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.