The best ideas come about by accident. Some time in late 2007, I came to think of the countless miniatures in the traditional guitar repertoire that depict small animals and insects (butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and so on). I collaborate with living composers all the time, and I had the idea of asking them to create some new creatures to sit alongside the older ones.

I could never have imagined how enthusiastically these composers rose to the challenge! New pieces began appearing almost immediately, and over the years my collection of Small Creatures has become quite significant. And these pieces just keep coming. Composers have only written a piece if they have felt inspired by the idea; none of them has been paid a commission fee. Each has free rein to choose their own creature, and there are only two rules:

1. The work must be short.

2. The creature cannot be larger than a cat.

There are now about 50 works representing the full gamut of musical styles. Funny, serious, virtuosic, anarchic, meditative, surprising – each piece tells its own story, depicts a feature or characteristic of its chosen creature. The variety of different colours and playing techniques never ceases to amaze me, and together they form a fascinating sonic mosaic.

I have spent a lot of time with each creature, both practicing and performing, we have become close, friends even, though with some of them, well, it’s complicated…

It’s a simple idea but one that has over time become an important and special environment for me – my very own musical ecosystem!

small creatures -ALBUM AWARDED!

• FINNISH BROADCASTING COMPANY (YLE) RECORD OF THE YEAR 2020

• EMMA-AWARD (FINNISH GRAMMY) FOR BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM 2020

“The takeaway from this album is its enormous range of tonal color and mood. This is remarkable, considering that it was created entirely without electronics. Kumela can produce an astonishing variety of bumps, scrapes, squeaks, creaks and pitched sounds from his guitar.”

- Finnish Music Quarterly

Otus opus

Together with poet and playwright Laura Ruohonen and illustrator Erika Kallasmaa, both award-winning artists, we created a poem-picturebook based on the small creature pieces, where also the music is included with a QR-code.