an Äänen Lumo organised event that brings interesting sonic acts with various approaches to your ears from near and far. Come bask in the gloom and smell the flowers!
Time 13.6., doors at 19.00 Place Toinen Kerros (Nokiantie 2-4) Price: 5-10-15 e, pay what you can
Peter J. Woods (UK) OTOTOMY Sirpa Kalla GUNK
Peter J. Woods is a scholar and artist with a deep interest in experimental music, DIY arts communities, and communal knowledge production. His work pulls equally from the worlds of harsh noise and absurdist theatre. The performances build a sense of terror from simple imagery, muted text and an unpredictable barrage of silence and sound. Woods utilizes these approaches within a critical context, building on his scholarly work to challenge oppressive formations embedded within the musical contexts he finds himself in.
OTOTOMY is the noise project of East Helsinki–based artist Matti Närekangas, born out of frustration with music as a form of expression. For OTOTOMY, sound holds meaning regardless of how it’s made. Blending analog elements, unusual recordings, and digital manipulation, he crafts chaotic soundscapes inspired by Engelbert Humperdinck, flying squirrels, escalators, death, the fear of abandonment and the ecstasy from observation of life. OTOTOMY has self-released two EPs HARD2BEGOD (2022) and FAILURE (2024) as well as the split NO SUGAR (2024) with Sasanian.
Sirpa Kalla was born in 2024 in Portugal, in the dunes of Adraga. She thrives on unintentionally generated sounds, the atmosphere of old industrial areas and the roughness and rasp of rust and debris. Sirpa Kalla cuts random loops from cassettes found in the streets and abandoned buildings, combining them with minimalist synths and contact mic’d objects.
GUNK is a group that has been active since 2011, their performance usually consists of drones, metallic scraping and raw minimalism, all wrapped up into conceptual improvisation. This is their first performance since 2019. Their new album “Hard” will be out summer 2025.
Summer starts (yes, it’s summer) with hissing, screeching and snarling with this double feature in Toinen kerros. Bringing together Violent Shogun from Bordeaux, France who has released exquisite murky material under many pseudonyms and Keränen, who has been dubbed (among other things) as “the unsung hero of 00’s Mego-crew” and a “Finnish noise legend”. Probably needless to say that the evening will be a treat for those who enjoy the noisier side of things.
Violent Shogun, from Bordeaux, France, has been creating his ambient noise since 2017, drawing influences as much from hissy tape murk or electronic waveforms as from the concrete chaos made by mishandled amplified objects. Many of these experimentations based on damaged drones, disintegrating tape loops, creaking metal or disrupted electronic feedback have since been captured on various tapes or CDs released by labels like Satatuhatta (Finland), Angst (Italy), Absurd Exposition (Canada), Buried In Slag And Debris (Canada).
Keränen has been making experimental electronic music since the late 1990s. His work focuses on rudimentary live electronics, feedback, and improvisation. He primarily modes are vivid harsh noise and minimal electronic drones. In addition to his solo projects, he is a member of Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, Testicle Hazard, Pymathon, The Truckfuckers, and Gentle Evil. His discography includes around three dozen releases, ranging from cryptic underground tapes to more acclaimed works, such as the “Bats in the Attic” CD, which was a critic’s pick in The Wire in 2010. Keränen has performed extensively around the world and has collaborated with artists like Lasse Marhaug, Florian Hecker, Incapacitants, and many others.
Welcome to the Äänen Lumo concert in Toinen kerros!
This time we are excited to have John Chantler performing solo with electronics. Another intriguing performance will be done by Andrea Mancianti who will present his work, “I am lost” which explores feedback of resonating systems.
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John Chantler is a musician and organiser living in Stockholm, Sweden working with synthesis and exploring the aesthetic implications of different infrastructure for electronic music performance. Originally from Australia he spent a decade in London before moving to Sweden in 2014 where he has directed an annual festival for ‘other music’ in Stockholm called Edition and runs Fönstret — releasing music by local artists and surfacing material from the festival’s archives.
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Andrea Mancianti is a composer, performer and sound artist mostly devoted to experimental sonic arts. He studied composition and music technology and completed the IRCAM Cursus in Paris (2013-2014). Currently he’s a Doctoral candidate in the department of Media, of Aalto University, Helsinki, researching how an ecosystemic approach to technology could contribute to a networked, collective understanding of artistic activity in Sonic practices.
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Time: Monday 19.05.2024 at 19.00 (doors 18:30) Place: Toinen kerros, Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki Price: 5-10-15 e
Sunday 18.05. Starts at 16.00 In Toinen Kerros (Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki)
Microtonal composer Sebastian Dumitrescu will perform his newest piece, ”Arrhythmia”. ”Arrhythmia” is an attempt at finding expressive harmony in the tuning system of 31 equal divisions of the octave. It is an interactive composition that uses live electronics, where both the performer and the computer react to the notes that the other one is playing.
The concert will also feature a semi-improvised performance in Just Intonation by Dumitrescu and guitarist Mark Reid Bulatović.
