You can listen to the preview of this album on this page. Full version is available on all streaming platforms and also on Bandcamp.
Composition and sound design: Walter Sallinen
Libretto and dramaturgy: Klaus Maunuksela
Sound design, recording and binauralisation: Kaj Mäki-Ullakko
Artistic producer: Taavi Oramo
Awake Percussion: Petteri Kippo, Lauri Pekkarinen, Jerry Piipponen, Walter Witick
Chorus: Sanni Kriikku, Hannes Mikkelsson, Helena Puukka, Juha Pulli, Juho Keränen, Noora Kauppila
Cover art : Jaakko Pallasvuo
UXO is an abbreviation of unexploded ordnance. It refers to unexploded bombs, grenades and land mines, which remain in the ground, ready to explode even decades after their use. Like unexploded ordnance, modern reality is full of unexplained threats with no single clear cause. We live in an economic system based on continual growth on a warming planet, where the future is shown in the alternating light of technological utopias and impending disasters. The heating political atmosphere connects conflicts in unpredictable ways, and social tensions never fully discharge. A hypernormalised media reality means that what was only recently exceptional is already the new normal. What does this constant excitement sound like?
The electroacoustic work by Walter Sallinen and Klaus Maunuksela was premiered by the Awake Percussion quartet and chorus formed by singers, actors and dancers together with live electronics as part of Helsinki Festival 2019 in Kattilahalli, Suvilahti. This binaural version of the work was recorded and broadcasted in 2020 as a commission by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE.
Walter Sallinen – Credits: Christel Clerc
Klaus Maunuksela – Credits: Lasse Poser
Walter Sallinen is a Helsinki-based composer and sound artist. Sallinen’s artistic practice explores the potential of interdisciplinarity both as a compositional tool and as a key for unforeseen collaborative concepts.
Klaus Maunuksela is a dramaturg and writer working with sonic textual practices. He approaches writing through experimenting with myriad text materials, which are woven together into essayistic constellations and multilayered sonic textures.
Trailer of UXO for its premiere as part of Helsinki Festival in 2019