Illustration Gerard Daval (AI), photos Ensemble Gamut! and Della Donne ConsortEUROPEAN TOUR
Ensemble Gamut and Delle Donne Consort are researching new ways to perform early music. During this try-out / concert they join forces through improvisations, arranged early music repertoire and live electronics.
Part I
Ensemble Gamut! Rehearsal day before concert, Haekem
Part I
Ensemble GAMUT!
Bio
Ensemble Gamut! is a fresh, experimental collective of early music and folk music specialists, who are constantly searching for new ways to perform early music. They combine historical instruments and electronics in an innovative way, and have created their own unique world of sounds using medieval and renaissance music, Finnish folk tunes, improvisation and modern soundscapes.
The name of the ensemble is derived from medieval music theory (Guido of Arezzo), but also means a colour reproduction, a subset of colours. Kamut means “friends” in Finnish, and the word Kamu is also a shorthand way to refer to Finnish folk music (kansanmusiikki).
Their debut album, UT was released on 4 December 2020 on Eclipse Music. The title refers to the Swedish word for being outside, going out, or being without someone (utanför), as well as being the first note of the scale. Gamut – Gamma ut! On 25 November 2022, Eclipse Music released RE, the second album of Ensemble Gamut!.
Ensemble Gamut! has performed extensively from club gigs to museums, medieval churches and concert halls.
Musicians
Aino Peltomaa – voice, harp, percussion, electronics
Aino Peltomaa is a Finnish singer and musician, widely performing medieval, renaissance, contemporary and improvised music. Peltomaa collaborates actively with musicians and artists from different genres and regularly performs in Finland and abroad. Her innovative projects combine elements from early music, folk music and jazz, visual arts, dance and multimedia. Peltomaa performs with choirs and ensembles and collaborates regularly with internationally renowned conductors and artists. Peltomaa is actively asked to work with choirs and her vocal arrangements have been performed by such ensembles as Emma Salokoski Voices.
Peltomaa’s most recent album ÆR with her trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola for the prestigious label Outhere Music was released in early 2021. It gathered great international reviews and was chosen as the album of the week by the French National radio Musiq3. The debut album of Ensemble Gamut! for Eclipse Music, UT, was chosen as one of the best progressive albums of the year 2020, and received the Finnish Early Music Association’s “Early music achievement of the year” prize. As a lyricist Peltomaa debuted for the Belgian label Aspen Edities in 2019 with duo ‘k:amos, together with Belgian double bass player and composer Nathan Wouters.
Peltomaa has directed and performed Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen with the Finnish Kaari Ensemble, and premiered Antonio Teodoro Ortells’ Passion in Finland in collaboration with Andrew Lawrence-King. She has premiered contemporary pieces from Petros Paukkunen and Juhani Vesikkala. Peltomaa directs and co-directs many groups: Ensemble Gamut! (early music, Finnish folk music, impro, electronics), Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola (piano, viola da gamba, electronics and voice), Harmony of the Spheres (electroacoustic planetary surround soundscapes & Hildegard von Bingen’s chants), trio Sufira (medieval and contemporary music, Amor Céu (medieval music), Aino Peltomaa & Eija Kankaanranta (early and contemporary music). She is also a member of groups such as Aition, early music ensemble Kaleidos and the Helsinki Chamber Choir. Peltomaa has studied early music performance practices with Patrizia Bovi, Dominique Vellard, Baptiste Romain, Guillermo Perez, Corina Marti and Michal Gondko.
Peltomaa teaches and holds retreats that combine Gregorian chant, meditation and yoga and has received various grants for her artistic work. She holds master’s degrees in music and psychology
Aino Peltomaa – voice, harp, percussion, electronicsAino Peltomaa is a Finnish singer and musician, widely performing medieval, renaissance, contemporary and improvised music. Peltomaa collaborates actively with musicians and artists from different genres and regularly performs in Finland and abroad. Her innovative projects combine elements from early music, folk music and jazz, visual arts, dance and multimedia. Peltomaa performs with choirs and ensembles and collaborates regularly with internationally renowned conductors and artists. Peltomaa is actively asked to work with choirs and her vocal arrangements have been performed by such ensembles as Emma Salokoski Voices.
