It’s a pleasure to share a new collaboration!

I’m now an artist member of Arts Management Helsinki.

“Arts Management Helsinki is a progressive and constantly developing company in the arts. Its core partners and collaborators are freelance artists and arts communities. The focus is on the improvement of working conditions of artists, on the creation of new partnerships and possibilities, and on the rethinking of production structures in Finland.”

Arts Management Helsinki (AMH) offers their management support for independent artists and AMH is also a production platform. They also focus on creating a community for their artist members.

Grateful!

—Teea

From dreams to reality —

a bank loan for an album

Written by Moona Laakso

* * *

“I started doing gigs when I was young. I played piano and violin, sang in blues, rock, jazz ensembles and was involved in folk music bands as well as in theatre productions. I was offered big recording contracts a couple of times. But I refused. Afterwards, I’ve wondered if it was silly to do that, but I just wanted to play gigs then.

For years, I’ve been in a process of finding ‘my thing’ and my identity. When I turned 30, I felt like I needed some distance from playing as a solo artist. It’s hard work, especially if you don’t know who you are. We had also done a huge amount of work with folk-pop band Ksenja and had received attention. We decided to put that in the dock, too. I needed time to determine for myself my own values, who I am and what I do. I pretty much gave up everything, including the apartment and my stuff. I knew I’d never remove a musician in myself, but I wanted to get out of the race.

As I traveled the world, I began to see myths and stories in a new light. I felt like I wanted to grow as a sound artist, combine all my experience and expertise into a multidisciplinary entity, make an ambitious and unique album and realize the visual world that supports it. From there, I could continue to explore professional identity.

I returned to Helsinki from around the world and decided to apply for a loan for the project because I knew that my competence was not yet sufficient for grants. I also wanted the freedom to build my own work instead of, for example, a record company influencing what I was doing. In order to get a loan, I worked at the same time as a voice actor, lyricist, cleaner, gym worker, barista.

Four years ago, I marched to the bank to ask for a loan even though I knew it was difficult to convince a bank about an arts project. I intuitively found a person who understood my vision and granted a loan that covered the making of the album. After taking out the loan, I was scared and nervous every day, but I just decided to trust myself. After receiving the loan the intensive work mode continued for two years as I worked with the compositions, lyrics and the songwriting collaborations of the album material. I was really inspired and felt like I was finding myself. When risk taking does not come from the need of proving something to others’ but from genuine enthusiasm, one should not be afraid to commit. Afterwards, it became clear that many people were surprised that I had funded my project myself; as I collaborate on the album with music producer Jukka Backlund, it was seen that as an experienced male producer he leads the project and I was just the one obeying. I feel it just proves that it is challenging to be seen as a strong professional, as a female, in certain fields of work.

I’m proud of years of hard work. I’ve found new collaborations and friends and a whole new confidence as an artist. The loan was used to make a great record and with renewed confidence I negotiated for myself to collaborate with Playart Productions and we created a series of three music videos. I’m sure a lot of people around me think I’m out of my mind, or this is never going to work out. I think it’s more important than the goal to travel. The goal is important yet the creation part; the making of something should be the main focus. I would like to encourage others to have the courage to invest in themselves professionally or privately even if people around you don’t support or see who you can grow up to be.”

 

Above in the picture Aarnio’s painting ‘Dollavárri’ inspired by song ‘Dollavárri’.
Below in the picture Aarnio’s painting ´Pihani’ inspired by song ‘Pihani’.

Guest columnist for ‘On fountains of creativity’ Column 

‘I SING, I BReathe’

Written by Teea Aarnio, edited by Tosha Einiö

* * *

 I sing, I breathe. I’m an echo basket, instrument body. Songs are spells that I voice out to raise nature, to soothe nature. Sometimes when I need a thicker silence I paint, I paint songs on a canvas. Earth beneath my feet is also a large echo basket, instrument’s body; it’s present through all existence where ever there’s room for the resonance.

My creativity stems from nature connection; from the understanding that all this is one. Creativity arranges the not visible and something new is born. Shamanistic worldview has been pulsating in me since early childhood, even though deep nature connection has unfolded slowly.

Vocal instrument is a wondrous friend; it travels with me in the grocery store, in forest, in the subway, in every sentence I speak, and even in my dreams. I sang before I could speak. I didn’t know how to walk when I sat on a piano chair the first time, wondering about the keys of my grand parent’s piano. Violin playing traveled with me during challenging years in childhood, to late teenage.

Year 2019 I moved to Helsinki to start my professional music studies.

Turning point in creativity 

On my musician’s journey I’ve traveled many paths. I’ve worked in Finland and abroad. I’ve been in various ensembles, I’ve been charmed, intoxicated, lost, disappointed. Seven years ago I was living a turning point in creativity.

