Biography

Auri Annina Antinranta is a music producer, futurist, and artist who uses sound and performance art to make alternative futures present. She is also known for being a lead singer and lyricist for the Finnish progressive rock quartet Tuvalu (2003-2010), serving a blend of hardcore aggression and robust rhythm structures. Antinranta and her versatile work has been featured in several books for example Kirosäkeet - 20 uuden suomirockin sanoittajaa by Tuukka Hämäläinen and Progressiivisen rockin sydän by the same author. Her latest works in 2023 include composing score music for an award-winning documentary film, Silenced Roots, stage music for the experimental visual-kinesthetic concert Kentauri2050, and she has also just released her third solo album, Collective Displacement, featuring post-rock cinematic music.

Collective Displacement 2022 - 2023 

Antinranta released her latest solo album, Collective Displacement, in March 2023. The album is a musical deep-dive into collective memorabilia formed during pandemics. Its melancholic and cinematic tunes are for anyone who prefers night over day. It takes the listener on a journey led by expressionist piano, haunted vocals, and mesmerizing cello lines, accompanied by synthesizers, percussions, and experimental bass solos. The Album is half instrumental and has five songs with lyrics. In the song Afterglow: Antinranta joins forces with Joa Korhonen (Sara, As They Slowly Travel To The Sea)

The Album came out with three singles: New Narratives, accompanied by a music video directed by Michael Bleu, featuring a dance performance by dancer and choreographer Pie Kär. Antinranta got inspiration from the future research she worked on during the pandemic. She was researching how we will live in 2030. "I had broken the narrative of adult life. I realized I had never lived the narrative painted for me as a child. Instead, my life is cyclic and consists of moments, not anything linear. And as I was there alone experiencing the lockdowns, looking for love and companionship, I realized that was a story of many of us. Not following the old storylines of life." The second single, Afterglow - a duet with Joa Korhonen, a lead singer of The Sara band and As They Slowly Travel To The Sea, saw daylight in December 2022. The third single, Shy Gods, was published in January 2023. Antinranta also recorded biodata from a Christmas tree, the experiment which started from boredom and soon grew into a solo performance by a dying tree at the end of the song The Grove." Collective Displacement is written by Antinranta and co-produced with Helsinki-based artist and producer Oona Kapari, who also recorded and mixed the album.

Greetings from Heinola - the hometown of Punk rock

So let's meet our protagonist Auri Antinranta and take a deep dive into herstory. She was born and raised in Heinola, a small town nowadays famous of being hometown of the big Finnish rock giant Apulanta. Like many other kids during the 80s, Antinranta started her musical journey by playing classical piano. She was determined to become a concert pianist until something clicked during her teenage years. Antinranta started making music already as a child. She participated in several contests and performed in several theater productions. She filmed her first music video when she was in primary school. She played her first solo gigs, accompanying herself with piano around the same time the rock band Apulanta started touring. And those early years are connected. Antinranta sang background vocals to Apulanta's early EP Tuttu Tv.stä and performed on their music video Väkivaltainen - And she shot some of their early promotional photos in the backyard of Saha daycare. Antinranta, also practicing at Saha, formed a rock band of her own - a group called Myyt transferred from duo performances into a 4-member band.

The Diva - The era of Myyt 1996-2002

Antinranta and her friend Tuomas Patomäki founded Myyt around graduation from High School. Antinranta moved to Tampere to study media art, but she returned to Heinola to practice with the band on weekends. Her studies got a surprising turn when the local record label Poko and the A&R Juha Torvinen saw her band Myyt play, and they ended up making a record deal with Myyt. Gothic-styled rock act Myyt consists of Antinranta and her childhood friends, bass player Tuomas Patomäki, guitar player Antti Harmainen and drummer Jukka Laine. Together they headed to the studio in Tampere and recorded an album full of stories of sex, love, and rock'n'roll with producers Sami Jormanainen and Osku Ketola. The album Myyt - Myyt saw daylight in the Millenium 2000, featuring singles: Tuntematon, Syliisi, and Diiva. Antinranta's student colleagues filmed a music video for the song Tuntematon in the local theater (directed by Tomi Yli-Suvanto). Those were the hot days of the TV program Jyrki, who aired the video several times and invited the band to play live on the program. Antinranta wrote all lyrics and vocal lines. Life as an art student, drinking, and hard partying was present in all songs and became a symbol of never-ending parties to many students of those times. In 2000 Antinranta also appeared on the hip-hop artist Seremoniamestari's summer hit Vinyyliä ja kumia, powered by Radio Mafia (kesäkumikampanja). Myyt started making their second album, but internal conflicts tore the band apart. Despite the changes in the crew, the project ended.

