An evening of a rare kind awaits at the museum, as the pianokantele played by Matti Bye meets the modular synthesizer of Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen). The duo, who have long made music together, have performed at numerous film festivals and accompanied silent films, among other projects.

Matti Bye tells about the encounter with the pianokantele:

“We discovered the mysterious pianokantele by chance during our visit to the exhibition on instrument builder Juhani Pohjanmies at the Sibelius Museum. Visitors were allowed to try the instrument, and from the very first tone, a door opened into an enchanting sonic world that neither of us had ever heard before. It sparked an immediate desire to keep playing – and the thought occurred to us that it would be wonderful to record the instrument.

Continuing the exploration together felt completely natural. For many years, we have collaborated by placing acoustic instruments in dialogue with modular synthesisers – the piano, the celesta, and various other sound sources have all been processed and had their voices extended into the electronic realm. In our work with the pianokantele, we tried to listen our way toward what the instrument itself wanted to express, and how its voice might resonate within a contemporary musical context. There is something dizzying and time-transcending about letting an idea that was once a radical new invention, built more than a hundred years ago, suddenly sound here and now, in this room, for new ears and with new music.”

Juhani Pohjanmies (1893–1959) was a musician, organist, composer, choir conductor, instrument inventor, music shopkeeper, music teacher, concert reviewer, painter, sci-fi author and philosopher interested in esotericism. He invented and built circa 30 new instruments and, of those, about 50 different models. The instruments range from simple iron wire solutions to electrically amplified keyboards. While working for the organ builder company Kangasalan urkutehdas, Pohjanmies designed circa 80 pipe organs of which about 30 are still in use.