Finnish arts organisation M-Cult commissioned Tinnemans for a new participatory work with prepared knitting needles after seeing the MATA Festival concert Killing Time for the opening of the new Maunula-talo building in Helsinki.
Sounds and Stories
Sounds and Stories (2018)
for locally sourced field instruments, prepared knitting needles and storyteller
Together with the Finnish arts organisation M-Cult and Rune folklore singer Ilona Korhonen a further work with knitting performers and field instruments, called ‘Sounds and Stories‘, was developed and performed for the opening event of the Maunula-talo in Helsinki.

During the production of this participatory community concert I sourced all the sounds I needed from the local area around the Maunula house and program them into field instruments.
Devising the prepared knitting needles, the performing knitters would generate the live sound design, or sound track, to the story, an origin story of the Kantele zither, Ilona was singing in the old Finnish language called Rune.
commission a Sounds and Stories project – email
Field instruments
Field instruments are software instruments made from field recordings that are programmed in such a way they function similar to a natural sound, they are not a static ‘phrase’ or ‘tape loop’. The tree will keep rustling, the same, while always slightly different. The blackbird will keep singing, or not, as they do. The wind will keep its mercurial texture.
Due to the nature of the programming of these field instruments they don’t perform on a standard keyboard. Dedicated hardware is designed to play the field instrument for recording purposes of the composition or its live performance.
Music for Non-Musicians
The prepared knitting needles are a non-musical participatory aspect of the work. Music for Non-Musicians are mixed discipline works incorporating techniques to create sounds or rhythms as a bi-product of the action that cause them, such as a queue of gymnasts doing their run-jump-crashmat-landing drill. The activities themselves aren’t necessarily about sound and can be produced by anyone from within this discipline. These parts are a source of formulated randomness.