I reached a point, from where I started my voyage to this moment here and now. In that turning point volume grew more vociferous. For the first time in my life I even started to fear my precognitive dreams, ‘seeing’, it all grew in ways I hadn’t experienced before – I suddenly wasn’t able to perform in bars, in front of drunken audience. Spiritual growth took leaps. There were a lot of accidents during that time, within my closest circle of friends, and also passings. I had precognitive dreams relating to some of these events. Change of direction started to happen.

I gave up performing in public events, gave myself the permission to close all routes I had weaved for myself. I removed all my music pages from the internet. I moved away from Helsinki, sold and gave away almost all my fortunes.

I lived two years as a nomad, on the road. I thought about my roots, identities, emptiness, I faced childhood traumas and extricated myself, I called for my worldview. I thought about communities, cultures, individualism. I thought about the differences of east and west. A couple of years earlier I had been on a long travel in India and readapting to Finland was hard. I dived deep to Finnish cultural history and it’s most painful events.

I thought about creativity. I sang and painted just for fun, by myself. I decided to trust my nature!

New erects

What is Finnish culture, who am I? I noticed the changed scenery around my first home town Heinola’s forests. I read conservation reports and Karelian poetry. I read about Ingrian language. I immersed in cultural studies, Finnish folk poetry and singing traditions. I read about proselytising  minority cultures into Finnish culture. I read about how the spiritual heritage of local root traditions had been reclothed into christianity. I resigned from church.

I unlearned a lot – and brought back a lot. I read books I had brought from India, about non dualism.

My solo album started to build up. Through multicultural collaborations new songs were born. My upcoming debut album has songs mainly in Finnish, also in Swedish and in Northern Sámi. I journey through elements and different realities, I fly with the wings of multi-colored music. My debut album is ready and waiting to be released. Visual EP, crafted in collaboration with Playart Productions, escorts us towards the upcoming album’s world.

Nature is a verb

Nature, science, arts, spirit, matter, earth, air, books.. All is one, in connection. Nature is a verb, it’s creativity in action. Words carry many insinuations, and modern Finnish languaged world view has at times been lost, been blind to it’s meanings.

It’s a life long challenge for a creative human to know one’s own culture and roots, to share one’s own stable handprint and one’s own voice, and regenerate the communal continuum.

I’m now—and perhaps always—in the start of something new. Journey continues.

 

 

DANCE FILM ‘INTIMACY WITHOUT PROXIMITY’ BY WILHELMINA OJANEN

Choreography, concept:

Wilhelmina Ojanen

Cinematographer:

Julius Töyrylä

Director:

Kardo Shiwan

Sound design:

Teea Aarnio

* * *

I produced all sound with my voice, using TC Helicon’s VoiceLive Touch; all the loops, layers etc. were crafted live, improvising, and then captured to the audio track. I focused on a couple of different harmonies, while keeping a deep root in somatics and in being connected to the visual storytelling, nature, and Ojanen’s movement.

I’m very grateful for this collaboration and happy to continue future collaborations with Ojanen. 

* * *

Ojanen writes:

”The starting point for the project is to explore how we can find intimacy with everything around us, realizing that we are active agents in this network of relations. Proximity in this project means the relationship to one another in every way.”

* * *

Wilhelmina Ojanen is now preparing a new work called Becoming-With, premiering on December 2021 in an underground space at Tampere. It is a group piece, with beautiful music by Tapani Rinne. Be sure to go experience it if you’re around Tampere during December 2021.

* * *

Ojanen writes:

”Becoming-with is inspired by the term of an ecofeminist writer, Donna Haraway, which means a constantly changing, intertwined and co-evolving relationship between human, organisms and nature. – – What is our humanity in relation to the more-than-human world?”

* * *

This project gave me the possibility to go beyond what I’d done before with recorded audio. I had worked with TC-Helicon VoiceLive Touch on live shows but hadn’t created compositions with it before. Crafting the sound design was very rewarding and the theme of this work represents my focus points from last 6-7 years; exploring nature connection and the sensuous. Beyond inspiring. 

* * *

Photography by Julius Töyrylä

 

PIHANI (My yards)

Composition: Timo Kiiskinen
Lyrics: trad. (Kanteletar), Teea Aarnio
Arrangement: Timo Kiiskinen, Teea Aarnio, Jukka Backlund

• • •

Olin mieki neito muinen
Olin mieki kasvava kananen
Pitkillä ison pihoilla
Oman taaton tanhuilla
Olin mieki neito muinen

Olin mieki neito muinen
Olin mieki kasvava kananen
Kävin kukkana kujilla
Kajavana kartanoilla
Olin mieki neito muinen

Toisin nyt minun poloisen, toisinpa tätä nykyä
Sinnes on pihani pitkät, kunnes pitkät pilven rannat
Sinnes kaiat kaivotieni, kunnes kaiat kaarenrannat
Olin mieki neito muinen

