A demonstration by the railway station

St. Petersburg demonstration reimagined by Sirpa Jokinen.

"The inspiration to record and make a composition of this demonstration came from personal history. As a child I visited, first time as 6 years old in the 1960's, the Soviet Union with my mother. We travelled to St.Petersburg with a ship. There everything was grand. I remember the Dance by Henri Matisse in the mighty museum of Hermitage. I nearly fainted of tiredness seeing so much art and sat on a chair in front of this painting. The red flags also made an impression and the word communism was engraved in my mind. Many years later in 2012 I saw this communist demonstration from the front steps of the main entrance of the Finland Railway Station in St.Petersburg when heading back home. It was raining and these 30-40 people stood in middle of traffic with microphone and equipment to play the 'Internationale' from tape. I think the fireworks also came from a recording, I did not see any. The composition was made with recordings with the Call Us Quartet (Vesa Lehko saxophone, Grisell McDonell contrabase and vocals, Michael Sagulin viola and Sirpa Jokinen electronics).. The musicians playing in the composition are the Call Us Quartet."

Part of the Protest and Politics project - find out more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/protest