Ohcejohka - Saxophone, Joik and Birds
Duration
Year
Language
Topics
English
29 minutes
2025
Subtitles
Lithuanian
Saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen travels to Sápmi, to Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), the northernmost municipality of Finland and the European Union, to visit his friend, writer–musician Niillas Holmberg. The two artists go rowing in the river, improvise under the Sámi bridge, and make music with birds. Along the way, with researcher Karoliina Lummaa, they confront questions of understanding: do the birds understand them—or do they understand the birds? And does it even matter?
Director, script writer, editor Suvi Tuuli Kataja
Sound design and field recording Suvi Tuuli Kataja and Jussi Liukkonen
Script consultant Elli Salo
Background research Roosa Stenroos
Music Niillas Holmberg and Pauli Lyytinen
Poem (in Northern Sámi and English translation) Niillas Holmberg
Production manager Pinja Korhonen
First broadcast 2nd November 2025, BBC Radio 3
Suvi Tuuli Kataja
Suvi Tuuli Kataja is an award-winning Finnish director, scriptwriter and sound designer working at the intersection of narrative and experimental audio. She feels more at home on location than in the studio and often combines music with sound art. She is currently working on an audiobook, exploring what the audiobook could be as an independent art form. She also teaches audio scriptwriting and sound art in universities. She loves imperfection and chance in art.
Jussi Liukkonen
Jussi Liukkonen is a musician and sound designer whose work spans live events, radio and circus. His soundscapes combine rawness, strangeness and beauty, often moving between music and immersive sonic environments. Alongside his work in sound design, he performs as a musician in contemporary bands and collaborative projects. For Liukkonen, the essence of sound design lies in balancing the rough and the poetic – creating a sonic world that feels both unpredictable and deeply human.