Olen vielki

• • •

I once was like other maidens are
I once was a growing chicken
On my elder’s yards, on father’s lands
I once was like other maidens are

I once was like other maidens are
I once was a growing chicken
I walked like a flower down the alleys
Flew like a bird above the scenery
I once was like other maidens are

But poor me, it’s different now
Now my yards are long, like clouds on coast lines
Narrow is the path to the well, narrow is the horizon
I once was like other maidens are

I once was, and still I am

DOLLAVÁRRI (VOLCANO)

Composition: Teea Aarnio, Jukka Backlund
Lyrics: Niillas Holmberg
Arrangement: Jukka Backlund

• • •

Morit dal
Beaivi ii šat nogage
oktage ii šat girdde bárbmui
Duojárat dušše barget
muhto mun in šat
hálit váldit oasi

Gula don dollavárri
Mun čagálduhtán du
Gula don nagirčalbmi
Niegu suoládan

Menddo olu muorain leat állahat
Ja dál in gula in geange sága
In šat gula geange sága

Morit dal oahpat muge bisánit
Duolmmadit siskkobeale bálgáid
Loabáhat dušše doamadit
Muhto mun in šat sáhte váldit oasi

Gula don dollavárri
Mun čagálduhtán du
Gula don nagirčalbmi
Niegu suoládan

Menddo olu muorain leat állahat
Ja dál in gula in geange sága
In šat gula geange sága

Dollavárri morit dal
Oahpat muge bisánit
Oahpat muge bisánit

• • •

Herää jo
Päivä ei enää edes lopu
Yksikään ei enää muuta (lintujen syysmuutto)
Käsityöläiset vain työskentelevät
Mutta minä en enää halua osallistua

Kuule, tulivuori
Kutitan sinua
Kuule, unisilmä
Unesi varastan

Liikaa on puissa pulmusia
Ja nyt en kuule en kenenkään juttua
En enää kenenkään juttua

Herää jo
Opeta minutkin pysähtymään
Käymään sisäisiä polkuja
Tohvelit vain kiirehtivät
Mutta minä en enää halua osallistua

Kuule, tulivuori
Kutitan sinua
Kuule, unisilmä
Unesi varastan

Liikaa on puissa pulmusia
Ja nyt en kuule en kenenkään juttua
En enää kenenkään juttua

Tulivuori, herää jo
Opeta minutkin pysähtymään

• • •

Wake up already
The day doesn’t even end anymore

Not one moves anymore [bird’s autumn move]
Artisans keep on working
but I don’t want to participate

Hear me volcano
I’m tickling you
Hear me dream eye
I’ll steal your dreams

There’s too many birds on the branches
But I can’t hear any of their stories
Not any of it

Volcano, wake up already
Teach me how to stop

Kevät (Spring)

Composition: Teea Aarnio, Jukka Backlund
Lyrics: Teea Aarnio
Arrangement: Jukka Backlund

Tunnetko ilman, tunnetko maan
ei viima jatkunutkaan
Jo taiat nousee jo päivä kasvaa
Ja neiet katselee vaan

Sinikelloja
Puet kevään mekon mun päälle
Sinikelloja, sinikelloja

Kipeät kaipuut kuiskivat puut
kun linnut laskeutuu
Ja talven jälkeen aina sä tuut
avaat kukkien suut

Sinikelloja
Puet keväät mekon mun päälle
Sinikelloja, sinikelloja

• • •

Can you feel the air, the ground
Cold breeze didn’t last forever
Spells are arising, days are growing longer
And maidens are viewing those bluebells

Bluebells, You dress me up to spring
Bluebells

Trees are wispering their aches
as birds return
After the winter you always return
and flowers bloom

Bluebells, You dress me up to spring
Bluebells

∇

In old Slavic and Nordic ways of perceiving the world there was a firm belief of three planes of excistence; the heavens, ylinen, the earthly plane, keskinen, and the underworld, alinen. With each video I’m connecting with these different planes of alinen, keskinen, ylinen—and I’m in a dialogue with the small scale and the big picture.

Maybe this trilogy started already 10 years ago as I was returning back to Nordic grounds from my travels abroad? Maybe this trilogy started a lineage ago, as my grand moms and grand dads were having their dialogues and some of those dialogues remained unfinished? 

With this trilogy I’m having dialogues with my roots, with languages, with age old symbols, with elements. I’m celebrating nature. Nature, ‘luonto’, meaning here both the nature in and out. 

