Biography

The second part of Copenhagen-based Johanna Elina Sulkunen's Sonority trilogy Terra combines the human voice, electronics and acoustic instruments with an experimental angle. The album invites its listeners to look at our modern way of life and its often destructive relationship with nature.

Singer-composer Johanna Elina Sulkunen, who has long been active in the Copenhagen jazz and experimental music scenes, combines her trademark unprejudiced use of vocals with experimental electronics and nuanced acoustics in her album Terra.

Terra is the second part of Sulkunen's Sonority trilogy, a solo project in which the first album Koan (2018) created its own auditory universe using human voice and field recordings in Japanese Buddhist temples. With Terra Sulkunen was supposed to use the same method to make a thematic expedition to resonance between the human voice and nature, but the pandemic redefined the plans. Isolation in a small cottage in the middle of Icelandic nature was replaced by isolation in a home studio and field recordings in imaginative landscapes under the Copenhagen sky.

Koan was, as the name implies, a kind of interpretation of Zen Buddhist koan texts. By breaking the language into pieces, Sulkunen used their phonetic properties as building blocks for her compositions and improvisations. With Terra Sulkunen continues her work on Zen Buddhism and koan lyrics as well her own writing. At the same time she expands her musical space by including acoustic instruments such as strings, wind instruments and drums. The album features the prestigious Danish string quartet Halvcirkel and an international group of first-class musicians - a group of kinship souls whose diversity reflects Sulkunen's own artistic vision.

Terra shows Sulkunen's background in jazz and improvisation, but her influences from electroacoustic music, minimalism and ambient also rise to the surface. The album expands and enriches the universe created by its predecessor, while painting touching musical landscapes. While mirroring our often destructive relationship with our environment, Sulkunen also highlights the mind-boggling beauty and healing potential of nature and reminds us of our urgent need to reconnect with it.

Halvcirkel
Bettina Marie Ezaki - violin
Pernille Kristiansen - violin
Mika Persdotter - viola
Nicole Hogstrand - cello

Carolyn Goodwin - saxophones and clarinet
Francesco Bigoni - saxophones and clarinet
Henrik Pulz Melbye - saxophones and clarinet
Anders Vestergaard - drums

Tracklist

1. VIII Layers
2. IX Soil
3. X Hiemal
4. XI Human Antitouch
5. XII Counting of Days
6. XIII The Earth
7. XIV Terra