Having spent his early years living in the southern part of Finland, when he was 9, Kai Niemiminen's family then moved to Ylitornio which is in the western part of Lapland, not very far from the Arctic Circle...

The inspiration for this work is Bruno Munari's paintings, displayed at Museo del Novecento in Milan and characterised by swirling lines enveloping torn-out music scores, suggested the mysterious atmosphere of this piece and the subheading Un telegramma...

Julvers, a poem written by Pekka Suhonen at the Villa Lante in Rome on Christmas Eve 1992, inspired Kai Nieminen to compose a piece of the same name describing the city's myriad lights as seen from the windows of the Villa high on its hill...

Kai Nieminen writes: "Unlike its sister work Time Around Spring for orchestra (1997) (In memoriam Timo K. Mukka), Time Around Autumn explores the mental images of the ensemble's 12 musicians, about the autumn, melancholy and freedom; as a counterpoint to the freedom an exact rhythmic pulse emerges...

Kai Nieminen has an intense awareness of colours, and the possibilities of expressing these on the classical guitar, an instrument on which he is himself a fine performer. Estampes - Frank Martin in Memoriam demands a more orchestral approach from the performer...

Fragmentos de la vida del mar - Homenaje a Joaquin Turina has a dark, brooding quality, the use of tremolo often with a ponticello colour creating a mystery and unease, perhaps even depicting a storm on the horizon...

Night Sonata is a guitar suite consisting of three pieces: 1. Night Preludes - Hommage à Joan Miró, 2. Gnomes of the Night - Hommage à Marc Chagall, 3. Night Poems in a Clockshop - Hommage à Salvador Dali...

Kai Nieminen's Fragmental Reflections (2018) draws on the melancholy mood of the Finnish folk song Tein mina pillin pajupuusta (I made a willow whistle) familiar to most Finns. The emotional scale of this 10-minute guitar fantasy ranges from a nostalgic...

A popular song cycle which includes three songs to texts by Emily Dickinson. 1. Its Like the Light, 2. A Little Road Not Made of Man & 3. On This Wondrous Sea. Emily Dickinsonin teksteihin perustuva suosittu, kolmiosainen laulusarja...

Nieminen has an intense awareness of colours, and the possibilities of expressing these on the classical guitar, an instrument on which he is himself a fine performer. This piece is Nieminen's touching tribute to Segovia...