Defunensemble: Finland’s bleeding-edge experimental music ensemble at 15
Fearless Finnish contemporary music group defunensemble celebrates its 15th anniversary without compromising its avant-garde vision. We meet with the ensemble's artistic director Sami Klemola to catch up on where defunensemble – and the contemporary music scene – is going right now.
Strange sounds emanate from a small gallery in Helsinki’s Katajanokka neighbourhood, door open on a cold November night. Inside audio art aficionados sip wine while eyeing three wooden crates labelled Propaganda Boomboxes that emit varying sound sculptures composed by Finnish-Australian Erkki Veltheim, based on the anthems of authoritarian regimes. Two dogs look quizzically at the boxes as the sound of a clarinet and a piccolo become piercing and unsettling at times.
The music – or sound art – is performed by members of the electroacoustic defunensemble, still startling even as it has become part of Finland’s musical establishment over a decade and a half, performing works by leading contemporary composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Nyokabi Kariũki and Tim Page. The electroacoustic ensemble just returned from concerts in Scotland and at England’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, including a work by artistic director Sami Klemola.
Our concert is a mixed repertoire with different flavours but always some kind of defunensemble watermark behind it – Sami Klemola
“This is the premier of the third commissioned work in defunensemble’s sound installation project, which has been going on for about six years,” Klemola explains outside the gallery, as sound art from within blends with foghorns from the nearby port.
“We give the commissioned artists free hands as to what kind of projects they do, except that they need to work with ensemble players in the audio part of the installation.” This project by acclaimed artist Riiko Sakkinen with his step-brother, Veltheim, is part of celebrations of the group’s 15th anniversary, culminating in a gala concert in Helsinki on 30 November 2024.
”Our concert is a mixed repertoire with different flavours but always some kind of defunensemble watermark behind it. We’ll perform commissioned pieces that we’ve played at festivals around Europe, for example Antti Auvinen’s “Warp my Simone”. This time we’ll premiere a commissioned work by Estonian composer Märt-Matis Lill. We’ve often cooperated with Estonian musicians and festivals, so this also celebrates this long friendship,” says Klemola.
Electronic at heart
Klemola says that the eight-piece group hasn’t dramatically changed since it was started in 2009 by graduates of the Sibelius Academy.
”We started as quintet with two sound designers and now we’re a quartet with sound guys. All of the pieces we play include electronics, so our sound designers are of course full members of our group,” he says.
The ensemble took its name from ‘define function,’ a macro in an early computer language used for composition beginning in the 1950s. Define function became the title of the group’s first full-length album in 2015, following a 10” vinyl EP with electronic pioneers Pink Twins in 2012. The group’s latest album, Hyperrealistic Songs, was nominated as Finland’s Classical Album of the Year in 2022 in the Emma Awards (Finland's equivalent to the Grammy Awards).
15 years of changes in contemporary music
One improvement along the way, says Klemola, has been hiring Heidi Kuusava as general manager.
“Heidi has played a crucial part in our becoming a more internationally recognised ensemble,” he says, adding that her production-based work frees him up to focus more on the ensemble’s artistic vision – which he says remains wide open.
“I’m always interested in non-mainstream things, things that are going around the mainstream, for example this sound installation project. We hope to encourage composers to work more on installations and gallery spaces, because the way audience experiences the sound is totally different than in a concert, which makes it interesting to approach.”
This started as something slightly arbitrary but now it feels like we’re one group. It’s more focused – Sami Klemola
Outside the Sound Art Society gallery, defunensemble pianist Emil Holmström muses on how electroacoustic mini-chamber orchestra has evolved.
“This started as something slightly arbitrary but now it feels like we’re one group. It’s more focused. There is the voice of each of us separately, but we’ve developed a voice as a band too,” he says out on the icy sidewalk.
“Of course, the contemporary music scene 15 years ago was different from now. Some things that are big now were just starting then. We’ve travelled along with the development of new composers, new styles and new techniques. It’s been fun to be part of those things as our skill set has developed over the years,” he says with a grin before dashing off into the night.