JOHANNA ELINA SULKUNEN

Johanna Elina Sulkunen is a Finnish experimental vocalist, composer, and improviser based in Copenhagen since 2009. She has released five critically acclaimed albums under her own name and is collaborating on tens of projects. Sulkunen's work spans free improvisation, electronic music, and avant-garde. In 2018, she returned as a solo performer under the new moniker SONORITY.

SONORITY is an ongoing research about resonance of the human body- voice and electronics where Sulkunen is taking her voice into new sonic territory. Across the Sonority album trilogy, Sulkunen investigates the voice from different perspectives. KOAN (2018) explores perception, language, and meditative listening through manipulated vocals and electroacoustic textures, drawing on electroacoustic composition, experimental ambient, and field recordings in Japanese temples.

TERRA (2021) Terra expands the inquiry toward ecology, landscape, and the interconnectedness of natural systems, combining field recordings, ambient composition, and experimental vocal techniques. With a large band including Halvcirkel, horns, drums, voice and electronics the album transformed into a piece that gained a nomination as the album of the year on Danish Music Awards, Was called an 'ambient masterpiece' (UK Vibe) and was listed among 'the best experimental albums in 2021'. A Closer Listen, US.

COEXISTENCE (2024) turned the act of listening outward into society. Drawing on her anthropology background, Sulkunen developed the album through conversations with people whose voices are often marginalized, including refugees, unhoused individuals, and people between places. Beginning with the question “What would you say if the whole world was listening?”, these encounters became both conceptual foundation and musical material. Fragments of voices weave into layered compositions that explore themes of home and displacement, borders and belonging, dreams, memory, and shared humanity. Released with a visual booklet with fragments of interviews.

In her SONORITY concerts, she often performs solo on stage as a hybrid between visual artist Tapani Toivanen, creating immersive concert experiences. As an audiovisual duo they are touring actively across Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Johanna frequently collaborates with other artists in Copenhagen's vibrant music scene and internationally. She has performed with iconic jazz & improv and electronic musicians such as Tomasz Stańko, Bjørn Svin, Blixa Bargeld, Michiyo Yagi, Burkhard Beins, Lotte Anker, Lisa Ullén, Axel Dörner, Mike Sheridan, and many others. She has also worked on various interdisciplinary projects, collaborating with dancers, poets, and filmmakers.

Since 2023 she has performed with Blixa Bargeld and IKI in Hotel Pro Forma’s acclaimed production 'Flammenwerfer' with Blixa Bargeld on stage, and Niels Frahms music. The piece won the prize at the Årets Reumert award in Denmark 2025.

Since 2009, she has been part of the acclaimed Scandinavian vocal group IKI, whose 2011 debut album won a Danish Music Award for Jazz Vocal Album of the Year. The same year, she also released her debut album as a solo artist, the critically acclaimed “Our Garden” (released as Johanna Elina) that introduced her as an exciting and adventurous vocalist and composer in her own right. In 2016 the album was followed up by the equally impressive “Belonging”, which was nominated for a Danish Music Award for the best vocal jazz album.

OTHER COLLABORATIONS:

IKI

JOHANNA ELINA SULKUNEN BJØRN SVIN

JOHANNA ELINA SULKUNEN X MICHIYO YAGI

KAHINA ( Johanna Elina Sulkunen (vocals/composition), Randi Pontoppidan (vocals/composition), Guro Tveitnes (vocals), Jullie Hjetland (vocals), Kamilla Kovacs (vocals), Carolyn Goodwin (bass clarinet), Mika Persdotter (viola), Anne Andersen (trumpet), Ida Bach Jensen (double bass) and Maria Dybbroe (saxophone).

SHIVERS (Johanna Elina Sulkunen, Lisa Ullén, Burkhard Beins, Louise Jensen, Henrik Olsson)

SCANDINAVIAN ART ENSEMBLE (Johanna Elina Sulkunen vocal, Snorri Sigurðarson trumpet, Tomasz Dąbrowski trumpet, Thomas Hass saxophone, Artur Tuźnik piano, Martin Fabricius vibraphone, Richard Andersson double bass, Radek Wośko drums. Albums released with Tomasz Stanko-trumpet)

CALUM BUILDER (self-constructed organ, voices: Zola Mennenoeh, Johanna ELina Sulkunen)

HOTEL PROFORMA - 'Flammenwerfer' with IKI