MIKAEL JOONATAN (music/concerts)
My solo project. At the moment i’m concentrating on putting together a new set of acoustic solo material that combines acoustic piano, voice, strings of piano, percussive sounds of the piano, non-language and poetry. At the moment I’m inspired by different materials (sand, water, ice..) movement (dancing, tree leaves, bugs), visualizing music in the mind, using methods of contemporary dance and creative writing in the music making process, going into details of nature (for example how an orange is built), imitating other instruments with piano (kalimba, kora etc..), using non-understandable language and alternative sounds of piano. I’ve Performed in Finland, France, England, Portugal, Denmark and Estonia, under the name Mikael Joonatan and The Only Finn In The village. Before going solo I had groups called Breakfast at Phoebe’s and Meureltaibaobab.
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KUOSMANEN KUUSAMO ENSEMBLE
This is a performing art duo I have with a very talented actress Anna Kuusamo. We’re combining music, dance, physical theatre, poetry, video and performing arts in our experimental low-budget shows. Currently on brake for logistic reasons. Previous shows include Elämä meni, minä jäin and Sisar Mirjan Päiväkirja. Performance venues include for example Esitystaiteen keskus, Arkadia Bookshop and Vapaan Taiteen Tila.
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LISBON SKETCHES
A collaboration with Hungarian animator Eszter Drienyovski. We’ve made animated short videos about a city, capturing the spirit of the place through short moments. Currently we’ve done the project in Lisbon and Tartu.
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MUSIC FOR DANCE/THEATRE PIECES
I love doing music for dance and theatre pieces. Some previous works include Limits of Shame by Loviisa Open Dance Company, Pojat by Isto Turpeinen and Femmes en Resistence by Compagnie Battement d’Ailes. I also love to perform improvised short pieces with dancers. Dance have been a big part of my life, and I’ve also done a dance video called Hand Dance where I combine dancing hands and piano playing in a way that hasn’t been done before, it was showed in Loikka Dance Film Festival in 2013.
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MUSIC FOR SHORT-FILMS AND VIDEOS
Sometimes I do music for short-films, animation, advertisements and other video works. I’ve worked for example for Anna Ruohonen, Francois Pragnere and Wille Hyvönen.
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Mikael Joonatan 