Sensory Flashbacks (Ajan aistit) (2024)
(Clarinet Quintet No. 2)

Time is inescapably linear. Yet our senses make it heave, float, refract. Our senses measure time in different ways: a familiar scent takes us decades back in time, and a skill once learnt can be instantly recalled. Our body also remembers things which our mind has preferred to forget. 

When we moved back up north, we went to live in the house my father had built and where I grew up. In a couple of weeks, my  body felt decades younger, and I began moving about like I did as a teenager. Watching my children triggered kinaesthetic memories of how the house felt to a child. Much later, my father said he still woke up in his old house every morning. His body could not believe that he was actually somewhere else. Our sensory memories are volatile – they may transport us back to a time we have lost, to those who are dear to us. 

- Outi Tarkiainen