KEHRÄ

Jo yli vuoden kehitteillä ollut Kehrä saa viimein ensi-iltansa. Eikä vain yhtä vaan peräti kaksi. Kehrän esitykset ovat Kokkolan teatterissa lauantaina 15.9. klo 18 ja 21, sekä sunnuntaina 16.9. klo 14. Kehrä on osa Kokkolan Kinojuhlat -elokuvafestivaalia.

Kehrä on muusikko-säveltäjä Niina Hannulan ja graafikko-kuvittaja Elina Warstan yhteistyön hedelmä. Visuaalinen konsertti yhdistää live-soiton reaaliaikaiseen kuvittamiseen ja animaatioihin.

Oma tonttini Kehrässä oli alunperinkin äänisuunnittelu. Projektin edetessä päädyin lopulta lavalle itsekin, ja erilliseksi miksaajaksi palkattiin armoitettu ääniguru Niko Laasonen. Oma kattaukseni pitää sisällään modulaarisyntetisaattoreita, efektikattauksen (mm. VoiceLive 3 Extreme ja Boss RE-20), Ableton Live -session, sekä vuosien jälkeen paluun tehneen – sopraanosaksofonin! Viime aikoina olen etsinyt merkityksellistä syytä palata fonin ääreen. Nyt sellainen löytyi, ja soittaminen on taas hauskaa.

Lavalla pyörii Hannulan ja allekirjoittaneen lisäksi rumpali Okko Saastamoinen, kitaristi Matti Oja, hanuristi Antti Paalanen sekä basisti Oskari Hannula. Visuaalis-teknisen toteutuksen on luonut Jenni Pystynen.

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After a whole year – Kehrä, a visual concert gets its premiere. I am happy to return to stage as a musician. My setup for the perfomance consists of modular synths, live effects, Ableton Live, and last but not least: soprano saxophone. After some years it is a pleasure to play again with a live band.

UHR1.KUVA

UHR1.KUVA is a demo related to Myllyteatteri’s future performance UHRI 6+1 KUVAA

In UHR1.KUVA we are exploring possible soundscapes, performative aesthetics and themes for the future performance.

Both the demo and the final performance are influenced and inspired by Andreij Tarkovsky’s last film SACRIFICE from 1986. In SACRIFICE the main character Alexander faces a situation where he has to sacrifice the material and social frames of his everyday life to protect and save something more valuable – the life on this planet. The news of an inevitable nuclear war work as a borderline situation where questions of responsibility, ethics and imperative actions rise to the surface.

In the performance we will approach these questions from the standpoint of both instrumental and intrinsic value. We want to connect these themes also to the contemporary discussion about artificial intelligence, robotics and their possible influences on humanity and the society we live in.

In our performance the physical expressivity of the performers and the soundscape are in central focus. The performers – three musicians, two actors and two acrobats – and the visual designer form an ensemble in which each movement, word and musical note create an audiovisual composition. We want to create rich visual imagery where spacial elements and relations, body shapes, dynamics of movement and soundscape have a strong impact on the audience.

The demo has been created by a small group of artists that are part of the future performance UHRI 6+1 KUVAA. The director Jaakko Kiljunen is on stage, whereas the musicians Joonas Outakoskiand Jusu Berghäll form the rest of the team.

Arts Promotion Center Finland has donated the group a grant for further development of the performance as well as for working on the demo UHR1.KUVA.

The winners of the International Teresa Pomodoro prize? Yes, that’s us.

Kolga, a performance by Myllyteatteri won Premio Internazional “Il Teatro Nudo” di Teresa Pomodoro, in Milan, Italy last week. The group was awarded with a sculpture by Carlo Ramous (1926-2003), an Italian sculptor.

Kolga was invited to participate the the contest last year. We visited Milan in May 2017, and performed the show twice at Teatro Spazio No’hma.

The performances were evalued by a jury of experts, including Eugenio Barba (Odin theatre), Lev Dodin (Mali-theatre), Tadashi Suzuki (SCOT, Japan), Ruth Heynen (Union des Theatres de l’Europe) and Enzo Moscato (Italy) Luis Pasqual (Spain). The President of the jury was Livia Pomodoro.

The Kolga workgroup is: Miira Sippola, Joonas Outakoski, Mia Simanainen, Sanna Kurki-Suonio, Jaakko Kiljunen, Henna Kaikula, Ulla Raitio, Saku Mäkelä and Luca Sirviö.

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The Performance Station. As the sound design of Kolga is based mostly on performing live with the synthetizers and Ableton Live, it was quite natural step to move the whole workstation to the stage. Photo: Joonas Outakoski

Kolga was originally performed at Arkadia International Bookshop, Helsinki. In the spring 2017 it was renewed for an European tour, which included performances at Feile an Bealtanaine festival in Dingle, Ireland and aforementioned Teatro Spazio Nohma, Milan, Italy.

Kolga is planning to continue  touring Europe next summer and return to Helsinki along with the celebration of Myllyteatteri’s 15th anniversary.

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Ground Control. The setup consists of Ableton Live running on the laptop, controlled with Push 2, TouchAble on iPad and Arturia Keystep (small enough keyboard with sustain pedal jack). On the right is modular synth, based on Make Noise Shared System and Mutable Instruments Yarns, Rings and Clouds. Clouds was used for vocal processing, and as the Italian sound technician didn’t mute my channels after the performance, the whole prize ceremony was picked by an open mic on stage, fed to the Cloulds and to the PA system. Photo: Joonas Outakoski
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Joonas Outakoski (me), Saku Mäkelä, Mia Simanainen, Henna Kaikula and Luca Sirviö. And Continuitá, sculpture by Carlo Ramous. Photo: Joonas Outakoski

New website open!

After weeks switching between WordPress Templates and tens of support chats, my new site is finally at stage, where I can say it is somewhat ready. I am so excited! Of course there are still details to polish here and there, but the main frames are now set!

My intention and the purpose of this site is to share things I do in the domain of theatre, sound design and music. There are also section for new or existing customers, who need services in sound and music. Browse trough to see and hear more!

In the portfolio you can dive deeper into the projects I’ve done. The portfolio is still under construction, as I’m still figuring out the best way to share audio content in a way it is as demonstrative and easy to embrace. I will figure out something soon!

I love the pictures by Mitro Härkönen and Kristiina Männikkö. They really know how to tell a story.

Thank you for tuning in!

Joonas / Aave Sound