Could not be more excited! Tell your friends:
May 3rd ENVIRONMENT 0G, OSAKA
May 5th TOBIRA RECORDS, KASAI
May 6th TETE, NAGOYA
May 10th EXPERIMENTAL ROOMS / SAKYUKAN, NIIGATA
May 13th NANAHARI, TOKYO
Sormet laulua etsii at Porvoo Art Hall
Sormet laulua etsii (~”Fingers In Search of a Song”) is up at Porvoon Taidehalli / Porvoo Art Hall until February 23rd.
”Fingers in Search of a Song” consists of textile artworks, a three-dimensional composition, and a human nest constructed from postcards. This piece serves as an almost silent counterpart to ’Halki pilvien’ (~”Through the Clouds”), an audio album released by Tomutonttu last year, yet it is also interwoven with unwavering gentleness and an independent perspective on humanity’s stumbling development.
On the day the show closes Tomutonttu will give a concert at Taidehalli.
Before that, February 13th Tomutonttu has been invited to perform next to the Circle’s Piste installation. Also performing Anla Courtis!
Next up for Tomutonttu – Japan tour in May! More info soon.
Tomutonttu mini documenary
A very cool group of TAMK 2nd year media students asked Tomutonttu to be the subject for their mini documentary assignment and of course I said yes! It was a fun collaboration and the whole crew was very sweet and professional. I feel they got me and did a great job!
Fun fact: I’ve known producer Veera’s parents for 25 years or more – Anna I met in art school and Teemu was one of the founding members of Circle!
Directed by Miika Heiskanen
Written by Ville-Matti Salminen & Susanna Tikkanen
Producers Veera Elo & Miika Heiskainen
Cinematographer & Colorist Salla Suomalainen
Editor & B-Roll Olli Heikkinen
Lighting & VFX Wizardry Saku Eronen
Music & Sound Effects Jan Anderzén
Sound Recordist & Audio Post Liina Mäkinen
Tampere University of Applied Sciences 2024
New Tomutonttu album Halki pilvien available for pre-order
The next Tomutonttu album will be released November 25th on vinyl (Full Contact) and cassette (Edições CN). You can now pre-order those or just the files on Bandcamp. Here’s the 2nd track from the album.
Jan Anderzén - living in Tampere, Finland - is a collage artist making music, quilts, drawings, mosaics, videos and other things. From him, among a few others, sprang the The River of Finland. A stream that shook the European underground for infinity, back from the years 2005 and up. Jan is/was involved in acts like Kemialliset Ystävät, Avarus, Tomutonttu and The Anaksimandros. When in the past some of that River of Finland tasted like a fermented ocean of mycelia - today it tastes different, like sparkling water.
Halki pilvien - transl. Through the Clouds - brings exactly what one expects from the clouds. It is a collection of soft and gentle movements, as playful as a ‘Jan Anderzén type of music’ is always. A collection of patterns that solidify for just a brief moment in time, before sublimating in the back of the mind. This album is in constant motion.
Push play. A warped piano and cartoonish SFX’s might foretell a hyperreal approach to music. Yet while the champion of hyperrealism, Noah Creshevsky, describes his music as being written in a language we already understand (realism) yet in an exaggerated manner (hyper) - I have to add that things on this album do not sound exaggerated at all. Moreover, i have the feeling that somehow on this work, Jan is trying to underwhelm us. In the best possible way. Because clouds float trough and dissolve. Thus instead of hyperrealism, is Jan maybe speaking to us in a certain Serenerealism? Or Mildrealism?
What Jan’s music does have in common with Creshevsky’s is the no rush part. Listening to Halki pilvien makes time non-directional. The music seems to be designed to be played over and over again. This music has no direct impact like one can experience at a punk show, or at a classical music concert. This music is not that one gigantic raincloud covering the world dark. Quite the opposite, it is a pattern of clouds and clearings, floating over the lands. Trough this music a shadow play appears. This music is durable.
And it is when the sounds are at its faintest, that Jan touches the core:
in the smallest detail, we find the fullest musical information.
Tallennus
Today starts the last week of my show Tallennus at Galleria Katariina in Helsinki.
”Delving into the enigmatic allure of music, Anderzén draws inspiration from a myriad of visual mediums—sheet music, dance, album artwork, music videos, synesthesia and cymatics. Through these lenses, he seeks to unravel the profound emotional impact that music exerts on the human psyche. Tallennus marks the culmination of Jan Anderzén's tripartite exploration across Helsinki during the winter of 2023–24.”
