LAURI MARJAKANGAS
-
COMPOSER, MUSICIAN, PRODUCER AND MANY MORE

Mass Mass is made up of different colored textures. Sometimes one texture type is developed longer, sometimes the textures change as if a knife has sliced through, and in some other times the texture just lies in place as if time has stopped. An oboe soloist then emerges from the set, who eventually leads the whole ensemble into more lyrical episodes. A short scherzo returns to evoke the mood of the beginning and builds, until finally, the work collapses under its own weight. Massa rakentuu erivärisistä tekstuureista. Välillä yhtä tekstuurityyppiä kehitellään pitempään, välillä tekstuurit vaihtuvat kuin veitsellä leikaten ja toisaalta välillä tekstuuri myös vain makaa paikoillaan ikään kuin aika pysähtyisi. Massan seasta esiin nousee oboesolisti, joka lopulta johdattelee koko yhtyeen lyyrisempiin jaksoihin. Lyhyt scherzo palauttaa musiikin alun tunnelmaan ja lopulta teos romahtaa oman painonsa voimansa. World Premiere @ Camerata, Helsinki Music Centre May 27th, 2024 Performed by Zagros Ensemble conducted by Petri Komulainen Hanna Kinnunen, flute Ella York, oboe Mikko Raasakka, clarinet Touko Leinonen, percussion Lambis Pavlou, piano Kaisa Kallinen, violin Aino Szalai, violin Katrīna Pelnēna, viola Eeva Rysä, cello Sampo Lassila, contrabass Lauri Marjakangas - Bio Lauri Marjakangas (1994) is a composer from Oulu, whose background is firmly on jazz and rhythm music, but whose passionate towards composing has been directed more and more towards new art music during recent years. An endless research mind, a desire to experiment and an interest in new phenomena made the composer apply to the Sibelius Academy, where he is currently studying composition for the second year under the direction of Tapio Tuomela. Lauri Marjakangas (1994) on oululaislähtöinen säveltäjä, muusikko ja musiikin monitoimimies, jonka tausta lepää vankasti jazz- ja rytmimusiikin koulutuksen päällä, mutta jonka intohimoinen palo säveltämistä kohtaan on suuntautunut viime vuosina yhä enemmän uutta taidemusiikkia kohtaan. Loputon tutkijanmieli, kokeilunhalu sekä kiinnostus uusia ilmiöitä kohtaan saivat säveltäjän hakeutumaan Sibelius-Akatemiaan, jossa hän opiskelee tällä hetkellä sävellystä toista vuotta Tapio Tuomelan johdolla.

Lauri Marjakangas (s. 1994) Jousikvartetto nro 1 ’Aarniometsä’ (2020-2021/2023) String Quartet No. 1 ’Primeval Forest’ (Kantaesitys) (Premiere) 00:12 I Vieläkö laulat, helmipöllö? (Singeth Thou Still, o Boreal Owl?) 09:12 II ’Myrsky käy ja metsä pauhaa´(‘The Storm Goes and the Forest Roars’) 15:48 III Avohakkuu (Clear-cutting) THE HAVINA STRING QUARTET Maija Wesslund, violin Heidi Ilmolahti, violin Helinä Nissi, viola Greta Ernesaks, cello Recorded live at the Uuden Musiikin Lokakuu - Ostrobothnian Contemporary Music Festival in Oulu, Finland, 4 October 2023. In the Kingdom of the Forest and the Boreal Owl Lauri Marjakangas (born 1994, Kempele) has studied at Oulu Conservatory and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. He is currently studying composition at the Sibelius Academy under Tapio Tuomela. Marjakangas began his work as a composer, arranger, musician, and studio technician in the fields of rhythm and folk music, but has increasingly focused on composing art music. His String Quartet No. 1 'Aarniometsä' (’Primeval Forest’) (2020-2021/2023), the composer describes as follows: The first movement of the quartet is dominated by the boreal owl, which until the last century was the most abundant bird of prey in our country. In the 1990s, its habitats, the old forests, began to be destroyed by clear-cutting. At the current rate, the boreal owl will become extinct within thirty years. The third verse of Aleksis Kivi's poem Metsämiehen laulu, The Song of the Woodsman, was chosen as the inspiration for the second movement of the composition: 'The peace is wonderful here, and the battle is bold. The storm rages and the forest roars, The lighting strikes fire, and the spruce falls with a crash.' The third movement is also inspired by a quote: 'It was not a forest after all. We each found that out in our own way. From the helicopter, we could see distinct patches of green and brown amidst the blue ditch lines. The bridle paths lined with mossy spruce trees ended at a logging site or a sea of saplings. On the running trails, the forest provided needle tracks for only a few minutes before they broke off into a road, a settlement, or a clearing. Hunting trips were a stumble in the treetops of rummaged clear-cuts. The forest that surrounded us in our daily lives was important, but something was missing. The experience fell short.' - The Forest After Us, Otava 2019 -

Lauri Marjakangas: Interlogue (2023) Pianist Pinja Ukkola Recorded in August 2023 at the Tulindberg Chamber Music Hall, at the Oulu Music Centre, Finland. Pianist Pinja Ukkola (b. 1997 Oulu, Finland) is studying under Kirill Kozlovski at The Sibelius Academy of t The University of The Arts in Helsinki, Finland. She has graduated from from The Oulu Concervatory, studying under Eeva Havulehto. Pinja Ukkola has performed in different festivals in Finland and abroad as a soloist and a chamber musician. She has taken part in several piano competitions. Composer Lauri Marjakangas (b. 1994, Kempele, Finland) has previously studied music at the Oulu Conservatory and Oulu University of Applied Sciences. He is currently studying composition at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki, Finland. Marjakangas started his work as a composer, arranger, musician and studio technician in the fields of rhythm and folk music, but in recent years has increasingly focused on composing art music. About his work Interlogue (2023) the composer says: In Interlogue, different rhythmic and sonorous layers appear both one after another and sliding on top of each other. The composition is based on a matrix built on twelve chords. At first, the sound is bright, but a bit cross-rolled and then slowly turns darker. The piece leaves the listener with a contemplative and slightly uncomfortable feeling. The static dot-like rhythms with sharp discordant chords were inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. The pianist gets to demonstrate a versatile range of timbre control, both in sonorous and virtuosic sections.