The award-winning vocal group IKI consists of five vocalists from Norway, Finland and Denmark. Together we work with our vocals as supporting instruments and improvisation as an artistic tool. We sing acoustically and also use machines and pedals to manipulate our voices live on stage. The music, which arises in an alluring here-and- now moment with the audience, spans trance-like soundscapes to smoldering avant-garde beats and textures. Our visual world is built around masks designed by mask maker Damselfrau. IKI has been around since 2009 and has toured most of Europe. We constantly work to push the boundaries of voice and sound perception and to surprise and inspire their audience.
Who were IKI?
IKI started in 2009, when a bunch of singing students at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen started meeting once a week to experiment with their voices, and to see who they could be when they were not forced into the traditional lead singer role. IKI was not meant to be a band, but at some point the same nine girls started coming to every rehearsal, and it became clear that we had become an ensemble, even though it wasn’t the plan. We had our very first concert in complete darkness in the concert hall at the conservatory, a little bit because it was cool, and a lot because we preferred singing in the dark or with our eyes closed. We were still pretty new to the freedom IKI gave us, so singing in the dark was comforting. And from then on IKI has been a living organism, changing over time, but always keeping freedom and experimentation as our core values.
The original nine members of IKI:
Mia Marlen Berg, Sofie Holm, Guro Tveitnes, Mette Skou, Johanna Sulkunen, Mari Tveito, Kamilla Kovacs, Anna Mose, Anna María Björnsdottir
IKI means breath in Japanese and eternity in Finnish.
A SMALL SELECTION OF CONCERTS AND PERFORMANCES: Composers and actors in the musical theater performance TERROR/IS/ME at Odense Theatre, autumn 2021 • IKI: MASSES II (DK): Cross-art performance, Thorvaldsens Museum, July 2021 • LMS – Levende Musik i Skolen (DK): School concert tour 2020, 2021 + 2022 • IKI: MASSES (DK): Cross-art performance, November 2019 • Roskilde Festival (DK): concert, July 2019 • ALICE CPH (DK): Showcase, October 2018 • Spot Festival (DK): Showcase, May 2018 • Clay Museum of Ceramic Art (DK): Concert, February 2017 • Inter Arts Center (SE): Performance, March 2016 • Tønder Art Museum (DK): Concert, October 2015 • Poems & Lyd – Store Vega (DK): Concert with Jørgen Leth, April 2015 • TEDx (DK): performance, September 2012 • Live soundtrack for the Site Specific theater performance “4. television.”, 2011