Peltomaa’s most recent album ÆR with her trio Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola for the prestigious label Outhere Music was released in early 2021. It gathered great international reviews and was chosen as the album of the week by the French National radio Musiq3. The debut album of Ensemble Gamut! for Eclipse Music, UT, was chosen as one of the best progressive albums of the year 2020, and received the Finnish Early Music Association’s “Early music achievement of the year” prize. As a lyricist Peltomaa debuted for the Belgian label Aspen Edities in 2019 with duo ‘k:amos, together with Belgian double bass player and composer Nathan Wouters.
Peltomaa has directed and performed Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen with the Finnish Kaari Ensemble, and premiered Antonio Teodoro Ortells’ Passion in Finland in collaboration with Andrew Lawrence-King. She has premiered contemporary pieces from Petros Paukkunen and Juhani Vesikkala. Peltomaa directs and co-directs many groups: Ensemble Gamut! (early music, Finnish folk music, impro, electronics), Peltomaa Fraanje Perkola (piano, viola da gamba, electronics and voice), Harmony of the Spheres (electroacoustic planetary surround soundscapes & Hildegard von Bingen’s chants), trio Sufira (medieval and contemporary music, Amor Céu (medieval music), Aino Peltomaa & Eija Kankaanranta (early and contemporary music). She is also a member of groups such as Aition, early music ensemble Kaleidos and the Helsinki Chamber Choir. Peltomaa has studied early music performance practices with Patrizia Bovi, Dominique Vellard, Baptiste Romain, Guillermo Perez, Corina Marti and Michal Gondko.
Peltomaa teaches and holds retreats that combine Gregorian chant, meditation and yoga and has received various grants for her artistic work. She holds master’s degrees in music and psychology
.
Ilkka Heinonen – jouhikko (the bowed lyre), viola da gamba, G-violone, vocals, electronics
Ilkka Heinonen is a Helsinki based musician and a composer playing jouhikko (finnish bowed lyre), double bass and G-violone. In addition to the groups based on European folk music traditions, Heinonen has worked as a soloist and in orchestras in contemporary and early music concerts and projects.
As one of the pioneers of Jouhikko, Heinonen has been expanding the use of the instrument: In his solo program, Heinonen explores the borderlines of the sacred and the profane in the Karelian Jouhikko music and Early music performance practices. The experimental sound of Ilkka Heinonen Trio has been influenced by as well as the European jazz and the Renaissance music (“Savu” 2015 and “Lohtu” 2021). Heinonen plays Jouhikko and Violone in the progressive early music group Ensemble Gamut! (“UT” 2020), a jouhikko quartet Jouhiorkesteri, in the band of Sámi singer Ánnámáret (”Nieguid Duovdagat” 2021) and in several temporary chamber music ensembles. . Ilkka Heinonen premiered all the concertos so far composed for jouhikko (Page 2013, Nagaraja 2017) and performed as soloist with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Caput Ensemble (IS), Uusinta and Avanti chamber orchestras amongst others.
Heinonen’s multifaceted playing of double bass and G-Violone can be heard in several albums and concerts ¬– in particular in the ensembles based on Nordic and Eastern Europe folk music traditions, Contemporary dance productions as well as in the various Early music ensembles.
Ilkka Heinonen is preparing his artistic doctoral degree “Folk musicians in the palaces – the development of musician expression through historical conventions” in Sibelius Academy’s MuTri doctoral School in the University of the Arts, Helsinki. The artistic entity includes the concerts “Ladogan Joutzicandele-cuningat” (2016), “Basso Ostinati per lo Jouhikko” (2018) and “Echoes of the Karelian Saints” (2020) and an upcoming solo album (2021).
Juho Myllylä – blockflutes, vocals, electronics
Juho Myllylä is a recorder player, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He studied recorders at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jorge Isaac, and graduated with a master’s degree in 2020.
Juho works with the world-renowned renaissance recorder ensemble The Royal Wind Music since 2016. With the Finnish Ensemble Gamut! Juho is in constant search for new ways to perform early music through the fusion of medieval and renaissance music, folk music, improvisation and electronics. Their critically acclaimed debut album UT was released on Eclipse Music in 2020. Juho has also performed solo at such venues as the prestigious Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Winner of the Nordic and Baltic EAR-ly 2016 early music competition, and of the International Van Wassenaer Competition 2019, Juho strives for open-minded musicianship across styles and versatility regardless of imposed genre classifications. He feels passionate about earlier repertoire – medieval and renaissance music, yet is especially interested in the recorders’ countless possibilities in contemporary and new music and working with composers, with a steadily growing number of new works written for and premiered by him. Jazz, fusion, rock, prog, experimental, electro-acoustic, live electronic, soundtrack and film music are an integral part of his musical landscape. During his studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam Juho minored in electric guitar, studying with Hans Kunneman, and besides recorder playing is active as a rock musician; he is the guitarist-singer-songwriter for the progressive alternative rock band Burntfield, with two albums released on Progressive Gears Records: the debut Hereafter in 2018 and the sophomore album Impermanence in 2021, which represents Burntfield at its most versatile and multi-layered yet.
