Honeypaw

Gently avant garde Finno Baltic neo-folklore

Honeypaw explores the interconnection of ancient Lithuanian and Finnish Kalevala traditions from a modern perspective.  They play traditional instruments including the Finnish kantele and Lithuanian kanklės.  These instruments traditionally helped define the boundary between the human and forest realms, and this concept has led them to develop the tree harp, an interactive art installation built into or attached to trees.  With their background in lutherie and sculpture, Matti and Jurgita have built tree harps as tall as 16 feet, secured to trees with ropes. They have installed tree harp sculptures at festivals in Canada and Lithuania.  Their first album ‘Ninth Tree Standing’ was recorded in the forest using exclusively tree harps for the instrumentation.  Their music has been heard on national radio including the CBC in Toronto, and Ukrainian Radio in Kyiv.  They have performed in festivals including Estonian Music Week in Toronto, Festival Terre Ferme in Quebec, and Mėnuo Juodaragis on Dūburys Island, Lithuania.  A tree harp installation was included in the Pokšt exhibition Artefaktas: Kultūrinė naktis in Utena, Lithuania, and a documentary about the tree harps by Nicolas Pollock was presented at the Ontario Screen Creators Conference in October 2022, and on CBC Arts.

Bookings
Matti Palonen
matti@palonenmusic.com
phone: +1 647 225 4544
Stage plot
for download:

Recent Highlights

This documentary created by filmmaker Nicolas Pollock is featured in Natural Collaborators, a new video series from CBC Arts about artists who find inventive ways to use the natural world in their work. 

“It struck me to the roots of my heart where the love for tradition and forest meet”

 Kansanmusiikki Magazine, Fall 2019

 

“Honeypaw’s meditative and evocative Ninth Tree Standing fits well with the growing body of complex and gently avant garde Baltic neo-folklore”

The Wire Magazine, December 2021

Music

This album was recorded on hollow trees strung with steel and horsehair strings in the forest near Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. It contains traditional chants from the Lithuanian sutartine tradition, and runos from Karelia and Ingria.

Our second album Tuta Tuta contains songs centred around secundas and other dualities. Within the rampant pandemic polarity, we seek to find harmony in the dissonance. This album was recorded in Toronto with tree harps recorded in Wasaga, Ontario.

Videos

Members

Jurgita Žvinklytė

Jurgita has performed with the Davila and Sėdauta ensembles from Utena, Lithuania since 2016, and is a member of Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association.  She holds a M. FA from the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts.

Matti Palonen

“Matti Palonen on moderni Väinämöinen,” proclaims the cover of the Fall 2019 issue of Finland’s Pirta magazine. He has been performing Finnic folk music since 2008. He studied Lutherie with David Freeman, and builds stringed instruments including harp and kantele.

Past Performance Highlights

  • September 16-18, 2022, Honeypaw at BWV Ukrainian Festival, Toronto, On
  • August 31, 2022, KanklesCollab: Honeypaw with Agota Zdanavičiūtė at „Sodas 2123“ space, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • August 25-28, 2022,  Honeypaw concert and Tree Harp at the festival Mėnuo Juodaragis, Duburys island, Lithuania
  • August 12, 2022,  Honeypaw concert and Tree Harp installation in Utena Vyžuonos park, Lithuania 
  • September 25-26, 2021, Honeypaw at Festival Terre Ferme, Godmanchester, Que
  • September 18, 2021, Honeypaw at BWV Ukrainian Festival, Toronto, On
  • March 30, 2021, Honeypaw at Pickering Arts Fest, Pickering, On
  • December 6, 2020, Honeypaw at CaféMusic, Small World Music Centre, Toronto, On
  • December 4, 2020, Honeypaw at Estonian Music Week, Toronto, On
  • November 12, 2020, Honeypaw at Yara Arts Epic Song Festival live streamed in New York, NY
  • October 21, 2020, Honeypaw Pocket Performance, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, On