Music for Protection of Old Growth Forests

The Old Forest Echoes (Ikimetsän kaiku) aims to make you fall in love with old-growth forests via music and art composed and performed there.

In official collaboration with the Finnish Nature League (Luonto-Liitto) and the support of the KONE Foundation, this project aspires to raise awareness and resources to protect the threatened old-growth forests in Finland. An internationally acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Barbora Šilhánová (alias Barbora Xu) is recording an album rooted in a four-month-long stay in Finnish old-growth forests.

These old-growth, biodiversity-rich forest areas are spread across different parts of the country. They are unprotected and threatened to be cut down. The trips take place from spring to autumn, when Barbora travels from nearby to distant old-growth forest areas in a motorhome. The forests are also visited for a shorter period of time by the team, consisting of jewelry and land artist Wiebke Pandikow; sound engineer and soundscape artist Mikko H. Haapoja; 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 that inspired the music composition, organize music and land art workshops on location as well as release music videos and finally a documentary by 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 (Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation) for further protection. The project itself is sponsored by the KONE Foundation (Finland).

In addition to Barbora Šilhánová (artistic director, musician), the project working group includes artists such as Niklas Winter, Jenni Venäläinen, Ville Tanttu, Mikko H. Haapoja, and Wiebke Pandikow.

The general timeline of the project is Jan 2025 to Apr 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.