THE BOOK
ON/OFF -
Eetteriäänistä sähkömusiikkiin
'ON/OFF - From Ether
Sounds to Electronic Music'
Co-published by LIKE
Publishing Ltd & KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art
800 pages + CD
recording
ISBN: 951-578-934-6
Language: Finnish
Publication
Date: June 5th 2002
On/Off
explores the development of electric instruments and studio technology,
the creation of the first electronic, musique concrete and computer
works, including interviews with the composers and inventors of
electronic instruments, in Finland. The book presents a huge amount of
unknown and rare material, founded from the YLE / Finnish Radio
archives, composers' private collections and elsewhere.
Along with the
pioneers of Finnish electronic music, the book presents rare interviews
and comments from international artists who performed / composed music
in Finland during the 1950s and 1960s, including Karlheinz Stockhausen,
John Cage, Folke Rabe, Ken Dewey and Terry Riley.
Kuljuntausta also
explores the connections between electronic music and other art forms
during that time. An extensive bibliography and work list are included.
The book is
accompanied by a 74 min long audio CD [edited & collected by Petri
Kuljuntausta] including the first Finnish electronic, computer and
musique concrete works composed between 1958-1963 by Reijo Jyrkiäinen,
Bengt Johansson, Henrik Otto Donner, Erkki Salmenhaara, Ilkka Kuusisto,
Erkki Kurenniemi, Seppo Mustonen, Usko Meriläinen, Pehr Henrik Nordgren,
Martti Vuorenjuuri, Veikko Eskolin.
Petri
Kuljuntausta is an electronic music composer, performer and sound
artist. He specializes in environmental sounds and in the composing of
sonic landscapes. He has composed electronic music for experimental
films, visual art and dance projects, and made media and sound
installations in museums, galleries and concert halls.
His most recent
soundscape composition project [spring 2002] was based on sounds of
Aurora Borealis. Kuljuntausta has collaborated with the experimental
film director Sami van Ingen, urban architecture group Ocean-North,
composers Juhani Nuorvala, Morton Subotnick and Atau Tanaka, writer /
voice performer John Richardson, sound artist Richard Lerman, visual /
conceptual art group OLO and musician / improvisor / philosopher David
Rothenberg. Kuljuntausta's music has been performed in many European
countries, Australia and the USA, and he has made recordings for various
labels in England, Finland, France, Germany and the USA.