Here’s some documentation of Tallennus and the two other shows I had in Helsinki this winter.
detail of Kiertueraportti (2024)
Tomutonttu ratsastaa pilvien halki
TOMUTONTTU RIDES THROUGH THE CLOUDS
If the stars are aligned listening to the most ordinary blues rock jam might become a ridiculously strange experience. You suddenly remember you're at an exquisite hidden corner in the garden of forking paths. The paths leading out all fork too.
Twenty years ago, Jan Anderzén took it upon himself to bring Tomutonttu's music to human ears. In the Asbestos Art Space performance he puts on a mask and peeps beyond the mundane where an alternative logic rules. The goal is to communicate exhilarating glimpses of not knowing, of the enigma that is neither positive or negative.
Gnomes represent the original augmented reality. Tomutonttu's music arises from the groove of a random wasteland thicket. There is no distinction between "composition" and "production". Everything is going too fast and not fast enough. Why does music sometimes affect us so strongly? From the sparks of this question Tomutonttu was born.
The performance is the first part of Jan Anderzén's three-part Tomutonttu series taking place in Helsinki in the winter of 2023–24. Thanks to Koneen Säätiö for supporting the work.
Showtimes:
Fri 3.11. at 5 and 6 p.m
Sat 4.11. at 2 and 3 p.m
Sun 5.11. at 2 and 3 p.m
Mon 6.11. at 5 and 6 p.m
Tue 7.11. at 5 and 6 p.m
The show is about 45 minutes long.
https://www.janderzen.net/
https://www.asbestosartspace.com/
LARVA and Tomutonttu goes to Helsinki
Just packed up Larva, a group show I had with Heta Bilaletdin, Jonna Karana and Tero Niskanen at the beautiful Haiharan Taidekeskus. Here are some pictures and videos of my work in that show. Yes it was great but don’t worry if you missed it. Will there be a part II? Let’s hope show!
Right now I’m working on a show in Helsinki exploring the different aspects of the lost-in-music entity called Tomutonttu. Or it is actually three shows that are one show. More about that will be revealed soon!
Dust Interface is a CD document of the Tomutonttu & MSHR’s Himera concert in Turku in August 2022. We still have some copies left so get in touch if you want one. You can also listen to it here.
2023–2024 my work is generously funded by Koneen Säätiö, thank you very much for the support.
Valoisaa kuin huilun sisällä & Tomutonttu MSHR collaboration in Finland
My show Valoisaa kuin huilun sisällä (Brightness Inside A Flute) can be experience on Fridays and Saturdays at Pispala Clothing’s Upstairs Downstairs space until August 20th. It’s all new work and to be viewed with a headlamp. Documentation coming soon.
Tomutonttu & MSHR collaboration will be reactivated for two performances in Finland, August 13th at Outo Olo in Helsinki and August 20th at Kutomo in Turku. Turku show is organised by Himera.
Oudon äärellä & Sola
Lyhty creature (born 2017) is part of Oudon äärellä (“Something Strange – Media Art for Children) exhibition at Annantalo in Helsinki. The show was curated by kids and has art made by kids next to the work by grown-up artists. Oudon äärellä is organised by Annantalo Arts Centre and Artist Association MUU and will be open til the end of September. Here’s a Yle article about it Finnish.
I’m preparing new material for a rare Tomutonttu performance at SOLA Festival of experimental music and moving image. Tomutonttu will be performing May 13th at WHS Teatteri Union. That’s in Helsinki. The whole program looks very exciting!
War is the worst nightmare and I feel powerless. In connection to the war in Ukraine Tomutonttu made a track for a We Have No Zen benefit compilation.
Here are two recent Tomutonttu interviews:
It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine
Foxy Digitalis
Collaborations and solos
No news in a while! What has happened since 2019? I made a baby (a collaboration) and I made glass a mosaic.
I’ve been making a lot of music and I’m very excited to share it with the world! The new Tomutonttu album is called Hoshi and it will be out soon on Joteskii Groteskii and Vauva. Here’s the first singe Jo alkaa niitty tyhjentyä. The album has a hot cast of guests: Kraus, Maria Stereo and Milo Linnovaara!
Artsy Records will be releasing a Tomutonttu 7”EP called Seikkailun tuoksu. It starts with Kultainen lyyra.
My dear friends MSHR will be making a series of audio visual web instruments based of the material from Hoshi. Right now we are making some music, tapestries and videos together for two concerts at Blank Forms in Brooklyn, December 8th and 9th. Hope to see you there!
Me and Juhana Nyrhinen will be showing some collaborative interactive sounds sculptures (= instruments) at Rajatila soon (Nov 27 to Dec 14th).
Räjäyttäjät – Uusi Vesimiehen Aika
Hello! I made a music video for one of the greatest bands on the planet – Räjäyttäjät! The song is called “Uusi Vesimiehen aika”.
Prints for sale!
