Photography: Elvi Keränen
Composer, vocalist, song weaver,
producer, interdisciplinary artist
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 just to survive professionally as Finland was becoming an independent nation state. Her great grandmother worked as a maid and was a Savonian, part of one of the subgroups living in the ’Finnish area’ and being assimilated to form ’The Finns’ as the nation state formed. Because of her roots and the journeys across the globe she is drawn to the lesser-known perspectives, bridging various realities and stretching beyond dualism.
Coming from a strong professional background of not only music but also dance, theatre, somatics 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.
During the past decade she has been diving deep into widening her horizons as an artist. Collaborating with musicians and creatives from different backgrounds and disciplines, especially around the themes of storytelling, decoloniality, deep ecology, community and the healing aspects of arts, has expanded her range as a collaborator and as a musician.
Photography: Julius Koivistoinen
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 music influences, alt pop, sound art and Finnish, Swedish and North Sámi languages.
During the past decade she has been exploring her roots also from the view point of cultural research. She grew up in a settler-colonial country and she learned a version of a history within a colonial educational system. She journeys in the intersection of music, action art, cultural studies, healing arts, activism and voice embodiment.
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.
Photography: Kalle Kirjalainen
Teea Aarnio’s current favourite musical creatives and guiding lights are for example: Esperanza Spalding, Mari Boine, Guorga, Susie Ibarra, Nicki Wells, Maarja Nuut, among 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’s currently working in various projects and 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.
Photography: Tuomas Rounakari