Maarja Nuut, Shards ja Nicolas Stocker „Liivast juukseid kammides“ (Estonia–UK)

At Autumn Jazz, Maarja Nuut premieres her new large-scale work „Liivast juukseid kammides“ — a poetic and deeply personal song cycle for vocal ensemble, percussion, violin, and electronics. At its heart lies the fragile inner world of a person trying to navigate a fractured and constantly shifting reality.

The piece draws inspiration from the poetry of Eha Lättemäe, woven together with texts by Ilmar Laaban, Tõnis Vilu, Hasso Krull, Mehis Heinsaar, and Nuut herself. Joining her on stage are the acclaimed British vocal ensemble Shards and genre-defying Swiss drummer Nicolas Stocker.

„Liivast juukseid kammides“ unfolds as an immersive sonic journey where voices, electronics, and poetry intertwine to create a soundscape that is at times delicate, at times unsettling — like moving through emotional landscapes whose meanings reveal themselves slowly over time.

“The process of creating this work has been a long journey — first inward, and then back outward again,” Nuut reflects. “I began writing it in 2022, at a time when the world felt shaken by constant turbulence and I found myself drifting in a kind of vacuum. Everything felt fragmented and disconnected. I was searching for something to hold onto, yet for a long time it felt as though language itself had disappeared. What do you focus on when everything demands your attention at once? How do you exist in that state? How much can you allow yourself to feel? Then I discovered Eha Lättemäe’s poetry, and suddenly a door opened into an entirely different world — one that still continues to unfold.”

The concert is presented in collaboration with Eesti Kontsert.