About the sound design and music of the performance
I started designing the soundscape of No Regrets by asking myself what the compositions and sound could give to this particular work. This story contains dark themes and events, so I wanted to try to make sure that when dealing with them, the sound side would bring oxygen, lightness, beauty to the work and give the women the power to move forward.
The compositions have always drawn on surf rock, Finnish iron wire and western music. I dreamed of these genres with director Susanna Airaksinen from an early age, and I strongly shared with her the feeling that the work would need a live band on stage to come to life and breathe musically with the main characters in the middle of the events of the work. I hope that music will be an element that brings strength and hope to the women’s journey.
The most fruitful phase of my own work process was when the music demos and sound ideas I made came to life on stage in the hands of skilled musicians, in collaboration with our conductor Eeva Koivusalo. When I first got my hands on the novel, I was inspired by Tommi Kinnunen’s way of verbalising wonderfully recognisable experiences of nature, and this has had a strong impact on the soundscape of the work, in which nature is expressed by effected electric guitars and string instruments. As the story progresses, spring and light triumph over winter and darkness.
Composer and sound designer Johanna Puuperä