Party around junky electronic squeaks, whirrs and other noises with Ross Manning, Koelse and NOMO who will be creating custom electronics, kinetic sculptures and machinery and then performing inside their own creations.

Ross Manning is an Australian artist that works with custom electronics, instrument building and junk assembly. Creating music solo or along side his automated instruments, Ross’ output traverses many medias, encompassing installation, sculpture, sound art, image and live performance. Ross performs electronic music solo as 4 layers of 9 and collaborates with a variety of other artists in separate projects. http://www.milanigallery.com.au/artist/ross-manning

KOELSE, (Association of experimental electronics / kokeellisen elektroniikan seura) is a crazed electronics group from Helsinki who bend anything from televisions to old slot machinery... www.koelse.org

NOMO (aka Sammy Kramer) will be playing a special surprise of his own concoctions

FURSAXA (US)
Fursaxa is the solo-project of the American psych-folk queen Tara Burke. For the past 10 years she has charmed audiences all over the US and Europe with her haunting music. Her compositions are build with flutes, percussion, keyboards, guitars, mandolins and especially her strong voice. The hypnotically beautiful sound of Fursaxa will take the listener through nocturnal realms. Voices from the shadows tempt us with their familiarity like the stars leading our way. At the Ptarmigan Fursaxa will perform together with Helena Espval from the Espers.
http://www.fursaxa.net/

KUUPUU
Jonna Karanka aka Kuupuu plays partly improvised collage tunes with dumpster dived bollywood tapes, toys and effects.
http://www.myspace.com/kuupuu

KULKIJA
Painting musical mandala and erasing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Age_music

Ptarmigan will host a residency by Irene Moon and her Auk Theatre.  Her website describes Auk as: "Noisy, short and simple Absurdist theatre with only the best topics in consideration; shoes, cardbord, bats, wine, shapes and murder. Created simply to be beautiful." 

Irene will create a new Auk performance using the Ptarmigan space and perform twice while also screening some film and video work.  As an exhibition, drawings and storyboards by Auk partner Matt Minter will be on display, as well as prints and video stills from past Auk Theater performances and films.

The second performance will be Saturday, 26 September at 15:00 featuring live music by Moon's international due Lamprey and Vinegar and Helsinki's own Kutomo.

Ptarmigan will host a residency by Irene Moon and her Auk Theatre.  Her website describes Auk as: "Noisy, short and simple Absurdist theatre with only the best topics in consideration; shoes, cardbord, bats, wine, shapes and murder. Created simply to be beautiful." 

Irene will create a new Auk performance using the Ptarmigan space and perform twice while also screening some film and video work.  As an exhibition, drawings and storyboards by Auk partner Matt Minter will be on display, as well as prints and video stills from past Auk Theater performances and films.

The opening and first performance will be Friday, 25 September at 8:00 PM, with live music by Moon's international duo Lamprey and Vinegar and Helsinki electro-weirdos Hermanni ja Juuso.

Hello - due to scheduling problems, Core of the Coalman will no longer be performing on Monday 21 September.  However, Marjatta has graciously agreed to step onto the bill.

BioArte International
Artist and futurist thinker Nicola Morton represents a biotech firm which is holding a special dog cloning demonstration in a Helsinki. The cloning of a dog as a 1-2-3 easy kitchen recipe is the future. ..in fact it is already happening, BioArte wants to take it to the mass marketing level. Future Technologies for the People.BioArte International is a piece from the artist's series 'Beyond Digitalized Communities' Mar

Marjatta
Still pictures and tape music.

Spyders and the Cult of Hide
A Travelling Sideshow from Nicola Morton – Every show a little bit same and every show a little bit different. A performance involving poetry, imagination, chanting, hand made instruments, charming, wit, music, puppets, singing, dancing, spread thru the audience with legs like spider and spun in circles, trying to catch some dinner.

The Mental Alaska 10 year celebration continues on 16th September with
a joint effort between Mental Alaska, the Potlatch club and the artist
group Kuti. The event takes place in Ptarmigan, a new art space in
Vallila that has quickly made itself visible in the Helsinki cultural
life. This time the live music will be performed in the Ilmi Ö-theatre
space that is located in the same building. This concert is also the
release party of the brand new Kuti magazine issue #13.

The headlining act BLOOD STEREO are Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and
Karen Constance (Smack Music 7). Together they create collages of
sound that draw their influences from musique concrete, noise and
sound poetry. All this is delivered with a healthy dose of truly
infantile humor. Nyoukis also runs the unique record label Chocolate
Monk. The members of Blood Stereo have done collaborations with loads
of artists like Wolf Eyes, Thurston Moore and Sun City Girls. This is
their first ever visit to Finland!

