TampereRaw

Twenty years old and recent recipients of the Madetoja Prize, the contemporary music ensemble TampereRaw is pleased to be performing at the Tampere Biennale, a long-term partner and important supporter of the group. TampereRaw, the Tampere Biennale and its Artistic Director Jennah Vainio have each proven their capability and their capacity for adapting to a radically changing world. What is important is living art and the variety of people around it. The theme chosen by Jennah Vainio for the concert programme of TampereRaw is the human voice, human fate and humans at play (homo ludens). True to the style of the Tampere Biennale, this programme presents the audience with something completely new and reminiscences from the past, but above all with compelling experiences.

TampereRaw performs music by two great names in modernism in Finnish music who are no longer with us – Usko Meriläinen and Erkki Salmenhaara – music by Tampere-based composer and music influences Ilari Laakso from a few years ago, a work by Finnish-born composer Anastasia Salo resident in Petrozavodsk and two world premieres. One is a work by Jennah Vainio for string trio and video, based on music originally written for a short film. The other was commissioned by the Tampere Biennale from composer Markku Klami. His vocal work sets humanity-themed texts written by his wife Katja Klami, focusing on feelings of resignation and loss.

The musicians of TampereRaw are eagerly waiting to see what soundscapes and images this programme will foster. The words of Ilari Laakso describing his work El sueno serve to describe the atmosphere sought: “Ideologies and ethnic groups come and go over the centuries, but the catalysts of refugee migrations remain constant. Natural disasters, of course, but also human ignorance and greed, resulting in sickness, war, lust for power and religious fanaticism. Against this backdrop, I hear an ancient lullaby of the Sephardic Jews as a distant glimpse of goodness and love.” Perhaps art is what can bring out the most important thing in humanity and in every human individual: love.