The Maaemo project began unusually, starting with creating a performance costume, followed by the music. Finnish artist Meri Peura crafted a wearable sculpture using plastic debris collected from the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. Kantele artist Eva Alkula was involved in the project and asked me to write music to complement this somewhat rigid, rustling, sculpture-like costume. In my mind, I envisioned nature rising from underground, burdened by human-created rubbish. I wanted to write music infused with primal power—a profound cry from Mother Earth herself.

In many cultures across the globe, Mother Earth (Maaemo in Finnish) is a concept of a spirit entity that controls the earth and all living things. In this work, the kantele has two symbolical sections: the wound bass strings represent the sub-terrestrial (alinen) world, and the steel strings in the treble range represent everything above the ground (ylinen). There is a primitive force within the earth that strives upward, representing itself as a growth in nature, varying according to seasons. During the harsh polar winter, the growth of plants slows down and stops altogether, to start again in the spring. However, during the hibernation, the power of the roots and the earth remains alive in the depths. The subterranean Alinen is a mythical place where a mirror-image world or the home of the dead is said to exist. Also, according to the Finnish folk tales, you can hear whispers of the goblins somewhere deep underground. TR, 2024