A sound installation by Girilal Baars
Tritonia Academic Library
Yliopistonranta 7, Vaasa
Open on Friday 9.11. (9–17) and Saturday 10.11. (11–15)
Part of LittFest 2012 festival
Straddling the fence between Swedish and Finnish i Ostrabothnia, the installation attempts a rapprochement between the languages. Pikku pikku liten is an audible exploration of the linguistic cloud of Ostrabothnia: how over time words have drifted from one language to the other and back again, how the consonants and vowels have crowded in on each other.
Pikku pikku liten was conceived during a Platform residency in Vaasa in the winter of 2012. 25 individuals were recorded, each speaking in the range of a hundred words and phrases, spanning the gap between Finnish and Swedish. All the words that were collected and recorded have migrated from one language to the other, and sometimes back. In fact, some words have clearly been borrowed back and forth between the languages several times. Pikku pikku liten is piece that investigates the similarities of the languages, which, after all, have largely co-existed in the same region for centuries and so will undoubtedly have rubbed and soaked in each others’ essence in many subtle ways.
Many thanks to Platform and to all the folks who dug into their linguistic repository, sometimes reluctantly. And of course special thanks to those who kindly lent their voices to this project: Panu Sivonen, Ulrika Ferm, Seppo Lemponen, Peppe Rosvik, Eeva Lemponen, Marcus Lerviks, Eija Leinonen, Jimmy Pulli, Tuomo Väänänen, Mia Damberg, Maaria Niemi, Mikael Niemi, Ingela Johansson, Mariia Niemi, William Johansson, Marius Niemi, Ben Johansson, Pieta Turkka, Felix Eskola, Jimmy Pulli, Anna Slotte-Lüttge, Rasmus Hedlund, Alma Lüttge and Sami Jansson.
Girilal Baars is a composer, singer and musician working with contemporary experimental music and with traditional vocal ethnic/folk music. He is based in Uppsala, Sweden, but was born in Moscow, U.S.S.R., by Dutch and Indian parents. Many of his latest projects and compositions have featured voice, live electronics and sensors and attempt to explore old vocal traditions (ballads, folk songs, ethnic extended techniques, e.g. Tuvan throat singing) through contemporary experimental music techniques and aesthetics.
As a member of the male vocal quartet “Äijä”, with the “Girilal Baars Trio” and as a solo artist he has repeatedly toured Sweden, Finland and Russia, and also performed in the USA, UK, Germany, Tuva and several other countries. In 2009 “Äijä” released the CD “Jet-Black”, which was nominated for a Finnish Grammy in the ethnic music category.
