Sibbe Live!: Old Forest Echoes
23.09.2026 18:00 – 19:00
Standard price 20€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Student/pensioner/child 15€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
ABOAGORA participation fee (full programme 23–25.9) 50€/20€
ABOAGORA one-day ticket 20€
Old Forest Echoes is a project by award-winning Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Barbora Xu (Barbora Silhánová), that transforms threatened old growth forest landscapes into sound through ancestral musical language, nature-based artistic research, and composition. With music releases, forest workshops, soundscape installations and concerts crowned by raising finances to nature protection, the project artistically reflects the cultural and ecological value of Finland’s threatened old growth forests.
In official collaboration with the Finnish Nature League (Luonto-Liitto) and the support of the KONE Foundation, this project raises awareness and resources to protect the threatened old-growth forests in Finland. An internationally acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Barbora Šilhánová (alias Barbora Xu) is recording an album rooted in a four-month-long stay in Finnish old-growth forests. Based predominantly in Finland since 2014, Barbora works internationally across Europe and Asia, exploring poetry, string instrument traditions, and vocal expression.
These old-growth, biodiversity-rich forest areas are spread across different parts of the country. They are unprotected and threatened to be cut down. The trips take place from spring to autumn, when Barbora travels from nearby to distant old-growth forest areas. The forests are also visited for a shorter period of time by the team, consisting of jewelry and land artist Wiebke Pandikow; sound engineer and soundscape artist Mikko H. Haapoja; and documentary director and videographer Ville Tanttu.
As a part of the project, audience are invited to experience live concerts and workshops directly in the actual wild forests that inspired the music composition. Old forest Echoes organizes music and land art workshops on location as well as releasing music videos and finally a documentary by Ville Tanttu, known for documentaries such as the award-winning Nightingales in Berlin.
The full amount of album sales will go towards buying an actual patch of an old-growth forest and donating it to the Luonnonperintösäätiö (Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation) for further protection. The project itself is sponsored by the KONE Foundation (Finland).
In addition to Barbora Šilhánová (artistic director, musician), the project working group includes artists such as Niklas Winter, Jenni Venäläinen, Ville Tanttu, Mikko H. Haapoja, and Wiebke Pandikow.
Award-winning Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Barbora Xu (Barbora Šilhánová) has been living mostly in Finland since 2014, working in Europe and Asia, exploring local poetry, string instruments and vocal techniques. Her work is grounding, fragile and delicate, sound deeply inspired by nature of the Finnish sea and old growth forests.
Barbora is the founder of the Old Forest Echoes association, using her music to raise awareness of the Finnish threatened old growth forests and bring audiences into nature.
In spring 2025 Barbora released her second album The Garden of Otava and placed 7th in the WMCE. Following this successful release, the artist was awarded the Mention of International Jury at the world music festival of Andrea Parodi in Sardinia. Her album then showed again in the 20 best albums of 2025 WMCE list and is currently shortlisted in the 1st round of nominations for the music awards of the Czech Republic, the Angels.
Barbora’s work has been featured on the BBC, on Finnish TV and radio station YLE, on International Radio Taiwan, on Czech radios Vltava and Proglas, on the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation and others.
Mikko H. Haapoja (MMus) is a composer, music producer and sound artist specializing in capturing the changing soundscape of metropolises and old forests around the globe. The soundscape collage Central Forest from the project The Routes of Helsinki, which Haapoja launched in 2010, represented Finland in the EBU’s Prix Palma Ars Acustica competition for radio art in 2023. In April 2025, Haapoja received the first solo exhibitions of Finnish soundscape art in Japan – Tokyo and Hanno.
In addition to his own artistic work, Haapoja has taught at the University of the Arts Helsinki, among other things, 3D soundscape composition and live electronic performance. Haapoja records and mixes several acclaimed world music releases in his studio every year.
In collaboration with Aboagora