About Johanna
“An artist who dares to take the step far beyond the established” – LIRA
Johanna Sulkunen is a Finnish experimental vocalist, composer and improviser based in Copenhagen. She has released two critically acclaimed solo albums as Johanna Elina and is a part of the award winning vocal ensemble IKI. In 2018 she launched the experimental solo project Sonority, and ever since the symbiosis of vocals and electronics have been in the center of her career. She is a frequent collaborator with other artists as well and has performed with iconic jazz & improv and electronic musicians such as Tomasz Stanko, Axel Dörner, Koichi Makigami, Mike Sheridan and many others. Likewise she has worked with various interdisciplinary projects, collaborating with dancers, poets and filmmakers. Originally labelled as an exciting voice on the alternative jazz scene, Sulkunen has expanded her range of work to span everything from jazz and pop to free improvisation, electronic music and avant-garde.
Johanna Sulkunen has been based in Denmark since 2009 and is a very active part of Copenhagen’s vibrant music scene, often taking place in new collaborations and improvised sessions but also appearing at some of Denmark’s major festivals, such as Roskilde Festival, SPOT, Copenhagen Jazz Festival and more. Since 2009 she has been part of the acclaimed Scandinavian vocal group IKI whose debut album from 2011 received a Danish Music Award for Jazz vocal album of the year. The same year, she also released her debut album as a solo artist, the critically acclaimed “Our Garden” (released as Johanna Elina) that introduced her as an exciting and adventurous vocalist and composer in her own right. In 2016 the album was followed up by the equally impressive “Belonging”, which was nominated for a Danish Music Award for the best vocal jazz album.
In 2018 she returned as a solo performer under the new moniker Sonority, releasing the album “Koan”, the first part of a planned trilogy, where the second instalment is the 2021-release “Terra”. While still containing elements of jazz and improvisation, the Sonority project sees Sulkunen taking her voice into new sonic territory, working in the direction of electroacoustic composition, experimental ambient and field recordings.
In her Sonority concerts she performs often as duo – a hybrid between live – visuals and solo vocals & electronics. Sonority is an ongoing research about resonance of the human body- voice and electronics. With Sonority she has toured in several European countries as well as in Japan.
Johanna Sulkunen holds a Degree in Jazz Vocals from Rotterdam Jazz Academy, where she graduated with a prize ‘very talented alumni’. She graduated from the Post Graduate ‘Soloist’ line (performance) at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory of Copenhagen in 2017. She also holds a Masters’s degree in Anthropology / Comparative Religion from the University of Helsinki.