Rhythm of the Peatlands
Jukka Takalo and Heli-Maria Latola’s artist residency creating a music video and live performance in the Koitajoki Watershed, Finland
Jukka Takalo
Jukka Takalo is a Finnish singer-songwriter, music video director and a writer. He finds inspiration in his country’s illustrious musical history, with lyrics that explore topics such as love, sorrow, and introspection, and a reflection of Finland’s wild landscapes and vivid culture. Takalo is known as the founder and original writer of the Air Guitar World Championships (Oulu, Finland since 1996).
Heli-Maria Latola
Heli-Maria Latola is a Finnish dance artist. She is a sensitive and boldly honest, self-listening, deep investigator whose movement springs from an uncompromising state of authenticity. Latola studied at the Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance, London and has taught dance with the Kontakti-Improvisation camp in Oulu. As a dancer she has worked with Transitions Dance Company and more recently Frost Company.
About the Residency
The Koitajoki Watershed in eastern Finland is shaped by forests, rivers, and large peatlands. These wetlands were widely drained in the past, and Snowchange Cooperative is now restoring them by returning water to the land and rebuilding natural processes. For their artist residency, Takalo and Latola came to Koitajoki to learn how this work is carried out and to gather material for their project Peatlands Travel Agency.
They spent time walking the landscape with Snowchange staff, visiting rewetted peatlands and burnt forest areas, and listening to stories from community members. Their creative process developed from these experiences. They wrote, filmed, composed, and improvised, allowing conversations and observations to guide the ideas that followed.
“Even though peatlands cover about one-third of Finland’s landmass, their importance is often overlooked. They have been degraded and drained for agriculture because they are seen as wastelands. In Western Finland, where I’m from, an old superstition holds that peatlands are inhabited by the dead, which contributes to their negative perception. I have been advocating for their restoration and dam removals for over 20 years.”
Jukka Takalo
“I’m still exploring who I am and what dance means to me. The key is understanding how my inner self responds to external stimuli. I start with my eyes closed, then open them, letting my instincts and senses lead me while observing my internal reactions. The body holds a wealth of knowledge, and by looking inward, I can connect with the world around me.”
Heli-Maria Latola
Creating the Ding Dong music video
Days in Koitajoki often began out on the peatlands. Takalo and Latola spent time walking across rewetted ground, watching how water moved through channels reopened by restoration. These slow observations shaped their approach to filming. As they moved between sites, they spoke with Snowchange staff about the history of drained wetlands and the work now under way to bring them back.
Filming became a way of staying present with these changes. Latola explored characters that captured different attitudes towards nature, from carelessness to control. Simple props and gestures helped express how people take from or care for the land. Set against recovering peatlands and burnt forest areas beginning to regrow, these scenes gathered into the structure of the Ding Dong music video. The landscape held its own place in the story, showing the quiet shifts that restoration can set in motion.
Ding Dong
Performance on water
As work on the music video took shape, another idea began to grow. Takalo and Latola started developing a performance that would bring their music and movement back into the landscape that inspired it. When the Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions invited them to present new work, Koitajoki provided both the setting and the starting point.
The piece was performed on stand up paddleboards, with the audience gathered on the shore of a village lake. The water held the performers in place, turning the surface into a quiet stage. Surrounded by communities and visiting artists from across the northern world, the pair shared their interpretation of peatland restoration through sound, movement, and the stories they had gathered during their residency.
Visit the project page to learn more about the Koitajoki Watershed.
Songs of the Watershed: Katja Malinen on music, memory and restoration
Recording the voices of a changing landscape
Artist residency open call: Cumbria Connect