Hei I got four new prints for sale, 5 colour screenprints, in numbered & signed editions of 30, 42 cm x 30 cm. These were masterfully printed by Shining Labor in Berlin. Titles given by 5-year-old twins A&O. You may not see it from these pictures but the yellow is fluorescent and the brown’s gold.
Prices including shipping in a tube:
Suomi 58 €
EU 60 €
others 65 €
Get in touch for availability (jan at kemiallisetystavat dot com). I can give you a little discount if you’d like to get more than one.
“Pyörivä raita” tai “Vuoristorata ihmisen teko”
“Pyörivät nuolet ja pallot”
“Tanssiva valo”
“Tanssiva hirviö” tai “Tanssiva ihmishirviö”
Leikki & Hot Mess
Some of my mosaics and tons of cool art from other people are up at Haiharan Taidekeskus in Tampere until 4th of August. The show’s called LEIKKI. Few more days to check it out! There’s another group show opening soon (30.7.–25.8.2019) with my video & quilt installation in it. That one’s called HOT MESS! It’s at Valvegalleria in Oulu and it’s part of the wonderful Oulu Music Video Festival. Stay sane ok!
by Karen Constance
Colour Out Of Space // Unia Loimussa // Kemialliset Ystävät action
Looking forward to experience Brighton’s finest the Colour Out Of Space festival again (April 26th-28th)! I’ll be playing a Tomutonttu show on Sunday evening. I’m stoked to show some of my textile work at ONCA Gallery as part of the festival program. The exhibition opens on Thursday (April 25th) and it’s called “Unia Loimussa”. The line-up of the festival is once again simply mind blowing: Chie Mukain & Richard Youngs, Alvarius B, Graham Lambkin & Áine O’Dwyer, Bill Nace & Twig Harper, Af Ursin, Glands of External Secretion, Red Brut and many more!
Kemialliset Ystävät is getting back to the live music business. We’re making preparations to play two 20 Years of Mental Alaska parties in May: Telakka, Tampere on 18th and Korjaamo, Helsinki 24th. Looks like we might be playing in Moscow in the summer?!
* new solo exhibition * Tahmeaa Tietoa
My latest solo show is called Tahmeaa Tietoa. It’s at Laikku’s Studio in Tampere until February 24th. No topics, no statements, I would like to think it’s fuzzy in a good way. Go see it if you can. Here’s a trailer:
2018
What happened last year? I’m not really sure but here’s a short listing of some of the activities I found myself involved with in 2018.
I showed Siipi Empii first at 3H+K in Pori in January and then at Myymälä2 in Helsinki in February. Sami Klemola and Tampere Biennale invited me to show my work at Tiketti Galleria in Helsinki. The show was called Äimän Tähkä and was a collection of old paintings and things and some new work including these small scale textile collages:
121 Likes, 1 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "Kuka ulkoiluttaa ketä @tikettigalleria"
115 Likes, 0 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "@tamperebiennale presents Äimän Tähkä. Some recent textile pieces and a collection of older work at..."
Kemialliset Ystävät Siipi Empii was released in April by Leaving Records and Ikuisuus. I feel like it might be the most original and in many ways “successful” piece of music I’ve ever released. I also feel that not too many people heard it? But that’s ok, there so much stuff out there! Some amazing artists agreed to make music videos for the album and you can see them all here.
I only played a handful of Tomutonttu shows last year but they were all fun.
Most of the spring I was working on a commissioned proposal for a public sculpture for the new children’s hospital in Tampere. My proposal, a mosaic covered pyramid serving as a landing spot for the extraterrestrial visitors, did not win but it was fun to make and I learned a lot while making it.
206 Likes, 10 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "It was an honour to be commissioned to make a proposal for a public sculpture for the new..."
While I was melting away in the summer I somehow managed to also compose some music for NYKY Ensemble, a contemporary music ensemble operating in the Sibelius Academy. Together as a group we made an improvisatory piece that was performed in front of 15 000 people at Senaatintori in Helsinki. We were honoured to be the opening act for La Fura Del Baus’ Human Net spectacle.
49 Likes, 1 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "It was a pleasure to make music with this group of talented young people. There's a stream..."
I showed some work at Kotka Art and Pyhäniemen kartano, like these two paintings:
111 Likes, 0 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "Synny raju viili / Arise You Torrential Viili acrylic on board 80 cm x 80 cm 2018 At..."
102 Likes, 0 Comments - Jan Anderzén (@janderzen) on Instagram: "Pyhäniemi 2018, 30.6.-12.8.2018 *** Hattara acrylic on board 80 cm x 80 cm 2018 *** #pyhäniemi2018"
The rest of the year I was making things that then became Tahmeaa Tietoa.
