One night of slow music in the dark, lying down.

All over the world, clubs are filling up with beds: people lying down in clean sound, something warm to drink, nobody dancing. Every club used to have a chill-out room. We miss them, so we’re bringing them back, starting on the Saturday at the end of Slush week in the ODDspace Gallery. We call it the nest.

Go nowhere.
Be nowhere.

Come in from the cold, take your shoes off, land, and lie down in the dark with a hundred and forty-nine others, feet to the nest. Nobody faces a stage. The music comes from all four corners, played low. No dancing, no doing, no small talk. All it asks is that you listen.

It isn’t about the line-up, who plays, or even what they play. It’s about why they’re there and what they make together. The night is thought through from the door to the last note, so you don’t have to think about any of it. Let the nest take care of you: mother bird is up all night, so you’re safe and sound.

This is the first Ambient Bird’s Nest, and the first of many: other artists, other acts, themes and genres you wouldn’t expect. The first is made by the ODD family and friends, shaped by what our community loves. Lintukoto, one of our team’s projects, presents it with ODD and a flock of partners.

From human doing to human being.

1. 18:00
   Land.

   Doors. In from the slush, still talking. Shoes off, tea in hand, the nest just lit.

2. 18:30
   Fold.

   Nobody arrives calm, so it starts with a pulse. Then slower, then down.

3. 20:00
   Nest.

   Down long enough to feel safe. The quietest the room gets.

4. 21:30
   Sing.

   A body that feels safe can play again. A live trumpet, one silver beam, and the scent comes in.

5. Later
   Dream.

   The deepest set. Inward, eyes closed, as deep as the night goes.

6. Until 02:00
   Fly home.

   The farewell. Let go, gently, and carry the warmth out into the cold.

It’s a storyline, not a timetable: every set has one job, and hands over a room, not a track. Names and times go in when they are signed.

The big room at ODDspace: white columns, a curved wall, windows on one side. For the night it is one room.

The landing

Shoes off.

The tea house

Tea at low tables.

The nest

A glowing egg in a ring of branches, in the middle.

The beds

Round the nest, feet to it, and under the windows.

The edges

The quiet corner and the sofa shore.

At the back

Dark sensory rooms, a small infrared sauna, a shower.

The light

It follows the music, from blue to indigo to a last dim red.

Sound

In partnership with Genelec. Clean sound from four points, a speaker in each corner, every bed inside the square. The newest sound there is, so that a hundred and fifty people can do the oldest thing there is: lie in the dark together and listen. genelec.com

Music

Nordic Bridge Music, on the music, the sound and the concept of the space: how the night sounds, and how the room holds it. nordicbridgemusic.com

Scent

Smell the Art and SHAMAL. Scent is part of the night too: Nordic, and from the future. smellthe.art · shamal.fi

Spheres

The new scented spheres by Koje, in colour for the first time. Koje Audio is the design music project of Antti Hevosmaa, known from Virta: meditative soundscapes made for lobbies and living rooms, which grow into new dimensions live as Hevosmaa colours them with effects and wind instruments. kojestudio.com

ODDspace, Teollisuuskatu 9D, Vallila, Helsinki. In through the Aula, onto the landing.

Get directions

A hundred and fifty places.
Early birds, ten euros.

On Venga. No refunds. Come alone, or bring someone who’s been talking all week too.

A place in the nest?

Send it to someone

This is the first nest of many. Leave your email and we’ll write before the next one opens. A few letters a year, and you can leave whenever you like.

We use your email for these letters and nothing else. Privacy

Didn’t find it? Write to hello@oddfest.co.