∇

In the first video, Pihani, a shaman is lamenting for her old home forest—and we travel through a heavily cut nature to a healthy nature. Cut forest is a dead forest, a healthy forest is a living one. Shaman assists the healing as we journey from death to life.
I start from under ground, with tear drops, and move from the underworlds through the river of sorrows, here, I’m in a dialogue with sorrow. ..Till I can feel the ground. I’m singing old folk poetry from Kanteletar, and I’m in a dialogue with the Karelian tradition of lamenting. I’m relating with sorrow; letting the tears flow until I’m ready.. Till I’m ready for death, as simultaneously being ready to be reborn.

In the second video, Dollavárri, the camera is flying high in the air as I wake up from my unknown place. There’s my fire, and my car. Another day begins, and I drive and drive, until I walk. I’m awake, with my routines, getting to know this realm of earth, ground, living a loop in between the heavens and the underworld.
I’m in a dialogue with the belief that time is linear, though I know time is circular.
I’m drawing the Sápmi flag to the ground, being in a dialogue with earth connection and with change; humans have created nations by drawing invisible lines to the earth.. Though earth is sacred and knows no false ownership. I’m having a dialogue with the  awareness that the rights of indigenous peoples living, breathing and creating in the Nordic area need to be respected. I’m drawing a circle for all the protective circles that have been drawn through all times. I’m drawing a circle for all the mandalas ever drawn and crafted. I’m singing to the fire inside of me, to the fire inside of us all, and inside the big mountain of awareness; time to wake up.

In the last video, Kevät, I’m in that area where my parents live, where I grew up. There’s a celebration, and by dancing, new strenght is drawn from the aether. Dancing, the most beautiful prayer, takes us to heavens; to that elevated place inside, where time melts and all elements unite. As the dance grows, I give and receive at the same time and I’m having a dialogue with joy, with memories.. I had a challenging relationship to my home town as I was growing up, being an odd one—but I always found strenght and power from the area’s nature; those clean waters, huge trees, forest all around. I thank the clean waters, the trees, those forests. And dance, dance, dance.. ..Re-writing the story.

Pt I : Water + Earth

Alinen × underworld

’Pihani’

Pt II : Fire + Air

keskinen × earthly plane

’Dollavárri’

Pt III : Aether

Ylinen × heavens

’Kevät’

Videos created in collaboration with PlayArt Productions.

Music created in collaboration with Jukka Backlund.

∇

Kevät’ is the 3rd, and final part, of music video trilogy created in collaboration with Playart Productions. Trilogy music is from Teea Aarnio’s upcoming debut album which will be published ’21. Album was created in collaboration with music producer Jukka Backlund.

∇

“First version of this song was born years ago at a jazz composing workshop. As I started to collaborate with Jukka B. and played all my old songs to him we eventually bumped into this playful tune from the past. We both got really exited by the possibilities of this song draft. One step after another the song started to grow towards it’s full character; during the band recording sessions all the musicians worked their magic, Jukka conducted the sessions with sparks in his eyes, during the vocal recording sessions I re-wrote the lyrics and even the whole song melody changed. Golden example of our creative collaboration with music producer Backlund.

Video was filmed right next to beautiful Kymi River, in a small town called Heinola, where I was born and raised. In Kevät we travel through the element of aether, where all that is is in balance, in unity. In the two previous videos we travelled through water, earth, fire, air.

During past years I’ve gone through some quite total life changes. Before starting collaborations with Jukka Backlund and Playart Productions it was hard to find people who felt inspired by the same things that I was inspired by. ‘Kevät’ means ‘spring season’ in English and this song celebrates new beginnings. During these times, surrounded by all the shifts and challenges we are facing as a whole, it’s not easy to remain joyful or playful. This trilogy has taken us from below the ground, through the circles of human existence, all the way to the dance and celebration. Today, on World Children’s Day, I hope this video brings you joy and nourishment. Especially when we’re faced with uncertainty we need to search for joy, hope and like-minded friends, and protect those who are most vulnerable.” –Teea

∇

Cinematography: Iiris Heikka
Director: Hedda Halinen
Writer: Teea Aarnio
Assistants: Elvi Keränen, Suvi Mäenpää
Editing: Janne Karvinen, Teea Aarnio, Hedda Halinen
Art director: Teea Aarnio
Graphic design: Tuomas Saikkonen
Video production: Laura Kangasniemi, Playart Productions
Colorist: Janne Karvinen
Video producer: Sophia Ehrnrooth, Playart Productions

Lyrics: Teea Aarnio
Composer: Teea Aarnio, Jukka Backlund
Record producer, arrangement: Jukka Backlund
Executive record producer: Teea Aarnio
Recording engineer: Oona Kapari, Jukka Backlund
Mixing engineer: Tommi Vainikainen
Mastering engineer: Jaakko Viitalähde, Virtalähde Mastering
Musicians: Aino Kurki, Tero Hyväluoma, Antti Kujanpää, Ape Anttila, Jouni Järvelä, Olavi Louhivuori, Oskari Lehtonen, Jukka Backlund