Petri Kuljuntausta: When Birds Dream of Dinosaurs... and Sing a Song to Ancient Times & Aspen
concert 13. February 2026 as part of Block 4 dialogues I at Toinen Kerros / Äänen Lumo, Helsinki (FI)
https://block4.com/dialogues1.php
The impetus for the solo performance is birdsong and the structure of birdsong. We do not know what the birds "say" in their songs. But at least we can imagine the themes that have been passed down from one generation of birds to another. Petri Kuljuntausta: guitar, electronics. Petri Kuljuntausta improvises as a guitarist and with electronic instruments, plays with animals and birds, makes underwater performances, performs in different natural spaces with environmental sounds, compose electronic music and create sound art. Kuljuntausta is currently developing the technique on how to play as an artist with nature and animals: How to connect through sound to the sound processes of the environment equally and without disturbing the nature's own sound processes.
ASPEN The work is based on two soundscape recordings Kuljuntausta made in summer 2025: a huge aspen tree swaying in the wind on the shore of a lake, and early morning bird soundscape. The work begins with the rustling sound field created by the leaves. When the wind blows, thousands of leaves beat against each other. As the protein-rich leaves of the aspen are hard, this produce rhythmic sounds when they hit each other. A wide "clapping sound field" is created. A few dotted water sounds and the splashing of water might tune the ear to the waves. But this is an illusion, it is the sound of aspen. The second sound layer is a modified, abstracted and distanced, bird soundscape. This provided a starting point for new sounds generated with granular synthesis. The work ends as it began, with the sound of a huge aspen tree in the wind.
