Twelve works of music nominated for the Teosto Prize
The nominees for the 2022 Teosto Prize were exceptionally chosen out of Finnish works of music published in the past two years. The amount of prize money to be distributed among the winners is also the largest in the history of the prize: a total of EUR 60,000 will be awarded. The Teosto Prize, which was first awarded in 2003 and is now being awarded for the 17th time, is one of the most noteworthy art prizes in the Nordic countries.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to award the Teosto Prize in 2021. For this reason, the rules of the Teosto Prize were exceptionally changed so that the 2022 prize can be awarded to a minimum of two and a maximum of four works. In a normal year, the prize would be awarded to 1–4 works. The amount of prize money to be distributed among the winners is also the largest in the history of the prize: EUR 60,000. If there are two winners this year, one winner can receive up to EUR 30,000.
All the nominated works and collections of works were published or premiered in 2020 or 2021. As a result of the exceptional circumstances last year, the number of nominees was increased to 12, while the normal number of nominees is 5–7.
“The COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021 led to fewer works of new innovative music being published and premiered in the music industry. However, the nominated works stood out, and the jury was able to make its final decision surprisingly quickly and painlessly,” says Mervi Vuorela, the Chair of the preliminary selection panel responsible for selecting the nominees for the Teosto Prize.
The nominees for the 2022 Teosto Prize
The nominees were chosen by a preliminary selection panel consisting of music journalist and non-fiction writer Mervi Vuorela (Chair), journalist and radio host Antti Granlund, music journalist Lotta Emanuelsson, music researcher and music journalist Mikael Mattila, journalist Katri Kallionpää, DJ and journalist Tytti Viljanen and musicologist, Associate Professor and PhD Susanna Välimäki.
The recipients of the Teosto Prize are chosen by a four-member jury consisting of the 2020 Teosto Prize winners, artist Jesse Markin and composer and producer Totte Rautiainen, as well as members invited by Teosto’s management team, Rector of the University of the Arts Helsinki Kaarlo Hildén and journalist Maria Veitola. The winners are announced at an event for invited guests at the restaurant of Helsinki Music Centre on 19 May.
MINNA LEINONEN’S COMPOSITION FOR THE KINETIC OPERA ALMA!
The ALMA! opera’s music is built in a creative way around intermediate forms between speech and song, rhythmic innovations and exciting sonorousness. Three sopranos, a flute, viola da gamba, piano, percussion instruments and electronics form a distinctive super instrument that charms with both its overall impression and its carefully thought-out details. The soundscape that is both organised and chaotic, intelligent and emotional, produces a high-definition image of psychological violence and responsibility.
VILLE AALTO’S COMPOSITIONS FOR THE ALBUM AVIAN ELECTRONICS
Ville Aalto’s experimental Avian Electronics is a strong statement in the history of Finnish electronic music and a fine collection of works where our relationship with nature is created anew. The work creates an artificial world of signals that borrows elements from nature, creating an exciting musical non-place.
CECILIA DAMSTRÖM’S COMPOSITION ICE
Cecilia Damström’s work as a composer is characterised by the open-minded updating of contemporary classical music to match the world of the 2020s. Composed for a symphony orchestra, ICE describes what the melting of the ice feels like in times of climate change. The work’s sound masses creak and glimmer, sound the alarm and go away. The soulful bath of sounds scrubs the mind, challenges the ear and looks to the future.
ADINA DUMITRESCU’S COMPOSITION I SMILED TO THE BIRD ON JUPITER
Adina Dumitrescu’s work of organ music I smiled to the bird on Jupiter broadens our idea of what the organ can express. The work sounds like the soundtrack of a surrealist film. The birds singing over the dreamlike space landscape also remind one of worries about the fate of our own planet in a touching way.
LINDA FREDRIKSSON’S COMPOSITIONS FOR THE ALBUM JUNIPER
Saxophonist Linda Fredriksson’s Juniper is like a jazz album by a singer-songwriter. The fantastic collaborative performance is pierced by a powerful personal sound and feel. Fredriksson’s work is independent of genre, which is why it can move listeners across all genres.
