Petri Huurinainen is a Finnish electro- acoustic composer, improviser, performer and visual artist. His sound practice is rooted in embodied, process-driven engagement with the instrument, exploring the acoustic guitar’s sonic possibilities through extended techniques, DIY tools, pedals and bows. Environmental sounds- touch, gesture and traces of the surrounding space- are treated as an integral part of his work, combined with melodic minimalism across performances, recordings, and text scores.
He is a founding member of the experimental duo Bouche Bée, which he formed with Emmanuelle Waeckerlé in 2005. He is also one half of Einfall, a Berlin-based avant-noise duo with artist David Selden.
His recent releases include Worm’s Theatre (music for the installation by Juliette Ezaoui at The GroundWork Gallery 2026), Resounding the Trace (2025), Longbow (bandcamp realease 2024), frrree mon cheri (with Bouche Bée, CD, Earshots Recording, 2023), Nico’s Grave (guitar compositions with Berlin field recordings, CD, 2023), and Misa KR16 (recordings of a sauna stove, online release, 2023). Previous works include Entre Chien et Loup (with Bouche Bée, 2020), Metro Rider (soundtrack for Denise Hawrysio’s film, 2019), and Exile Nothing (12-inch LP, 2016).
Latest work
I was commissioned to compose music for The Worm’s Theatre, an installation by artist Juliette Ezaoui, presented at GroundWork Gallery in Norfolk in January 2026. The work explores the hidden life of soil and human affect on the delicate subterranean ecosystem. By responding to Ezaoui’s concept and visual language, I sought to reimagine this sensuous world through sound.
The composition is made from the sounds of a guitar, where tones and textures are shaped through extended techniques and layering. The guitar becomes both a resonant body and a metaphor, responding to the interconnectedness with the more- than- human world.
Subtle recordings of worms in the soil provided by researchers from University of Warwick guided tone and rhythm throughout my composition process.
Here are the links to the gallery and the music.
nico’s grave, a limited edition CD, featuring a unique hand-drawn three-panel cover, is available to order.
In the late summer of 2018, I temporarily relocated to Berlin, furthering my interest in intertwining environmental sounds and improvisation.
I spent my early days getting a sense of place by following peaceful canal paths and navigating hidden hinterhauses, re-mapping my bearings away from the cars and traffic, while tuning into the city’s subtle and nuanced soundscapes.
Soon I was drawn into the calm soundscapes of the Landwehr Canal in Neukölln – listening to the delicate and distinct sounds – birdsong, echoes of a distant dog bark, rustling leaves, brief conversations heard here and there.
In the opening track -nico’s grave- I recorded my footsteps and the ambience textures of the forest from my walk to Friedhof Grunewald-Forst cemetery, where Nico, the German singer and model, is buried.
The music in this album is based around guitar improvisations and responds to those subtle environmental recordings and walks, merging the two into a hybrid form of harmonics, rhythms and atmospheres.
Available to order from Bandcamp and Dash The Henge Store
Composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Petri Huurinainen
Recorded in Berlin and London in 2018- 2022
Mastered by: J. Ardron, St Austral Sound
Text by David Selden
Design and artwork by: Petri Huurinainen
Released Jan 15, 2023
A new CD FRRREE MON CHERI by Bouche Bée
A limited edition Compact Disc available to order from Earshots
Bouche Bée [boosh bay] was formed in 2005 by artist and vocalist Emmanuelle Waeckerlé and guitarist Petri Huurinainen.
In Spring 2020, electronic and community musician Peter Keserü joined us. We spent the next two years improvising every few weeks or so, in Emmanuelle’s garden studio in Thornton Heath. Precious times of togetherness during and after lockdown. Each session was recorded. Sometimes we listened to the tracks over dinner.
The collective sound that was emerging had developed a subtle cinematic feel, ethereal and stirring at times. In addition Emmanuelle played with words more often; her own and those of others from her readings at the time (Catherine Keller, François Jullien, Tim Ingold, Luce Irigaray) picking them randomly from pages of her sketchbook.
We had never performed live, yet it felt quite natural to think of making an album. The tracks on ff free mon cheri were selected over 8 months of repeated listening and unanimous selecting, picking those that withstood that process. Jeff Ardron’s subtle mastering revealed a song like quality that surprised us.
Petri Huurinainen: acoustic guitar, bow, ebow, fx pedals
Peter Keserü: samples, iPads, melodica, seaboard, ocarina
Emmanuelle Waeckerlé: voice, Irish drum, ukulele pitch pipe
Recorded by Peter Keserü
Mixed and mastered by Jeff Ardron, St Austral Sound
Photography by Emmanuelle Waeckerlé
Ink drawings by Petri Huurinainen
Design by Earshots
Released July 26, 2023
