‘The Harvest’ by Ville Raasakka submitted by ISCM Finnish section to the World New Music Days 2025 in Portugal, will be performed by Ensemble MPMP under Rita Castro Blanco.

Ville Raasakka about his piece:

The harvest as a word stirs up images of autumnal peace and bountifulness. This work is, however, about the current forest machines that harvest the trees in frightening effectivity within seconds. I have used the sounds of these current machines and transcribed them to the instruments. The moaning glissandi of the hydraulics, the rhythmic buzzing of the saws, the beeping of the control panels and the crackling and snapping of the trees are the key sound elements of the work. The horrific, machine-like sounds turn into music which struggles to free itself from the sound sources. The music becomes filtered and sinks into a sorrowful state of disbelief. This devastated music is mourning the total loss of natural biodiversity and the constant series of extinctions. The easy profits of forestry (the so-called ”forest management”) have led to a situation where over 100 years old forests will soon no longer exist in Finland (under 5% at the moment), and the rest are, strictly speaking, not forests at all. We have tree farms, pretending an image of a real forest.

Program

ÂNGELA DA PONTE (Portugal, 1984)
State of(f) Emergencies (2019), 10′

ANNA ÞORVALDSDÓTTIR (Iceland, 1977)
Aequilibria (2014), 14′ NP

SAM HAYDEN (UK, 1968)
Die Abkehr (Turning Away) (2017), 11′
ISCM British section submission

SHIN KIM (South Korea, 1994) YCA
Kaleidoscope (2023), 10′
ISCM South Korean section submission

VILLE ASLAK RAASAKKA (Finland, 1977)
The Harvest (2022), 10′
ISCM Finnish section submission

YCA · Young Composers Award candidate
NP · National premiere