Veli-Matti Ikävalko
New record released by Woolshopproduction.
Gigs, requests: huopatossutehdas at gmail dot com
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Kutomo
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/kangaspuu
"...His work as Kutomo melts between ceremonial cabin floor folk and medieval-like keyboard reflection, and invokes the psychic liturgical serenity of Hildegard of Bingen via the animist counterpoint of Meredith Monk. His work has appeared on Bedroom Suck (AUS) (Blank Realm, Kitchen's Floor), Dala Horse (IT)(Richard Moult) and Jozik (FIN) (Hobo Cubes, Bjerga/Iversen)."
- Shannon O'Brien, High Street Project, Christchurch, New Zealand.
"It’s the kind of music you wish new age music actually was – improvised organ/synth moving slowly about as a wash with heavily delayed flute meandering, then topped with Kutomo’s (also heavily delayed) voice explorations, which sit somewhere between Gregorian and Tibetan monks with dashes of Andes Mountain chanting. It all floats along beautifully but with a cheapness and subtle sense of grit that stops it being wallpaper."
-Adrian Elmer, Cyclic Defrost, Australia.
"...He is indeed our Astral Traveller."
-Michael Jantz, Foxy Digitalis.
"...Koristeellista äänimattoa on tosiaan kudottu, akustisten ja sähköisten soitinten sekä efektien äänistä. Ne kulkevat kirjavina säkeinä toistensa lomassa. Ikävalkon horjuva lauluääni ja sanoitukset toimivat osana rikasta äänimaailmaa, mutta eivät nouse hallitseviksi elementeiksi."
-Ville Moskiitto, Kultturivihkot, Finland.
"An earnest young man in an alarmingly accurate-to-cliché Scandinavian patterned jersey is sitting on the floor of someone's lounge, picking up instruments in turn and playing plaintive but focused melodies through a digital delay, then singing along to the newly created microtune before discarding it for the next one. Instead of the traditional layering/building effect familiar from this sub-genre of digital folk-psych, what comes across is more akin to a musical round. The moments are not held for long, guitar makes way for flute, flute makes way for keyboard, songs sung in (presumably) Finnish hang on the air, defying their creator's categorisation of them into a suggested proffer of “Do you want to hear a happy or a sad song next?” The obvious answer comes quickly from beside me: “Both”. It's quickly apparent that this earnestness is deceptive, foreign..."
-Campbell Walker, Cropmagazine, New Zealand. Read complete article.
"...With his droning church organ sound twisting into arpeggios and shifting chord inversions, perhaps the allusion is too glib, but there’s a strong sense of the pious in Kutomo’s music. His deep, indecipherable and decidedly monk-like murmurings and delay-effected flute dance across the border of New Age without the proper paperwork."
-Babette Gladney, Mess & Noise, Australia.
Understanding Infinity exhibition in Serial Space, Sydney Australia in March 2011. Three piece sound collasion of healing and opening music for different body areas are: 1. Head area, expands mind, 2. Outerbody area, expands sense of bodyline & 3. Innerbody area, expands beauty growth and sense of emotional details. Love. "The exhibition explores what lies beyond an obligation to act. The works disregard pre-meditated 'outcomes’, instead proliferating meanings that come from the process of transformation itself. It is engaged with an analysis; the search within existing notions or perceptions of 'how it is' for possibilities of transcendence." - Leo Zylberberg, curator.
Collaborations with another artists and orchestras:
Ivan Afanasyev (Love Cult), Felicia Atkinson (Strechandrelax), Larkin Grimm, Jani Hirvonen (Uton), J.Koho (Kulkija, Vapaa, Tulasi), Jarkko (Rihmasto), Clayton Noone (Armpit, Horsehead Nebula), Jukka Nousiainen (Rambling Boys, Räjäyttäjät), Juuso Paaso (Mustat Kalsarit, Boris Morgana), Tiitus Petäjäniemi (Vapaa), Erno Taipale (Garden of Worm), Andrew Tuttle (Anonymeye), Keijo Virtanen (Keijo, Kheta Hotem, The Freeplayers).
