PROJECTS
Tölöläb
Tölöläb is a group of four woodwind players who combine free improvisation and electronics. The members are Taavi Oramo (clarinet and live-electronics), Turkka Inkilä (flute, shakuhachi, and live-electronics), Antti Salovaara (bassoon) and me with the oboe.
Tölöläb was founded in the year 2014 and I remember clearly the moment when our bassoonist Antti called me and asked to join in. After that, there has been many amazing projects and concerts together with the guys and numerous guest artists from different music genres.
We are all totally different from one another as musicians but what combines us is the adventurer nature and passion for finding new levels of the improvisation generally. I think with this family we will discover a lot more things about music and life.
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/toeloelaeb/
Game Music Collective
It was Autumn 2016 when cellist Lukas Stasevskij came to me after one of my concerts. "We should meet! I have founded the European´s first game music orchestra and would be great if you join us!" I didn´t have to think a second if I´m in or not. Then started an almost one year project with a great producing team to build our first concert at the Finlandia Hall, Helsinki.
And a huge success it was! We sold the hall almost full - over 1600 tickets sold and the audience got totally nuts. It is definitely one of the concerts that I remember all my life. It was pure euphoria.
The orchestra contains approximately 20 members and a visual artist Sellek Hanks. I´m working in the orchestra as an oboe player and producer.
Visit: http://www.weplaygamemusic.com/en
Olli Hirvonen & Saku Mattila
We have been friends with Olli now for over 10 years. We met at the party of Sibelius high school and immediately the next day we were jamming at the school´s basement. First, we had a band called Amos to whom we were writing music together. Later on, as a duo we have been playing free improvisation concerts around Finland, Germany, Russia and the USA.
With this 10-years friendship and composing together, we have created our own tone language and one could say that our improvisation, therefore, doesn´t sound like improvisation. For me the most important thing in the improvisation is TRUST. With all the things that we have experienced together with Olli, I can say that I trust him completely. And that makes improvisation with him a very special case.
Here is Olli´s webpage: http://www.ollihirvonen.com/
Kaipuu Festival
It was my violist friend Valerie Albrecht who proposed me to organize together events or festival where we would put together silent films and free improvisation. I had just met a video artist Paola Figueiro and thought that she would be a very good choice to ask to join us. In the end, we ended up organizing together a full 3-day festival!
Kaipuu festival took place last April in the most atmospheric movie theater of Helsinki, Orion and the festival was produced with the co-operation with the Finnish National Audiovisual Institute. In the program, we had old classics from the silent film era and as well new movies got by the open call application. There were also Helsinki´s hot top improvisers making soundtracks for all the movies. Amazing days we had and next year hopefully there will be the festival again!
Here is the festival´s webpage:https://www.kaipuufestival.com/
Beethoven Now!
Beethoven Now! is a very ambitious project by two young talented conductors Jaan Ots and Kornilios Michaidilis. The orchestra's goal is to perform Beethoven’s music at the highest possible level, constantly aiming to reach the required energy in his music that, combined with the passion, depth, spirituality, and intellectualism, make him so unique. I was asked from the beginning to be a distinguished member and the leader of the oboe section. By now we have had two very special concerts and more to come!
Visit the website: https://www.beethoven-now.com/