The ABC book of hysteria - Tuvalu the four-headed hound 2003-2010

The progressive rock band Tuvalu was founded in 2003. Antinranta continued working with guitarist Antti Harmainen; new members consisted of bass player Jussi Oskari and drummer Jussi Matikainen. The group named Tuvalu after Veit Helmer's movie of the same name and the drowning Island Nation. The band released their first EP Mitä muut ajattelevat sinusta.?! in 2003. The three long albums: Pimeä saartaa meitä (2006), Viimeiset Hetket ovat käsillä (2008), and Tuvalu (2010) showcased friends as a band playing together with mathematical precision. The four-headed hound drew inspiration from dystopian science novels and progressive rock acts such as The Mars Volta. Antinranta wrote all lyrics and composed the vocal lines. In her songs, people were flying around Tunguska and narrators bowed their heads to dead geniuses such as Nikola Tesla. On stage, Antinranta was known for her heavy usage of vocal effects and stage props such as blinking robot machines. Antinranta - working as a designer in the IT world, was constantly inspired by the tech around her during the day. In 2010 after the record release tour, Tuvalu decided to go on a hiatus, which is still ongoing.  

Passing Human Parade - in the name of social media 2011-2013

After Tuvalu went on a break, Antinranta spent some time in Berlin to write and recover. Getting interested in urban exploring, she wandered around the countryside, went to see the closed-down Spreepark, and ended up in the Beelitz Heilstätten area. She started filming her journey, a project called Passing Human Parade. - named after a demonstration she saw happening around those times. A collection of songs, a CD Provocative Dreams, A book Sonic Dreaming, A Jewellery line, and a documentary film: Broken Rails. Antinranta became one of the first pioneers in Finland to start a crowdfunding campaign in the newly established Mesenaatti.me crowdfunding service. Fans came to fund her album. The album featured artists such as Aleksi Trygg, Jolea, Recue, Fanu, Afromikko, Janne Masalin, and Antti Harmainen from Tuvalu. The album was mixed and recorded by Julius Mauranen at Studio Kekkonen. In February 2013, Antinranta returned to the legendary Tavastia stage, this time with violinist Aleksi Trygg, cellist Iida Sinivalo and violinist Anna-Riikka Kiesi. The gig was accompanied by visuals by VJ Hellstone, presenting Antinranta shaved-headed and her naked body covered in paint.  

Dances with robots, talks with plants 

Antinranta decided to concentrate on her design career, but her unorthodox approach to tech and arts followed her everywhere. She had made a career designing tech-enhanced products and services and art directing (theme parks, for example). Then she joined Futurice, the home of a humanoid robot Momo. Antinranta and her colleagues created a performance called The Other Encounter - where Momo met guests at the window and discussed life and death. (with the voice of Enbuske and Kasmir to name a few) During the Helsinki Design Week 2017, Antinranta met dancer and choreographer Iina Taijonlahti, with whom she started collaborating. Together they designed and produced several dance performances: Human Robot. Moving Robot and Human Robot. Moving Robot -Next Generation. In 2021 Antinranta founded, with friend and artist colleague Ines Montalvao, a project called Lingua Plantae - the language of plants. The project has developed from the original idea of sound installation into a performative act, where the plants and humans form musical connections and create sound postcards for audiences.

Toward New Narratives

In recent years, Antinranta's sound design and musical compositions have been adopted into soundtracks and new media products and services, such as Carina - in search of inspiration - a documentary film by Director Nina Maaninka and, for example, Ateljee Layers AR and live experience by Loihde Factor. In 2020 Antinranta started a collaboration with the producer Oona Kapari, with whom she recorded and mixed a soundtrack called Ne, jotka olivat ennen meitä - the ones who were here before us.  Antinranta is also a co-founder of The New Narratives label