Meriheini Luoto: Talven uneen vaipuen

Description

Awake Percussion, Luoto luonnos, Saxtronauts and Signe join forces on an album to be released on Friday, October 24, 2025, at the onset of winter. The album features strings, wind instruments, human voices, and percussion performed by a 16-piece ensemble. Aesthetically, the work continues Luoto’s characteristic compositional style—the multifaceted tones of acoustic instruments create imaginative soundscapes that are worth pausing to listen to.

Performed as a site-specific concert in January 2024, the work received rave reviews. On the album, the work sounds more intimate than before and utilizes different perspectives. The landscapes of the mind and winter alternate, inviting the listener on a journey through the winter season, where the frost crackles, the wind whistles, and the ice creaks at its joints.

Meriheini Luoto explains the background to the work:
We began working on it in 2022, starting with winter-themed improvisations—one ensemble at a time, overlapping, intertwining, and influencing each other. I let my imagination mix the timbres of the instruments and the fruits of the improvisations with each other. Gradually, they began to form an image of winter, moving from autumn to spring, sometimes pausing at details, sometimes almost falling asleep.