Field Studies Artist Residency: Alpo Nummelin

Meet Alpo Nummelin, a musician from Finland. When not performing and writing with Finnish electronic pop band, Ruusut, he’s working with numerous other artists as a producer/songwriter. He came to visit to work on some new music for a solo project and big thanks to our friend, Ville Hyvonen, for introducing us. Here are some more details from Alpo in his own words:

What brought you here?

"My main goal for the residency period was to take a little time from touring and my work as a music producer and focus on my own music. The fact that the location is quite remote from Helsinki appealed to me and when I got this opportunity to come to work in the Meteorite I happily accepted it."

What are you working on?

"At the moment I am writing music and preparing my solo work. In the project I am combining renaissance secular dance music from 1400-1500 to modern electronic dance music. My method has been sampling the original compositions and use them as texture and melodic motifs the way Daft Punk used 70's disco music. My initial inspiration for the project has been the link of humanity through different ages. I have always been fascinated by the thoughts and feelings of people that walked here before us. The only link to those emotions 500-years ago is art. I'm tying to make my homage to the composers of the era by sampling their music to modern context."

How did you use the space?

"I used the space to compose ideas and make some demos. I tried to keep my stay as intuitive and non structured as possible. I just laid my synthesizers and effects on the table and kept my mind open.

I think one of the biggest upsides of the space is that you can start working as soon as you wake up and doesn't have to mind making too much noise if you’re working late. The space was super inspiring artistically and provided nice acoustics and atmosphere to really focus on your work.

As a result of this mindset, I composed a small orchestral piece and some demos for my main project.

I wanted to give myself a possibility to sit down and listen what goes inside of me and compose it out without forcing it to any predestined form. I think the surroundings also made an impact on the material. At night I was listening to the silence and the music that the wind made with close by trees. This inspired me to also write something without a defining beat."