Fredagar på Sibbe: Lau Nau & Matti Bye
27.03.2026 19:00 – 20:00
Standard price 25€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Student/pensioner/child 20€ +order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
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), known until 1918 as Hjalmar Johan Aleksander Lindfors, was a Finnish composer, organist, organ builder, instrument maker, science fiction writer, and visual artist. The Sibelius Museum holds an extensive collection of instruments designed by him. The museum organized the exhibition Organ Works, Kantele, and a Touch of Sci-Fi – J. Pohjanmies from 9 October 2024 to 1 June 2025.
Pianokantele
Combining the piano and kantele was a life-long project for Pohjanmies. He had been fascinated by the kantele as a child, and early on he was interested in combining it to the claviature of a piano. The first version of the pianokantele was published in 1930 and the second in 1931. Both versions have a piano-like hammer mechanism, which makes the instrument sound nearly like an ordinary piano. The development continued, and the last, unfinished pianokantele version is from the year 1954.
In 1948, Pohjanmies added electricity to pianokantele: the clavierkantele was born. The hammers were replaced with a harpsichord-like plectrum mechanism, where the plectrums are made of leather so that they resemble a fingertip. This made the instrument sound more like a kantele than a piano. The resonance box was missing due to an electric amplifier taking care of the volume.
Of all the instruments Pohjanmies invented, the different versions of pianokantele got the most publicity in the press, and rather many were manufactured and sold.
Lau Nau, also known as Laura Naukkarinen, creates music that moves along the borders between electroacoustic experimentation and the singer-songwriter tradition. Her instruments include modular synthesizers, voice, field recordings, water-based sounds and acoustic instruments. Lau Nau has released 11 full-length solo albums as well as numerous collaborative recordings on international labels.
She is known for her Jussi Award–winning film music, her multichannel sound installations and her collective listening workshops, and has performed widely around the world, including at Super Deluxe in Tokyo, The Lab in San Francisco, and Pioneer Works in New York.
Matti Bye’s music moves in the borderland between neoclassical soundscapes, electroacoustic experimentation and improvisation. His instruments include piano, celesta, analogue synthesisers, tape loops, and various acoustic objects, creating a visual and narrative sonic space. Bye has released several solo albums and worked across a wide range of collaborations within film, performing arts, and sound art.
He is known for his work with silent film and for combining piano and celesta with analogue synths, loops, and electroacoustic processing. Bye has performed extensively internationally — including at M.O.M.A. in New York, Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Rewire Festival in The Hague, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm — and works both solo and in ensemble formats such as Trio Ramberget and Kiri Ra!.