T e e a a a r n i o

Photography: Elvi Keränen

Teea Aarnio grew up in the northern hemisphere in an area named Finland, yet has lived in many places around the world. Her great grandfather was a Swedish speaking theatre professional, who changed his name to a Finnish name (Kyösti Aarnio) as Finland was becoming an independent nation state. Her great grandmother worked as a maid and was a Savonian-Karelian, part of the subgroups living in the ’Finnish area’ and being assimilated to form ’The Finns’ as the nation state formed. Quite common examples of what has for example happened culturally in the north; people given (or forced to take) new identities to fit into the industrial, modern ways.

Because of her roots and the journeys across the globe she is drawn to connecting worlds between worlds, bridging beyond.

She has been ‘writing songs’ for as long as she can remember. For a long time she thought that everyone ‘writes songs’.

Her relationship with songs has changed during the years and has gone through many different explorations (commercial writing, top liner writing, full-circle moments and integrating the craft into a deeper whole) and decolonial awakenings; what remains is her everlasting awe to the craft of song, the worlds of song weaving, in all the different ways.

Sonic awareness is an ever-unfolding exploration of hers and working as an electro-acoustic vocalist is another special field where her focus is drawn more and more. Her background as a dancer is connected to these special interests; combining embodiment practices and musicianship. She feels called towards working in the field of music pedagogy relating to these topics, and her current studies in Sibelius Academy offer interesting landscapes for this transdisciplinary approach.

As she has matured her relationship with songs and the deeper sonic frequencies have kept on unfolding in unexpected ways. Right now she is focusing on this all in her studies at Global Music Department, Sibelius Academy / UniArts Helsinki.

Coming from a strong professional background of not only music and dance, but also theatre, somatics, alternative medicine and contemporary art, her projects and collaborations engage a variety of cultural, environmental and communal subjects combining music, movement, activism, live art, science, storytelling and decoloniality.

She has performed, composed, written and sound designed music for records, stage, bands, documentary and art films – as well as has worked years professionally in different bands. She worked for ten years in an international improvisation music ensemble, Helsinki Soundpainting Ensemble and has worked in theatre’s, and for example as an artist’s assistant in community arts projects for Helsinki Festival.

Teea Aarnio’s trilingual debut album ‘Väki’ was published 2023. The ‘Väki’ album was crafted by Teea Aarnio in collaboration with US based music producer Jukka Backlund and with an international team of creatives. The album speaks about finding roots, about old Nordic names for spirit, soul, etc., and the elements of fire, water, earth and air. The album combines vocal jazz, folk fusion, alt pop, sound art and Finnish, Swedish and North Sámi languages.

Her genre-bending sonic poetry reflects her paths in the society, and relationships in different communities and within the more-than-human world. Her professional background relating to theatre, dance, contemporary art, and studying alternative medicine can be sensed in her approach to creative expression. She’s very passionate about finding alternative ways (‘alternative way’ for industrial worlds, very natural for other worlds) to be a musician.

Teea Aarnio’s favourite musical creatives and guiding lights are for example: Alice Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Mari Boine, Kimmo Pohjonen, Susie Ibarra, Nicki Wells, Maarja Nuut, Hector, Joni Mitchell, Myrkur, Ojos de Brujo, Angelique Kidjo, J. Karjalainen, Mari Kalkun, AWARË, among many others.

Her current and previous teachers and mentors include Nicki Wells, Nemat Battah, Sergio Castrillón, Sanni Orasmaa and Vellu Halkosalmi, among others. She has previously graduated from Helsinki Jazz Conservatory vocal performance as her major and has studied soundpainting improvisation in the guidance of Walter Thompson and Sonja Korkman. She has also studied Contemporary Dance and New Theatre in Outokumpu, Finland and in The Netherlands. For almost two decades now Teea Aarnio has had the joy to be collaborating with Dictum Studios as an actor and voice talent.

Year 2021 she became a member of Arts Management Helsinki. She studies as a degree student in Global Music program at Sibelius Academy, University of Arts Helsinki. She’s also one of the coordinators of Amnesty Finland’s Amnesty Sápmi -activist group.