Café Barock: Ensemble Gamut!

Aino Peltomaa's Ensemble Gamut! is a fresh, experimental collective of early music and folk music specialists.

Aino Peltomaa’s Ensemble Gamut! is a fresh, experimental collective of early music and folk music specialists, who are constantly searching for new ways to perform early music. They have created their unique sound by combining and daringly rearranging elements from medieval music and Finnish folk songs with improvisation and electronic soundscapes.

In the spring of 2025, the group released its third album, MI. The album’s title refers to the Arctic flower Micranthes stellaris as well as Peltomaa’s composition Mieli meni. MI is also the third note of the Gamut scale (ut, re, mi). This concert is part of their album release tour that extends beyond Finland to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

This album weaves together medieval repertoire – Bridgettine chants and the works of Hildegard von Bingen – with Peltomaa’s own compositions and texts inspired by Arctic endangered flowers. Ensemble Gamut! approaches this repertoire with voice, harp, bells, Karelian bowed lyres, medieval blockflutes, and electronic textures.

The concert will also feature pieces from the group’s second album, RE, which was nominated in the Finnish music awards Emma Gaala (“Ethno of the year”). Both RE and their debut album UT have attracted widespread interest among international music critics across genres, and have frequently been featured among the best albums in yearly listings of classical, early as well as progressive music.

Ensemble Gamut!’s imaginative style has been described as “refreshing, soothing, intriguing and enlightening”. Their acclaimed performances have enchanted audiences from club gigs to museums, medieval churches and concert halls.

Aino Peltomaa, voice, medieval harp, percussion
Ilkka Heinonen, jouhikko, voice, electronics
Juho Myllylä, blockflutes, voice, electronics

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The concert is organised in cooperation with the Ensemble Nylandia’s Café Barock concert series with the support of the Finnish Music Foundation.

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Free concerts are held at Musiikkitalo’s terrace on summer afternoons from Thursday to Saturday, from 29 May until 2 August, starting at 5 pm. The concerts feature talented musicians from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, as well as other Finnish artists. Throughout the summer, the stage will host a diverse range of interesting artists from different genres: mainly pop music on Thursdays, jazz on Fridays. Additionally, the programme includes interesting performances from the fields of contemporary folk and classical music. The early summer Thursday afternoons are dedicated to the Radio Helsinki KESÄLIVE.

In case of rain, the concert will be held inside in the Musiikkitalo Restaurant.