Welcome on the 8th of May to discuss the past year, and the future of our common sonic art space in Vallila.
This May marks one year since Äänen Lumo started renting the space which is now known as Toinen Kerros.
After the renovation and preparations of the space, now it has been seven months since the activities started, and there have been more than 30 different events, including concerts, exhibitions, discussions, workshops, rehearsals and more informal gatherings in Toinen Kerros. These have been organised by over 20 organisers, both associations and individuals.
In the meantime we, as volunteers, have been working hard to make the space what it is now, and to support and facilitate its activities. We learned a lot and we feel it is time for a moment of shared reflection and discussion on these past months and future possibilities.
We would like to invite you to participate to an open discussion on this first season and share some ideas for the future of this space! We welcome all organisers, artists and audience alike, who have been contributing to Toinen Kerros’ existence, as well as those who are just interested in the topic.
We will offer coffee and some refreshments. Welcome!
Thursday, the 8th of May at 17:00 Toinen Kerros, Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki
Toinen Kerros is a fully volunteer-led, low treshold, DIY space for presenting, practicing, and encountering sonic art practices. Toinen kerros is founded and currently facilitated by the association Äänen Lumo, and it aims to function as a community space. Most of the rent and running expenses are covered by grant from Kone Foundation for three years, and during this time we aim to experiment ways to operate and plan for a possible future.
Welcome to the concert of Judith Hamann at Äänen Lumo´s Toinen kerros!
Judith Hamann is performer/composer from Naarm/Melbourne who has long been recognized one of Australia’s foremost contemporary cellists, and as a composer who “destroys the fiction of the musician who lives and works outside conventional parameters”. Their performance spans through various genres, including elements of contemporary classical, improvised and even pop music.
In their recent research, Judith examines the acts of shaking and humming as formal and intimate encounters. They look at collapse as a generative imaginary surface; and explore the de-mastering of bodies, both human and non-human, in settler-colonial heritage instrumental practice and pedagogy.
Judith enjoys thinking and working with other artists which including Marja Ahti, Charles Curtis, Sarah Hennies, Anike Joyce Sadiq, Éliane Radigue, and La Monte Young. Judith has released their music on labels such as Blank Forms, Black Truffle, Longform Editions, SUPERPANG and Another Timbre.
+ Marloes van Son Marloes van Son creates atmospheric soundscapes with synths, clarinet, vocals, field recordings and occasional crude beats. She is inspired by interactions between humans and technology, which she explores through everyday sounds, objects and situations. www.marloesvanson.nl
Time: Sunday 13.04. at 15.00 Place: Toinen kerros, Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki Price: 7-10-15 e
Welcome to the Finnish debut performance of the Berlin-based duo TRANSSONIC!
Date: Sunday 16.2.2025 Start time: 19:00 Venue: Äänen Lumo, Nokiantie 2-4, Helsinki Tickets: 5-10€ (door)
Transsonic (Viola Yip and Nicola L. Hein) is a Berlin-based transmedia duo. Since 2018, they have been joining forces to develop new works at the intersection of instrument building, incorporating new technologies and developing embodied performance with sound and light. They create immersive site-specific performances and installations bridging the vibrations of light and sound. Trained as musicians, both look into the ontology of sound and how musical experience can be transformed beyond its common material—sound. For their artistic research project Transsonic, they explore light as an expanded musical material. They research and create performances, improvising between lights and sounds as equally essential but dialectical musical materials.
They have been commissioned by Next Festival Bratislava, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Seanaps Festival Leipzig, and Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. They have also presented at New York University, Experimental Intermedia (NYC), CCRMA at Stanford University, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Sonic Lab in SARC at Queen’s University Belfast, Huddersfield, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, AIMC Conference at Oxford University, New Interface and Musical Expression (NIME) conference in Shanghai and Utrecht, Gare du Nord and Academy of Music Basel, Academy of Music Luzern, Klex Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong Arts Center, De Tanker in Amsterdam, Musikhochschule Lübeck, Blurred Edges Festival in Hamburg, Alte Feuerwache in Köln, Experimentik Berlin and Radialsystem Berlin.
Join us for an exceptional concert at the Äänen Lumo, featuring an international line up of METRIC teachers together with members of the Finnish improvisation community.
METRIC is an international network of several leading European conservatoires, dedicated to advancing improvisation teaching in higher music education. While many of its members are active in the broader improvisation scene, this concert aims to connect with the Finnish creative community, especially those not affiliated with any institution, which is often the case in free improvisation communities. The Sibelius Academy is a member of the Metric network.
Äänen Lumo association promotes experimental sonic arts in Finland, and faciliates interaction, communality and exchange between artists, associations and collectives.
Äänen Lumo Space is a new community-driven, low threshold, DIY space for presenting, practicing, and encountering sound based art practices.
