RUSSIAN POETS 
 

​

Russian Poets is the name of UTU's third album that was published in November 2017. It is also the name of a wider project including collaboration wth other artists.

​

"I happened to see a painting that influenced this album a lot in The Amos Anderson Art Museum three years ago. I still don’t know what it was called or who was the painter, but there was some dark water in a wintery forest. Light was grey, as in November. While I was staring at it I knew just how what I saw would sound. It became Melancholy, the first song of our album. The lyrics emerged later but the feeling was determined by that painting. 

 

And so it went on, different forms of art (yes, this sounds hippie but…) gave me these songs. The most important inspiration to me has been Andrei Platonov, a master of switching meanings or building many of them into one sentence. Hence the name ’Russian Poets’ for the whole album, especially since he is not the only Russian writer that has  influenced this record. In the end, this became an album where homeless waters float freely. Where melancholy grants its bursting shine on us. It shows grumbling sceneries and gives away something that it never owned in the first place. 

 

When we finally had music to fill a whole album, we asked ’what now?’ That’s when the idea of music inspired by art inspiring different art forms again came into being. With that thought we could see the chain of inspiration and interpretation unfolding. We invited artists to a co-operation that was new to us and, it seems, is unique in a wider sense too. They were all given one song from the album, and directed to allow the music to influence them with no restrictions. 

 

Looking back at all the hours in trains writing lyrics, all the ’who plays what’ -discussions, all the producing that it takes to make the music, having it released, having about twenty artists to listen to it and give part of their souls into this project, making it all into a book, exhibition and a concert, it is easy to feel proud. We surely have given all metres of our hearts into this; perhaps our success will be measured by the thickness of our tears. Humbly we bend our heads now - following all becoming wild thoughts and - letting go."

 

Composer, lyricist and producer of the whole extravaganza 

Petra 

​

​

​

​

 THE ARTISTS AND THEIR ARTWORKS IN RUSSIAN POETS 

​

​

Jan Anderzen   
visual & sound artist  ///  textile artwork

​

Maria Atosuo

visual & graphic artist  ////  painting, oil on canvas

​

Vesa Etelämäki 

poet  ///  poem

​

Juha Hurme

writer, theatremaker  ////  song, text

with Eetu Känkänen (actor) & Tuuli Kainulainen (musician)

​

Pauli Kallio & Kati Kovács

comics writer & comics artist  ///  comics

​

Kristian Smeds

theatremaker  ///  oil on canvas

​

Virpi Kanto

sculptor  ///  concrete bas-relief (4)

​

Tapani Kokko

sculptor  ///  wooden sculpture

​

Saara Hurme

dancer, choreographer  ///  dance film

​

Jouni Kopsa

glass artist  ///  glass artwork

​

Anniina Kumpuniemi

dancer, choreographer  ///  dance film

​

Miira Luhtavaara

poet  ///  poem

​

Heini Maaranen

visual artist, puppet maker  ///  sculpture, metal/thread

 

Laura Malmivaara 

actor, photographer  ///  photo, text

​

Jani Rapo   

visual & sound artist  ///  triptych, mixed technique on canvas

​

Matti Rasi 

visual artist, sculptor, scenographer  ///  3 x photo / oil painting

​

Elli Salo & Elina Minn 

dramatists  ////  collage

 

Jussi Virkkumaa 

photographer  ///  3D model

​

​

​

​

 VIDEO ART 

 

SAARA HURME: FORGET-ME-NOT