Ilkka Heinonen – jouhikko (the bowed lyre), viola da gamba, G-violone, vocals, electronicsIlkka Heinonen is a Helsinki based musician and a composer playing jouhikko (finnish bowed lyre), double bass and G-violone. In addition to the groups based on European folk music traditions, Heinonen has worked as a soloist and in orchestras in contemporary and early music concerts and projects.
As one of the pioneers of Jouhikko, Heinonen has been expanding the use of the instrument: In his solo program, Heinonen explores the borderlines of the sacred and the profane in the Karelian Jouhikko music and Early music performance practices. The experimental sound of Ilkka Heinonen Trio has been influenced by as well as the European jazz and the Renaissance music (“Savu” 2015 and “Lohtu” 2021). Heinonen plays Jouhikko and Violone in the progressive early music group Ensemble Gamut! (“UT” 2020), a jouhikko quartet Jouhiorkesteri, in the band of Sámi singer Ánnámáret (”Nieguid Duovdagat” 2021) and in several temporary chamber music ensembles. . Ilkka Heinonen premiered all the concertos so far composed for jouhikko (Page 2013, Nagaraja 2017) and performed as soloist with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Caput Ensemble (IS), Uusinta and Avanti chamber orchestras amongst others.
Heinonen’s multifaceted playing of double bass and G-Violone can be heard in several albums and concerts ¬– in particular in the ensembles based on Nordic and Eastern Europe folk music traditions, Contemporary dance productions as well as in the various Early music ensembles.
Ilkka Heinonen is preparing his artistic doctoral degree “Folk musicians in the palaces – the development of musician expression through historical conventions” in Sibelius Academy’s MuTri doctoral School in the University of the Arts, Helsinki. The artistic entity includes the concerts “Ladogan Joutzicandele-cuningat” (2016), “Basso Ostinati per lo Jouhikko” (2018) and “Echoes of the Karelian Saints” (2020) and an upcoming solo album (2021).
Juho Myllylä – blockflutes, vocals, electronicsJuho Myllylä is a recorder player, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He studied recorders at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Jorge Isaac, and graduated with a master’s degree in 2020.
Juho works with the world-renowned renaissance recorder ensemble The Royal Wind Music since 2016. With the Finnish Ensemble Gamut! Juho is in constant search for new ways to perform early music through the fusion of medieval and renaissance music, folk music, improvisation and electronics. Their critically acclaimed debut album UT was released on Eclipse Music in 2020. Juho has also performed solo at such venues as the prestigious Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Winner of the Nordic and Baltic EAR-ly 2016 early music competition, and of the International Van Wassenaer Competition 2019, Juho strives for open-minded musicianship across styles and versatility regardless of imposed genre classifications. He feels passionate about earlier repertoire – medieval and renaissance music, yet is especially interested in the recorders’ countless possibilities in contemporary and new music and working with composers, with a steadily growing number of new works written for and premiered by him. Jazz, fusion, rock, prog, experimental, electro-acoustic, live electronic, soundtrack and film music are an integral part of his musical landscape. During his studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam Juho minored in electric guitar, studying with Hans Kunneman, and besides recorder playing is active as a rock musician; he is the guitarist-singer-songwriter for the progressive alternative rock band Burntfield, with two albums released on Progressive Gears Records: the debut Hereafter in 2018 and the sophomore album Impermanence in 2021, which represents Burntfield at its most versatile and multi-layered yet.
Part II
Delle Donne Consort
Delle Donne Consort
Bio
Delle Donne Consort is a recorder ensemble, specialised in early music, in the meanwhile actively working on a new repertoire, using experimentation with Live Electronics.
The ensemble starts a process of critical reflection and reinvention and is continuously looking for dialogue as part of its discovery and development.
Musicians
Frederike Van Lindt - General Director
Lieve De Sadeleer - Artistic Coordinator
Kinga Ludvai
Serena Agosto