Both hailing from Blackburn. West Lothian,,, a shitsville village in
Scotlands central belt, these tubes relocated and married in Brighton,
England.. Lungs full of sea air and bellys full of wine fuel much of
the scab sounds of Blood Stereo...Outside of this unholy union Karen
performs solo as Smack Music 7, as well as leading an ever changing
all female outsider noise group The Polly Shang Kuan Band. Dylan also
records solo (under the imaginative umbrella of Dylan Nyoukis),
previously he performed in Decaer Pinga (the artists formerly known as
Prick Decay) with his sister Dora Doll."

http://www.myspace.com/bloodstereo
http://ubu.com/sound/nyoukis.html

(Tommi) KERÄNEN operates in the field of "traditional" harsh noise.
Keränen uses electronics to create chaotic and bright, radiantly
dynamic walls of sound. Even though the volume might feel a bit
overwhelming, the thing that sets Keränen apart from most of the noise
music around, is the sheer joy that comes through from his stage
presence. Keränen has a long an internationally networked career in
music, among others in the Testicle Hazard duo with Lasse Marhaug. His
Anoema label is a widely recognized name, having in its catalogue
releases by Merzbow, J.O.Mallander, just to name a few.

http://keranen.anoema.com/

LAUHKEAT LAMPAAT is a duo formed by brothers Jaakko and Antti Tolvi,
who have played their electroacoustic improvisational music since
2003. With their roots in free jazz, they create fascinating and
playful but focused micromusical soundscapes, using toys and various
tiny instruments. The Tolvis were also part of the unforgettable free
jazz unit Rauhan Orkesteri. As a duo they have toured around Europe
and now we will see them perform in Helsinki again!

http://www.myspace.com/lauhkeatlampaat

MENTAL ALASKA presents: MEET THE BOARD 2009

Mental Alaska has now been a registered organization since the early months of 2009. Immediately after becoming "official", there was a huge effort with the 10 year anniversary celebration. For this occasion, Mental Alaska invited Ghedalia Tazartes from France to headline. The party was successful and now that the ripples have toned down, it has come time to provide the members with a rare glimpse inside the mindscapes of the Mental Alaska board. At this historical events, you will see solo performances by the secretary, the chairman and the treasurer!

The treasurer Roope Eronen aka NUSLUX has become an amazing controller of sounds created by waterglasses, short circuits and nowadays also fruits. The Nuslux show is a truly holistic experience as it both looks and sounds curious and hilarious. One can't help but to smile and dance along. Nuslux performs also at the experimental music stage of this year's Flow festival!

Erkki Sinnemäki, the secretary is also known as REIJO PAMI. Reijo Pami's approach could often be described as coming from the "found sound"-tradition, utilizing everyday objects or weirder stuff that has been abandoned. A Reijo Pami gig might consist of a dense and gnarly drone created with an electric guitar and an electric toothbrush. Or then he might perform using only playful and/or plain stupid human voice. Pami is part of the underground super group The Puke Eaters, with Jan Anderzen and Chris Corsano.

AMON DÜDE is the alter ego of chairman Arttu Partinen. Amon Düde combines molten gamelan rhythms, plundered free jazz tapes, recordings of David Hasselhoff rapping with live drumming, the result being some kind of slap stick improv. The artist desperately tries to follow the tapes he is operating and every time he is about to reach them, something changes drastically. A dancebeat, stolen from the kurdish music tradition, might rise from amidst all the floundering, or then everything ends abruptly with the equipment falling apart.

€5; €4 with Mental Alaska membership card

Dora Bleu, from Montreal, is the project of Dorothy Geller.  Ms. Geller has previously performed in the bands From Quagmire and Laconic Chamber.  As Dora Bleu, Geller wields spacious, organic songforms that gravitate around the idea of folk while simultaneously exploring new territory.

Hei is the project of Heikki Jarvi of Vaasa, Finland.  Employing a variety of electroacoustic instruments, Hei creates environments that are atmospheric yet active.  Though often with a band, he will be solo here, and describes it himself as: "Songs of drones and cascading loops, fractal sound zoomings and mutations, walls of chords and noise, a few lonely melodies - that type of stuff."

Samuel Meri, of Helsinki, performs song-based music sometimes with only guitar and his wonderfully rich vibrato-laden voice, though sometimes with thick, sinister backing tracks that sound like they are melting.  Sunday's performance promises to be great either way.

The only Potlatch-klubi of this summer offers two improvised solo gigs: Ilia Belorukov performs on alto saxophone and Juuso Paaso on steelstring acoustic. The event takes place at Ptarmigan, a new art space at starting up in Vallila. Ptarmigan concentrates in experimental music and contemporary art.

Ilia Belorukov (b. 1987) is a sax player who’s an active musician and free / experimental music organizer in his native St. Petersburg. He feels at home as well in jazz, free improvisation as noise rock. At Potlatch he presents an intense and organically articulated solo improvisation, combining melodic playing with insightful use of sound based extended playing techniques. (Ilia Belorukov site)

Juuso Paaso’s (b. 1979) often noisy and fragmentary electric guitar playing has been heard at the gigs of Boris Morgana. He has also delved into the possibilities of prepared guitar in Tim und Struppi and repetitive fingerpicking techniques in Two Who. At this current Potlatch Paaso sets up various atmospheres by plucking an acoustic guitar.