Laments are a musical expression carried by emotion. Laments are a global genre of traditional music that often combines melody, poetry and other artistic expressions that allow for the release of natural tears. 

Lament-singing was used for releasing emotional distress and are found intact in parts of Ireland, Greece, Romania, Karelia, the Middle East and among indigenous cultures from the Amazon to Africa and Papua New Guinea.  

Crying is not forced, but laments are inspired by topics with a strong emotional need, so space is made to experience grief in whatever form it arises.

The workshop includes practical exercises intended to bring forth a hands-on experience about how laments can be done. The workshop is suitable for anyone interested in history, rites of passage, rituals and grief practices, music therapy and other psychological approaches to loss and trauma a well as those seeking a new way with their own feelings about the state of our planet.

Bio: Tuomas Rounakari (Workshop Facilitator)

Musician:
Tuomas Rounakari is an internationally acclaimed violinist, composer, ethnomusicologist and educator from Finland. He is a versatile musician ranging from avantgarde improvisation to folk-metal, from contemporary classical music compositions to film scoring and sound design. His Doctor of Arts thesis, (presently in preliminary examination at the University of Arts in Helsinki), discusses the altered states of consciousness and the ability to engage in dialogue with the more-than-human through music. The case study in his thesis centres around the Bear Feast traditions of Finland, Karelia and the indigenous Khanty and Mansi people in Siberia. 

Lament facilitator: 
Tuomas Rounakari has been a key figure in the revival of the near extinct lament tradition in Finland. He learned the essence of laments from the Karelian elder Martta Kuikka, who was the first to bridge Karelian lament tradition and modern-day Finland. Subsequently, together with Pirkko Fihlman, Tuomas Rounakari developed a model of teaching laments in grief circles that allowed the participants to create their unique laments and be witnessed in their grief. During the past 20 years of workshops and ceremonies, Tuomas has been birthing and witnessing over a thousand individual laments across continents. 

09.00-09.15: Welcoming 

09.15-10.15: Roundtable discussion (Erin McClellan, Charlotte Lindvang and Tuomas Rounakari who facilitated the lamenting workshop yesterday) 

10.15-10.30: Coffee and tea 

10.30-11.15: Presentation and dialogue: "Climate Melancholia – Hope, Grief and Despair in the Ecological Crisis" by Alfred Sköld 

11.15-12.00: Presentation and dialogue: “Ambience of loss and the poetics of grief” by Jonatan Spejlborg Juelsbo

12.00-12.45: Lunch

12.45-13.15: Presentation and dialogue: "Music therapy as an innovative climate-friendly alternative to the anesthetic gas" by Sanne Storm

13.15-14.00: Presentation and dialogue: "Beyond Despair: An Apophatic and Wonder-Inspired Approach to Climate Grief" by Dr. Finn Thorbjørn Hansen

14.00-14.10: Small break

14.10-15.15: Shared discussion 

15.15-16.00: Coffee, cake, and conversations 

Bios: 

Dr. Alfred Sköld is an Associate Professor of General Psychology at Aalborg University, Denmark. His PhD-dissertation, Relationality and Finitude: A Social Ontology of Grief (2021), focused on the existential and ethical aspects of grief, and in his currect reseach project, Emotions of Climate Activism, he investigaste the the role of emotions in a climate activist setting. The project is based on ethnographic field work and qualitative interview study with The Green Youth Movement (Den grønne ungdomsbevælgese) in Denmark. Sköld is currently working on a forthcoming book, Youth Climate Activism and Emotive Responses to the Ecological Crisis: Bridging Historical Context and Existential Conditions, that broadly explores our emotional responses to the ecological crisis, with a particular focus on the relationship between grief, hope, and care within the context of climate activism.

Jonatan Spejlborg Juelsbo, PhD student, Institute for Communication & Culture, Aarhus University (DK) & Program Director, LungA School (IS), is an artist, researcher and educator working with practice-based means and methods for collaborative knowledge formation and articulation. His current studies explore contemporary experiences of loss in relation to climate change, and the collective practices of grief and memorialization that emerge and arise in relation to such loss.

Sanne Storm, MA and PhD in Music therapy is affiliated to Aalborg University and Gynecological-Obstetric Department, Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark. Her research, teaching and clinical work are focused on therapy related body- and voice work. She is presently involved in a research project that focuses on the possibility of reducing the consumption of the largest CO2 producing pain relief method during childbirth, inhalation of the anesthetic gas nitrous oxide, by offering therapy related body- and voice work during birth preparation. Therapy related body- and voice work facilitates and strengthens the women 's body awareness, familiarity with her own body, as well as trust in her body during birth. Furthermore, this approach empowers the couple's self-efficacy and autonomy during labor. The project is funded by the Climate Fund, an internal fund aimed at all departments at Aalborg University Hospital to support projects that contribute to the green transition of the Region.

Dr. Finn Thorbjørn Hansen is Professor of Applied Philosophy and Co-Head of the Research Unit TEN (Time, Existence & Nature connectedness) at Aalborg University. In his recent research on the existential and apophatic dimensions of grief at the maternity ward, Aalborg University Hospital, he has explored how grief can be transformed into a new sense of vulnerability and care for life itself through artistic and philosophical practices of wonder. In this paper presentation, Hansen focuses specifically on climate griefand how it can be understood not only as loss and despair but also as an existential threshold. Drawing on Rachel Carson’s The Sense of Wonder and eco-researchers like Washington, as well as eco-philosopher Kathryn Lawson’s reading of Simone Weil’s concept of decreation (“Decreation for the Anthropocene,” 2024), Hansen proposes an apophatic and wonder-inspired approach. This perspective does not deny grief but transforms it into a path of renewed attentiveness, humility, and care, pointing beyond despair in the face of the global climate crisis.