Further information: Anna Huuskonen-Kuhlefelt, anna.huuskonen-kuhlefelt@uniarts.fi
METRIC 2025 Helsinki
The Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki hosts the annual Intensive international improvisation week as member of the METRIC Improvisation Network. The programme features workshops in groups, masterclasses, discussion moments and concerts. Read more about the METRIC network: https://metricimpro.eu/
Äänen Lumo warmly welcomes you to a Seijiro Murayama 2-day residence on Dec 7-8. The main focus is a collective improvisation workshop led by Murayama, open to anyone with an interest in improvisation. In addition, Murayama will perform solo on Sat Dec 7 and on Sun Dec 8 a public workshop performance takes place.
Workshop contents:
1. group improvisations – trying some methods only to share the space and time 2. physical exercises to activate our perceptions – working on breath, voice, walking – experiencing a dynamic way of listening 3. playing solos 4. trying some rules (based on permutations etc) to improvise collectively 5. improvising with no specific rules, then with participant initiatives
Schedule:
Sat Dec 7 15h-18h Workshop day 1 19h Seijiro Murayama solo performance
Sun Dec 8 12h-15h Workshop day 2 16h Workshop public performance
TICKETS (find them HERE) Workshop fee: 20 € Seijiro Murayama solo: 5 – 10 € Workshop public performance: free
Seijiro Murayama is a percussion-vocal improviser, born in 1957 in Nagasaki, Japan. He has been working within the field of improvisation since 1980. He toured the USA with Keiji Haino as part of the seminal psychedelic band Fushitsusha. Returning to Japan after a period in NYC he continued playing drums and electronics in K.K. Null‘s noise/rock band A.N.P. (Absolut Null Punkt), while further exploring free improvisation. A relocation to France in 1999 led to collaborations that extended into dance, theatre and performance as well as ongoing partnerships with musicians Jean-Luc Guionnet, Eric Cordier, Michel Doneda, Mattin, Lionel Marchetti, among many others. He uses voice and percussion and tries to apply his practice of improvisation to other fields of creative activities. Murayama is the co-author of the book “Idioms and idiots” (in English: http://www.mattin.org/recordings/IDIOMS_AND_IDIOTS.html; in Finnish: https://komeetta.info/2022/02/17/idiomit-ja-idiootit/)
Giorgio Convertito – dance Libero Mureddu – harmonium Livia Schweizer – flute
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Space is only noise
Sound is space and this performance is about spaces and the people who have inhabited them. All the spaces we have built and forgotten, occupied, lived in and changed.
Sound is time in space and this performance speaks of the time we have compressed and distorted. All that time that we did not observe because we were too focused on something else or that we just never saw pass by.
All these spaces, all these times and all these silences have a sound, a sound image that echoes in our heads. It is elongated, rippling and impalpable. It breathes and twists, it struggles and rests, but never leaves us.
The performance is conceived as a single act, an uninterrupted sound event that has no beginning or end. It’s an event, an experience of vibrations that fill space in an orderly, non-random manner. They are signs that actively express content, they signify something other than themselves. They appear mute to us, without knowing their true meaning. At a certain point, when time runs out, we shed these contents and leave, as if the door is closed.
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Carlo Sampaolesi (*1997, IT) is an accordionist and performer resident in Brussels. His interest in sound and its relationship with space and time have led him to deepen the timbral and spectral research of his instrument, undertaking a series of collaborations and commissions with composers such as: Francesca Verunelli, Stefano Gervasoni, Dmitri Kourliandski, Gavin Bryars, Giulia Lorusso, Maurizio Azzan, Carlo Elia Praderio, Mattia Clera, and many others. He has performed at numerous festivals including the TransArt Festival, Klarafestival (Bozar), Darmstadt Ferienkurse Festival, Festival ArteScienza, iMAL Brussels, Miry Conzertsaal, Festival Traiettorie, Festival Pontino, Festival Orizzonti, Le Strade del Suono Festival, Premio Internazionale della Fisarmonica città di Castelfidardo (PIF), and many others, giving concerts in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Holland and Albania. He has performed with important ensembles and orchestras such as the Neue Vocalsolisten, mdi ensemble, FontanaMIX Ensemble, Opificio Sonoro, Orchestra del Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice, Eutopia Ensemble, Dedalus Ensemble and others, also working with artists such as Claron McFadden, Lucy Railton, Jessie Cox, Catherine Lamb and others. He also works as organiser and artistic director of the PNE.UMA – Contemporary Accordion Festival.
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Giorgio Convertito. I am an italian dancer and dance maker based in Helsinki, Finland. I hold a BA in dance and choreography, from the School for New Dance Development, a department of the Amsterdam Theaterschool and have worked since 1993 as a dancer and a choreographer around Europe. Improvisation has been my main interest and influence in my work and it has been part of many of the projects I have been involved throughout my career, making me one of the leading figure in the improvisation scene in Helsinki.
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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.
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Livia Schweizer (b.1994) is a flutist, improvisor, educator and artistic researcher 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, ages and cultures.
Supported by Kone foundation and City of Helsinki.
