FIND IT HERE  https://orcd.co/xiicountingofdays  

✨ SINGLE 'XIV Terra' is OUT!! ✨

Find it on your favorite digital platform.

The draft of this piece was made already over 2 years ago. It has traveled through various stages from the first intuitive spark, meeting crossroads, and taking many turns. 

Originally the plan was to record the naked nature, ambiance, and sounds in Iceland's nature. And as a continuum to my Sonority project, to play with nature with my voice and electronics. 
Just two weeks before my trip, the lockdown hit, causing a chain of changes in plans. But since improvising is part of life and my music, who knows, maybe it was a 'meant to be' situation for this music to become end the way it ended up to be.  It has, in any case, been a transformative journey for this piece until now. 

Cover art by Tapani Toivanen indicates something disturbingly unnatural,  yet natural landscapes. Just like in my imagination.  Human- and machine-made, at the same time. 

Thank you for your beautiful photos Julie Montauk, Thank you Halvcirkel, Aske Zidore, Nick Martin, Thomas Vang, and the planet Earth for having me here!

Working on the theater - compositions,  sound design and performing - with IKI for the play TERROR / IS / ME by Sargun Oshana. On every performance I get amazed of the talented actors and the whole play. Grateful to be contributing!

It's running until the 2nd of October @ Odense Theater, Store Scene.

“One of the most impressive figures in the lively North- European improvised music scene. Unique and profound, Aika’s music runs through the freezing lands of Scandinavia, lays down on abstract land where jazz minimalism glazes in the dark stems from and abstract atmosphere that melts into cinematic images, where silence is a pure dialogue between electronics and new dissonances… 
 

 “… The lunar sound of Southern Light, indie Planetary electronics or Phases jazz noisec where David Sylvian’s refined genius is seen in the distance, eager to musically push into unkown territories. Sophisticated and experimental” (Windout. Italia)
 

Sulkunens vokal passer perfekt inn i de sporene hvor hun medvirker, og hennes stemme er nesten som skapt for dette ensemblet. Toldams pianospill er, som alltid, perfekt. En større og mer inderlig lyriker innenfor den nyere jazzen skal man lete en stund etter, og Toivanens bass-spill er originalt og fint, og trekker mye av musikken framover på en strålende måte. Og bakerst sitter kanskje den mest spennende trommeslageren fra Finland, Olavi Louhivuori, og holder det hele sammen på en fin måte. (Salt Peanuts, Jan Granlie)
 

 

 

There is no such thing as absolute time. The present may be influenced by the future. The two major physics theories of the 19th century, general relativity and quantum physics,  as well as the cosmic movement that emerges between the cosmos and ourselves, have been the cornerstones of inspiration for our debut album 'TILA' with AIKA (=meaning TIME in Finnish). 
 

The seed for this album was a moment of improvisation 14 years ago. We envisioned it would become an album when ‘the time is right'. After some years of waiting for the right time,  we realized that there is no such thing as ‘the right time’.  Because there is no such thing as absolute time… 
 

“The pace we move, and that things move around is, is the result of our own relation to it. Time is made of events, not things. The world is not so much made of stones as of fleeting sounds, or of waves moving through the sea.  A piece of music is an event, not a thing.”   (Rovelli, 2017)
 
Music is time. Time is movement. We are the movement. We are time.
 
BIG THANKS to Olavi Louhivuori and Simon Toldam who took on this evolving journey. What a dream team!! Thank you Tapani Toivanen for the joined journey in music and life. 
 
Thanks to Thomas Vang for the good vibes and wonderful studio! Thanks to August Wanngren for committing to the mixing process! Thanks for the great book: ‘The Order of Time’. Carlo Rovelli. 2017.
 
Have a listen, and order the album from me/ vinyl or CD! Let it resonate with the cosmic time and you. 
 
 Available on all digital platforms! 

 Johanna Elina Sulkunen (Fin/ Dk) - vocal / composition
 Tapani Toivanen (Fin/ Dk) - bass / composition
 Simon Toldam (Dk) - piano/synths / electronics
 Olavi Louhivuori (Fin) - drums
 
 Bandphoto: Andreas Omvik
 Coverphoto: Anders Blomqvist