Echo Bases – Instrument builders Eero Lehtinen and Jukka Mäkelä 11.3.-28.5.2023

"Everything the devil made these damn fools do" says Eero Lehtinen and Jukka Mäkelä, who make musical instruments from recycled materials. The Echo Bases exhibition features instruments made by two experienced musicians, which make you wonder at the variety of materials used and the creative ingenuity of the makers. 

In addition to manual skills, the construction of these instruments requires a knowledge of different materials and the physical properties of sound, the creation of tone and intensity. The usability and aesthetics of the instruments are also important for instrument makers. Both factors are combined with the making of traditional instruments from materials at hand and an enthusiasm for inventive experimentation. The exhibition also features repurposed instruments that trace music back to its primitive roots. 
The instruments in the exhibition reveal the philosophy, personalities, and aesthetic formal language of their makers. Both instrument makers are also performing artists. The instruments are not completed during the design and building process, but only when the player performs. 

Eero Lehtinen (b. 1963) is a musician and instrument builder from Mäntsälä. He has released five singer-songwriter albums under the stage name Nikolai Blad. In the 1980s he studied sculpture at the Turku School of Drawing, in the 1990s he discovered music and studied musicology, and in the 2000s he became acquainted with furniture conservation. Eero Lehtinen is self-taught in instrument building, but his guitars are influenced by his previous studies and work experience. 

Lehtinen likes old, already patinated and discarded objects, so the starting points, bodies and materials of the guitars are varied: from a bread box to a toolbox, from chocolate and cigar boxes to a Kiasma roof cladding. The wood used in the guitars is also mostly recycled and weathered, dismantled, or left over from buildings or furniture. Lehtinen buys new parts, such as tuners and fretboards, for his guitars to make them playable. The materials' past history of use brings stories to the instruments and joy to the maker when discarded objects and materials find a new purpose in guitars. 

Instrument building is therapy for Eero Lehtinen and his own workshop in the garage is a laboratory for transformation. The world and the contradictions in his own head are often difficult to comprehend, but the different materials and instruments are understandable. Wood as a material is also important to Lehtinen. Trees have grains and people direction within themselves, which guides growth and inner motivation. If you want to use wood, you have to know the direction of the grains, because everything happens under their conditions. Likewise, people have their own reasons, how life progresses and where it goes. Even a tree always grows towards the light.

Jukka Mäkelä (b. 1951) is a passionate musician, instrument builder and entrepreneur. He started his adventures in instrument building after moving to Petäjävesi in 1982. At first, he collected various musical instruments until he decided to start building them himself. Mäkelä is particularly interested in making rarer instruments, and he develops new technical solutions and applications for them. In cooperation with schools, Mäkelä has made early music instruments and taught how to make, for example, the clavichord, the camphor drum and the Lapland drum.

Jukka Mäkelä makes recycled musical instruments from repurposed materials, which he also teaches in courses for adults and children. In 2009, Mäkelä carried out a survey of instrument makers who used recycled and reused materials for the Association for Rural Culture and Education. On this basis, the concept of ITE art (Finnish contemporary folk art) was extended to include musical instruments. With the help of recycled instruments, the Purkkiorjat ensemble was born, which plays on jar instruments built by Mäkelä, from violin and double bass to various guitar-like versions. Over the years, Jukka Mäkelä has played in several bands, including Arkiviisu, Arbeit Macht Frei, Suomen balalaikat, Dixie Fried, Ohilyöntiorkesteri and HallanallaH. 

Jukka Mäkelä is an interdisciplinary music entrepreneur. His companies produce instrument strings from guitar to piano both by hand and industrially. He produces most of the strings for the Finnish kantele. Mäkelä also makes instrument tops from Finnish spruce. The idea for this was born out of a desire to use Finnish wood instead of expensive imported wood from abroad. Mäkelä looks after the affairs of performing artists by acting as the executive director of the Smartist cooperative.