Tampere Biennale 2018

The Tampere Biennale once again showcased a broad spectrum of new music from home and abroad. Instead of the mainstream, the festival focused on the margins of creative musical art and explored interfaces between branches of the arts.

In April 2018 the Tampere Biennale festival of contemporary Finnish music will highlight “free radicals”. Bringing together contemporary music enthusiasts and professionals, this year’s Biennale showcases artistic freedom, fringe art, artistic interaction and a record number of new works.

Led by the startling voice of Anni Elif Egecioglu, Elifantree paints from an idiosyncratic palette, spattered with jazz and electronics. This Helsinki trio celebrates its 10th anniversary with new collaborations and a forthcoming album.

Pull or push? Diatonal or microtonal? Traditional bear hunting celebration or reflections of the cosmos? Antti Paalanen and Veli Kujala prove that the accordion can do it all.

Composer Ville Raasakka creates hyper-realistic music using sources ranging from individual sounds collected in everyday life to entire concerts. His work Hypermarket and hypercommodity for shopping items, piano and chamber orchestra highlights the utter insanity of consumerism.

Composer Lotta Wennäkoski reminisces about her friend, the composer Jovanka Trbojević, who passed away in May [2017].

Seamlessly, keyboardist and composer Kari Ikonen spins a distinctive sound of his own that draws on music from around the world, grounded in US jazz and fusion of the ‘60s and ‘70s. On Moog synthesizer, acoustic or electric piano, he plays with ecstasy and a fascination with rhythm.

In 2016 women are still under-represented in classical concert repertoire, never mind the canon. At contemporary music concerts, however, women appear as composers with increasing frequency. How should we address the issue of a composer’s (female) gender in this day and age? Are we really still talking about this, in Finland?

Growing up in roughly beautiful Lapland has affected Outi Tarkiainen’s personality and her voice as a composer. For her, music is almost like a force of nature, which can change people and their destinies. Andrew Mellor met Tarkiainen in Rovaniemi, just as she had finished her song-cycle The Earth, Spring’s Daughter.

Interesting things happen in the borderlands between music and sound art. Sub-genres of electronic music, field recordings, studies in improvisation and graphic notation and sound installations continue to open up new pathways for musicians in all genres.

"defunensemble is a Finnish group specialising in electroacoustic music. This new double CD introduces the ensemble’s versatility. One of the discs displays works for solo instruments and electronics, while the other is built around various ensemble configurations."

2015 has been a milestone year for the 40-year-old UMO Jazz Orchestra. We invited three key figures to look back on the history of the internationally acclaimed big band.