The Old Forest Echoes (Ikimetsän kaiku) aims to make you fall in love with the Finnish old growth forest via music and art composed and performed there.
In official collaboration with the Finnish Nature League (Luonto-Liitto) and support of the KONE foundation, an ensemble of well-established Finland-based musicians are going to record an album composed by Barbora Silhanova (alias Barbora Xu) inspired by a four month long stay in Finnish old growth forests. These old growth, biodiversity rich forest areas are spread around different parts of Finland, they are unprotected and threatened to be logged down. The trips take place from spring to autumn, when Barbora travels from the near to the far away old growth forest areas in a caravan. The forests are also visited for a shorter period of time by the team, consisting of jewelery and land artist Wiebke Pandikow, sound engineer and soundscape artist Mikko H. Haappoja and documentary director and videographer Ville Tanttu.
As a part of the project, we will take the audience to experience live concerts and workshops directly in the actual wild forests which inspired music composition, organise music and landart workshops on the location as well as release music videos and finally a documentary by stellar videographer Ville Tanttu, known for documentaries such as the award-winning Nightingales in Berlin.
The full amount of album sales will go towards buying an actual patch of an old growth forest and donating it to the Luonnonperintösäätiö for further protection. The project itself is sponsored by the KONE Foundation (Finland).
Except for Barbora Silhanova (artistic director, musician), project working group includes artists such as Niklas Winter, Jenni Venäläinen, Ilkka Heinonen, Joni Vierre, Minna Koskenlahti, Ville Tanttu, Mikko Haapoja or Wiebke Pandikow.
The general timeline of the project is Jan 2025 to Jan 2027.
After the tour, we will purchase a patch of old growth forest from the donations and album sales. The Old Forest Echoes documentary will be shot during both years and is planned to come out in 2027.
