30-year-old Tampere Biennale investigates sound boundaries

One of the most important contemporary music festivals in Finland, Tampere Biennale, has published this year’s programme under a theme “sound boundaries”. The festival takes place in Tampere on April 13–17.

As part of Music Finland’s Aus Finnland initiative Tampere Biennale will have a joint concert of German-Icelandic Ensemble Adapter and Finnish electroacoustic group defunensemble. The concert is held on April 15 and it features the world premieres of works by two Finnish composers, Kimmo Kuokkala and Jarkko Hartikainen.

Works of Finnish composers are set to be premiered in other Tampere Biennale concerts too. The festival has commissioned new works from Niilo Tarnanen and Jan Anderzén alias Tomutonttu. The Tampere Philharmonic will be giving the world premiere of music by Lotta Wennäkoski and of Himmel Punk, an orchestral work commissioned from Antti Auvinen.

Visual arts, circus and performances are strongly involved with this year’s festival. Contemporary circus company Circo Aereo will perform with defunensemble combining sound, movement, image and circus. There will also be by now the largest exhibition of sound art in Finland and 20th anniversary club sessions of a world-known Tampere-based independent music label Fonal Records, with performances by label's artists including Lau Nau, Jarse, Islaja and Tomutonttu.

The Tampere Biennale was founded by the City of Tampere and composer Usko Meriläinen in 1986 to highlight Finnish contemporary music. Current Artistic Director of the festival is composer Sami Klemola.