End results of sound artist Olli Aarni´s residence period are now online! At nokturno.fi/en/digital-residence/olli-aarni you can listen to the three works of sound poetry born from Aarni´s stay at our Digital Residence in April 2018.

Olli Aarni created new Finnish sound alphabets, each one with a unique distinct sound. He drew inspiration from the visual look of the letters, their pronunciation but also from his own assosiations and synesthetic intuition. They can, with Aarni´s words, be described as a kind of character analysis of the letters. At residence2.nokturno.fi/merkkiaania/ all 29 alphabets are now ready to be listened and experimented with. They´re also free to download.

Inspired by oral tradition in poetry Aarni´s first sound poetry remake is Kun oisi käeltä kieli, originally sung by Arhippa Perttunen, from 1834. The poem, now in written form, is an old Finnish folk poem preserved by Elias Lönnrot. The second poem is on representing contemporary Finnish poetry, Ja näin hän hajoaa (2018) by Sini Silveri. These two sound poems lead the listener to the layered meanings and flowing associations in the dialogue between verbal language and sound art.

Nokturno thanks Olli for the residency and its insightful and delighting end results!

The Digital Residence is Nokturno´s virtual workspace and gallery designed together with each poet-in-residence. It is organized twice a year. Open call for the next residency in Fall 2018 starts in June.