"Helsinki in Archa" Festival continues
Press Release from October 26, 2000
The Archa Theatre will present another part of its Helsinki music festival on November4 and 5, 2000. Now is an ideal opportunity to present the Finnish musical scene, primarily because Helsinki and Prague are both "European Cities of Culture" for the year 2000. The Archa Theatre has already presented the bizarre group Leningrad Cowboys, as well as the most recent star of the world music Värttinä. Apart from the musical projects, audiences have also had the opportunity of catching the theatre performance of "Krapp's Last Tape" by the Finnish group Circus Maximus, as well witness the project of the group Sirius Teatern in the streets of Prague this summer. The entire project of "Helsinki in Archa" will come to a close on December 3, 2000, with the concert of the group Apocalyptica.
Now, on Saturday, November 4, 2000, the performance group Mieskuoro Huutajat and perhaps the most brightest star on the Finnish progressive scene, accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen will perform on the Archa stage; then on Sunday, November 5, 2000, the ethnic-experimental group Ima-C and the group Angelit from Lapland village Angeli, who recently collaborated with the diva from Iceland Björk.
Mieskuoro Huutajat - a thirty-member "shouting men's chorus" was founded in 1987 in Finnish Oulu. The ensemble doesn't sing, but they rather shout - they shout the American and Soviet anthem, pieces taken from the Finnish constitution, as well as classical poetry. The group was for example also in the children broadcasting, where they shouted an encyclopedic composition about vegetables, and this year they allegedly "sang" for the first time. The local Finnish television stations requested them to create a cycle of the songs about love. Those who were here this July on the Hradèanské square in Prague could hear this admirable chorus. Among the sound's inspirations are the North Ice Ocean, the customers in supermarkets and horned cattle from Finland: those who have seen, heard or felt the shouts of Sirviö's chorus know that it serious business.
To say something about accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen is best said by one of his collaborators Robert Fripp, but he is a non "art-rocker". The classically educated Pohjonen is a four-time winner of the Finnish annual award for the best traditional musician, but today he is more characterized as a "digital accordionist" or "Jimi Hendrix of the accordion" . Pohjonen used to play traditional music, rock, and avant-garde, and this year, he has presented a composition for himself and an orchestra; but above all, he develops the possibilities of solo performances with the buttons of the accordion. Thanks to electronics, he destroys its sound, the uses it as a drumming instrument, he leaves the sound in the loops and in a live improvisation, he stratifies its sound. He works with quadrophonic sound, and creates parallel scores for the lights. His performances are truly stage events.
During the second evening (November 5, 2000), the Archa will present the concert of Ima-C with their unique mix of minimalism, drum'n'bass, dance rhythms, Finnish ethnic influences, improvisation and avant-garde. The unity of all these elements is an experimental vocalization of the singer Outi Pulkkinen and the "yelling" harmonics of Jouko Kyhälä. The third member of this group is the computer musician Tommi Lindell.
The musical group Angelit is also known as Angelin Tytöt or Girls of Angeli. They come from the village in the municipality of Inari in Northern Finland. Sisters Ursula and Tuuni Länsman represent the music of the youngest generation of Sámis, originally of the nomadic nation "European Indians", also famous on the ethnic scene is Mari Boine. The traditional Sámi "yoik" is a kind of self-purgative ritual, but also a common understanding. This means of vocalisation is sort of a shaman trance. For the young generation is also attractive, as "yoiking" in public is considered a sin by the older generation of the Sámi. The oldest sister's work is pure folklore, their most recent work demonstrates that these sisters would like to belong to the stream of world music: without taking away the authenticity of their vocal performance, they have unfolded under its rhythms linking themselves to triphop and acidjazz.
The entire festival "Helsinki in Archa" is organised within the framework of the project Prague - European City of Culture of 2000.
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