Sampo Haapamäki

"Generally speaking, exploratory modernist choral music is taxing to both perform and listen to, but this disc is an exception. Both Antti Auvinen and Sampo Haapamäki take the listener on a roller-coaster ride."

Microtonal classical music comes across as a nerdy pastime operating in the margins between "real notes," and with good reason. An experimental microtonal instrument is typically encircled by a close-knit community of musicians and composers who are unable to evangelise their discoveries because of difficulties in playing technique or other challenges. However, in recent years so many microtonal instruments have been developed and adopted in Finland that the colourful world between the notes is finally opening up to wider audiences.

Sampo Haapamäki has been employing quarter-tones in his music for more than a decade. In his new work, to be performed at the Time of Music festival in Viitasaari, he combines a large chamber ensemble and electronics.

"In diving into the world of microtones, I tried to make musicality my priority, listening as carefully and acutely as possible, in a natural relationship with other elements of music. A whole new world of harmony unfolded before me!"