NOW
Tuomas Toivonen is a Helsinki-based architect, performer and musician. Whether constructing analog monoliths in a club setting or giving musical lectures in art galleries, his musical work investigates the structural, suggestive and communicational potential of music, voice and text. The lyrics are compact observations and analyses, and read like spoken diagrams, narrative perspectives, or musical manifestos.
Tuomas performs as solo artist with a live analog electronic or electro-acoustic setups in gallery, lecture, concert and club contexts. He is a founding member of finnish dub-rock pioneer group Giant Robot, and plays 303 in Jori Hulkkonen's Acid Symphony Orchestra, He has performed solo concerts in various settings such as Sònar Festival, Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, ICA London, Flow festival and Victoria & Albert Museum. Tuomas has appeared in various outfits on more than 20 releases on varied labels from EMI-Parlophone and Stupido Records to Position Underground and Sähkö's Keys of Life.
12" + book release "URBANISM IN THE HOUSE" out on 12" vinyl 1.9.2010
Digital release due out in late November 2010
Tracklist:- 2001 - Masterplan- New Utopia- More = Less- Business and Pleasure- My House- Teachers (with Renaissance Man)
A piece by Conor Dougherty on Urbanism in the House in WSJ. For all you WSJ-reading New Yorkers out there, you can pick up the album at St. Marks bookshop or Scandinavia House. The digital release is due in a couple of weeks, so its still vinyl only.
26.10.2010
NOW was invited to participate in the exhibition Nordic Models + Common Ground curated by Snöhetta in New York, and Tuomas will perform at the opening on Thursday 28th at 9PM in the Volvo Hall of the Scandinavia House.
25.10.2010
We visited St. Louis and Washington University Sam Fox School architecture department to attend very Finnish 3-day program; presenting the Newly Drawn exhibition on emerging Finnish Architects, a panel discussion with Juhani Pallasmaa and Peter MacKeith on the past and present of Nordic architecture, lectures by Tuomas Toivonen, Juhani Pallasmaa and composer Kalevi Aho, plus visting Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch!
8.10.2010
Tuomas is moderating the Urban Density Dialogue organised by UN HABITAT at United Nations pavillion at Shanghai Expo 2010 with:
Tony Chan, Ove Arup Associates, Shanghai
Susan Parnell, Centre for African Cities, University of Cape Town
Sebastien Rauch, Chalmers University, Göteborg
Lou Yongqi, Tongji University, Shanghai.
14.10.2010
Tuomas talks with Tyler Brulé and the Monocle editorial team about "Urbanism in the House". Check out the programme or download it.
Hear it also on a episode of The Architects radio show on the Venice Biennale, covered by Rory Hyde. Download the podcast from RRR Melbourne! Rory's photo from YK:
Also you can check it out on Dan Hill's super blog cityofsound. or planetizen.
13.9.2010
After a preview at the Venice Biennale and Helsinki Design Lab. Next we head to London, where Tuomas will present the record at HEL YES on Saturday 18 September at 14h after participating in a talk session organised by Ok Do. Next up: Shanghai and New York in October. Here's photo from the event at the amazing Romanian Pavillion at Venice:
1.9.2010
"Urbanism in the House" is finally out! The limited 12" book/record release (with an awesome cover designed by Åbäke) will be available in select recordshops and bookstores. Order it online at Stupido, where it was chosen immediately as the Best Electronic Record of 2010!
26.8.2010
"Urbanism in the House" will be out next week! A preview will be at the Venice Biennale 28-29.8.2010, and the official release party at the HDW closing club night at YK on Friday 3.9.2010. The limited 12" book/record release (with an awesome cover designed by Åbäke) will be available in select recordshops and bookstores.
Tuomas Toivonen had a musical lecture with a visual narrative prepared by Åbäke at the Victoria & Albert Museum's amazing Victorian auditorium on June 25th as part of the London Festival of Architecture.
