The Sperm

Finnish ultra-radical and scandalous performance group/proto-noise band. 1967 saw the birth of the notorious Helsinki ensemble The Sperm, led by Mattijuhani Koponen and Pekka Airaksinen and with such members as J.O. Mallander and Markus Heikkerö. Airaksinen had previously written some experimental pieces with the equipment provided and built by Erkki Kurenniemi for The University of Helsinki Electronic Music Studio (where also composers Henrik Otto Donner and Erkki Salmenhaara had been working). The Sperm's performances concentrated, alongside music, on breaking sexual taboos, and Mattijuhani Koponen eventually had to spend some time at a correctional facility (the fuss was all about Koponen's alleged public copulation with an anonymous woman while lying on a grand piano at a performance), since this sort of avantgardism seemed to be too much for the establishment of time.