PELKKÄ POUTANEN – experimental musician mixing different folk traditions and classical, electronics and roots music, art pop, noise and vocal music.

Poutanen has been described as an earthquake, a big bang, hypnotic, insightful and original. Her background in music is broad and her music speaks out. She is known for an acrobatic voice that includes techniques from Scandinavian and Finno-Ugrian folk singing to techniques of throat singing. She is mixing various international folk traditions, electronics, classical and roots music, art pop, noise and vocal music to create exciting new soundscapes.

She is inspired by viewing things from unusual perspectives, and thus sees genres as tools to be used just like instruments.

Her solo debut album Pyhä veri vuotaa (Eclipse Music, 2022) was nominated for Teosto-award, which is one of the biggest art prizes in Scandinavia. It was also nominated for Ethno Emma -award. The album contains folk music with a very modern twist and influences from around the world. The thread tying everything together is the concept of the sacred, including showing how the sacred sometimes turns into something quite absurd. Songlines wrote ”[–] it’s enticing, haunting, mesmerizing, spiritual and hypnotic”, and listed one of the songs in ”The 10 Best New Albums From Around the World” in April 2022.

”When a performer can do just about anything with her voice, one need only sit back and marvel at the possibilities. — — Once one gets past the acrobatic vocals, one is amazed by the rich sound world.”
– FMQ, Amanda Kauranne, Feb 2022