Airaniemi/Karjalainen + Heli Hartikainen

Airaniemi/Karjalainen + Heli Hartikainen Standard €22 €4 front‑service fee charged at the door. 4€ cloakroom charged at the door. Doors: 18:00 Airaniemi/Karjalainen is a new electro‑acoustic instrumental music ensemble formed by Ville‑Veikko Airaniemi and Väinö Karjalainen, whose music is strongly based on improvisation. It draws influences from, among others, ambient, drone and experimental music. In addition to Airaniemi and Karjalainen, the live line‑up also includes multi‑instrumentalists Olavi Louhivuori and Ilkka Tolonen. The group will perform at G Livelab music from, among others, Ville‑Veikko Airaniemi’s Rooms album to be released in autumn 2026 and Väinö Karjalainen’s Birch Bark Letter album to be released in April 2026. Ville‑Veikko Airaniemi is a guitarist known from many collaborations, whose broad musical interest has taken him to various projects ranging from pop and rock to jazz, fusion and world music. He has appeared, for example, in the line‑ups of Arpa and Emma & Matilda, and has worked with many other artists and bands. Airaniemi released his first record Calico in November 2024. Väinö Karjalainen is one of Finland’s most respected alternative‑music producers and sound engineers. Karjalainen’s work can be heard on albums by Arpa, Lyytinen and Ursus Factory. As a musician he also appears in groups such as Tiisu and Pekka Laine & The Enchanted. Karjalainen released his first solo album Birch Bark Letter in April 2026. Airaniemi/Karjalainen: Ville‑Veikko Airaniemi – guitars, effects Väinö Karjalainen – percussion, guitars, effects, synthesizers Ilkka Tolonen – percussion, effects, synthesizers, guitars Olavi Louhivuori – drums The evening opens with saxophonist Heli Hartikainen. Saxophonist, composer and sound artist Heli Hartikainen’s music plays with experimental harmonic textures and hypnotically shifting sound fields. Hartikainen’s acclaimed debut solo album, CHRONOVARIATIONS, which utilizes 3D sound technology, was awarded the Critics’ Choice prize of the Finnish Critics’ Association in 2025 for the year’s greatest artistic breakthrough and was nominated for the 2024 Emma award for best jazz album. With her new album Interbody (2026) Hartikainen employs an active sampler software developed and jointly customized for her by sound engineer Kaj Mäki‑Ullakko. The multivoice sampler driven by Hartikainen’s tenor saxophone is characterised by a certain randomness, allowing improvisation and algorithmic chance to intertwine into an organic dialogue between human and machine. The concert is ageless.