Siipi Empii and other news
The second version of my solo exhibition Siipi Empii is now up at Galleria 3H+K in Pori. After that the show will travel to Myymälä2 in Helsinki for a third and, at least for now, the last display.
The next Kemialliset Ystävät album is finished and will hopefully come out on March 20th. Who knows when it out for real but we have already booked a party dungeon for March 17th. Leaving Records will take care of the digital and cassette needs while our local heroes Ikuisuus will press a small run of vinyl. Lots of exciting music video projects in the works too!
My quilt Pientä hilpeää rahinaa (Utun värit) is part of a group show UTU - Russian Poets. UTU is an adventurous Tampere-based band who invited all sorts of artists to create work based on / inspired by the songs on the new album. The results were first shows at Tampere-talo in December. The second act will take place in Helsinki at Kulttuuritalo, starting tomorrow, January 13th.
I still have some copies of both of these silk screen prints:
4 color silkscreen, 59 cm x 42 cm, numbered and signed edition of 30, cheap I promise. Get in touch! jan at kemiallisetystavat.com
* new solo exhibition * Siipi Empii
SIIPI EMPII (~ A WING HESITATES)
Vanhan Raatihuoneen Galleria, Turku
6.10.–12.11.2017
On a lovely flower I land to catch my breath. I rest my wings and enjoy a few drops of nutritional gruel.
I'm observing the nature fooling around with cryptic coloration, the effects of color and light. A bird's coloring is made up of singular plumes and feathers... like a mosaic. I'm contemplating the masquerade of a hunter dressed up in camouflage and screaming bright orange. Once I saw a seagull and thought it was an angel. Once I zoomed infinitely into a single pixel and felt a path open, leading to the source of an unnamed nutriment. The sun has inspired tons of art, like the tanning bed for example. It is all nature! Bless the whole world!
I flew over a wall separating the city and the woods. On it some naked witches were rehearsing their balance beam routines. I flew over a monastery and saw people gathering to form amplifiers for prayer. I flew over a lawn marking the spot where there's no need to grow food. On the silk road I saw a truck carrying the cotton fabrics printed for Jan Anderzén.
I'm on a true meadow. I'm aware that love gives you wings and that any flap of my wings may cause a tornado in some faraway land. Shattered bridges flying through the air, flocks of cars swiped into the ocean. My wings are closed, rubbing against each other in a circular motion – producing some small blithe rattle pitched too high for the human ear to catch.
Delta~Wave Festival & Art Fair Suomi
Hello!
I'm about to be teleported to Belgium where I'm honoured to perform Tomutonttu music and show some new art as part of the Delta~Wave – "a 3-day festival highlighting the trance-dimensional surface rubbings of new music, installation, sound sculpting, graphic and video art throughout Het Bos in Antwerp". Sounds pretty good! The stellar line-up includes music/art/video from people like MSHR, Visible Cloaks, Innercity, Umwurf, Robert Beatty, Virginia Genta, Jelle Crama, Hannah Giese, Amy Roselynne Faust, Gabriela Gonzáles and many more. I'll be doing a Tomutonttu performance also in Amsterdam (@Occii, May 24th) and Rotterdam (@Worm, May 28th). Thank you Frame Finland for supporting the trip.
If you're in Helsinki the upcoming weekend and in the mood for art fair you should go and see Art Fair Suomi. Somewhere in there, in between everything, you may find some little things by me. Go find them and then buy it all buahahaha... seriously though I need the money.
Prints, concerts, diaries
Hello good people of the Planet Wack!
I got two prints for sale that I just silkscreened. The one with the birds singing is 42 cm x 53 cm (numbered & signed edition of 15) and the other one's a little smaller, 30 cm x 41 cm (numbered and signed edition of 11). Both have 3 layers of acrylic colour and are printed on 200g/m² Canson paper. Get in touch for prices and availability.
Prosessigalleria ("Process Gallery", you guessed it) is a Finnish online gallery that is inviting artists to shine some light on their creative processes. My contribution took a form of a work diary. I'm writing something every day for a month and Prosessigalleria is posting my notes twice a week. Today they published the third one. It's in Finnish.
I've been working on a piece of Kemialliset Ystävät music called Nuotiossa ("Inside a Camp Fire") for the Helsinki based contemporary music group defunensemble. Yesterday I visited them in Helsinki and we rehearsed the piece. I must say, it sounded hot. I'm super excited about it! The world premiere will take place in Tallinn (Kanuti Gildi SAAL) on Friday the 9th of December and in Helsinki (WHS Teatteri Unioni) the next day, Saturday the 10th.
I'm putting together a little group show for everyone's favourite Tampere living room, Ravintola 931. It will feature art made by people who have their studio at Pyynikin trikoo, the old factory where I make most of my stuff.
Stay warm.