RASMUS SOINI’S COMPOSITIONS FOR SOINTI JAZZ ORCHESTRA’S ALBUM KOLIBRI
Many of Sointi Jazz Orchestra’s 18 musicians play multiple instruments. A composer and conductor, Rasmus Soini makes good use of this on the album Kolibri by painting delicate, watercolour-like tone colours that revolutionise the idea of the sound and expressive possibilities of a big band ensemble.
SANNA KLEMETTI’S LYRICS AS WELL AS SANNA KLEMETTI AND PEKKA TUOMI’S COMPOSITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR LITKU KLEMETTI’S ALBUM KUKKIA MUOVIPUSSISSA
Kukkia muovipussissa is an uninhibited, fast-tempo and delightful disco epic. The album’s electronic and synth-led approach is a new but natural stylistic takeover. The album’s lyrics look at a young person’s struggle between childhood and adulthood: the themes of insecurity, feeling like an outsider and sexual awakening are dealt with in an entertainingly straightforward but tender way.
LIISA TANI’S COMPOSITIONS AND LYRICS FOR SIR LISELOT’S ALBUM MANIDUROS
Sir Liselot’s Maniduros is an irresistibly hysterical collection of pop music that bounces around in many directions in terms of both its style and subject matter – in a bold, surprising and funny way. The work’s musical choices are homespun but also rich and fresh: Maniduros is current but sounds fully original. Once you have entered the world created by Liisa Tani, you won’t want to leave.
EEVIL STÖÖ AND TEAM’S LYRICS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR EEVIL STÖÖ’S ALBUM MARSIPAN WAVE
On Marsipan Wave, the already brilliant rap lyricist builds a whole where not even a single line is wasted. The cheerfully bewildering stream of consciousness of Eevil Stöö’s surrealist stand-up show comes at the listener at such a breathtaking pace that you can discover something new about the lyrics even after several listens. At the same time, album’s atmosphere is relaxed and unforced: the loose soul and jazz samples and the slow tempos convey the feeling that the creators had fun when they were making the work.
SAMI HYNNINEN’S COMPOSITIONS AND LYRICS FOR OPIUM WARLORDS’S ALBUM NEMBUTAL
Nembutal is an uncompromising interim statement on Sami Hynninen’s exploration of the margins of metal music, which has spanned more than a quarter of a century. Hynninen draws on elements that are already familiar to him – heaviness, suffering and melancholy – but does it with a visionary and involved approach. The work is a dance of opposites that combines light and shadow, minimalism and experimentalism, heaviness and ethereality, as well as beauty and ugliness.
LAURA NAUKKARINEN AND MATTI BYE’S COMPOSITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS AND JANNE LAINE’S WORKS ON LAU NAU’S SOUNDTRACK ALBUM SJÄLÖ
Laura Naukkarinen has a powerful style of composition that may be unique in Finland. The compositions for Lotta Petronella’s film Själö form a delicate and moving whole that allows listeners to travel to the island of Själö, which has many secrets. The music on the album is built of Naukkarinen’s modules, loops and signal routings, where she uses Matti Bye’s piano playing, Janne Laine’s field recordings and the writings of people who lived on the island of Själö, picked up from the film.
JOHANNA RASMUS AND TEAM’S WORKS ON YONA’S ALBUM UNI JOHON HERÄÄN
The singer-songwriter Yona engages our emotions with her work Uni johon herään, a collaboration with the Tapiola Sinfonietta symphony orchestra. A symphony orchestra is just the right group size to interpret the album’s stream-of-consciousness-like descriptions of relationships, loves and disappointments. The brokenness of people has rarely been written of in such a naked and believable way.
The Teosto Prize is awarded to bold, original and innovative works of music
The purpose of the Teosto Prize is to annually recognise bold, original and innovative works of music or collections of works. With the prize, Teosto also wants to support the diversity of genres and increase the appreciation of the work of music creators in society. Awarded since 2003, the Teosto Prize is one of the most noteworthy art prizes in the Nordic countries. It is now being awarded for the 17th time.
This year, the prize will be awarded to 2–4 works or collections of works (normally it would be awarded to 1–4 works). The total amount of prize money is EUR 60,000, of which a single work can receive a maximum of EUR 30,000 (normally the prize money would be EUR 40,000 and the maximum awarded to a single work would be EUR 25,000). The works may represent any genre.
