Composer and multi-instrumentalist Mikko Sarvanne's new group, Mikko Sarvanne Garden, transports the listener to an alternate reality: a garden where waves of contemporary vocal music, the warmth of Nordic jazz, and sound art, reminiscent of musique concrète, all echo and glimmer together. The band comprises three singing vocalists, a cello, a bass, percussion, and electronics. These elements whittle and mould time itself, creating joint sharp moments of rhythm as well as an eternally flowing and stretching mass of sound; cathedrals of ancient voices, the glow of cello and bass, as if the Earth's crust itself were breathing. Sarvanne's compositions combine a vivid vision and control with the freedom and peace of the Garden troupe.

The group was formed in 2020, and their début album was released in autumn 2022; entitled Heräämisen valkea myrsky ("The white storm of awakening"), it is based on the poetry collection of the same name by Finnish poet Erkka Filander (Poesia 2013). The poems in this vivaciously blooming book have filtered deep into the music of Mikko Sarvanne Garden, appearing as the titles, as the mise en scène of a musical event, and as the sung lyrics of the album's tracks. Heräämisen valkea myrsky is a work of music that awakens reality to resonate alongside the texts of the collection, offering a mirror that reflects existence with a life of its own, like a landscape on the surface of a pond.

The musicians in Mikko Sarvanne Garden are some of the brightest rising stars in Finnish jazz and classical music, having played in the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra as well as jazz outfits Superposition, Signe, and Selma Juudit Alessandra.

Band members:

Josefiina Vannesluoma: vocals
Selma Savolainen: vocals
Virva Immonen: vocals
Aino Juurilainen: violoncello
Oskari Siirtola: double bass
Jesse Ojajärvi: percussion
Mikko Sarvanne: composition, electronics

all musicians: objects, percussion, vocals