Kuljuntausta has created an extremely uncommon composition: a work based on sounds of Aurora Borealis. In the composition he used the sounds recorded by professor Unto K. Laine. First time in world history Laine has managed to capture sounds of Aurora Borealis. He offered his recordings to Kuljuntausta, who has used them as a basis for the composition work. Now it is possible to hear those sounds for the first time at a public concert.

In his art Kuljuntausta is concentrated on recorded sounds. He creates music, that has also called as 'concrete music'.

— "I travel with my recording equipments, capturing the environment around me. I pick up interesting sound moments, put them to my computer and organise this material to the reasonable entirety. Sometimes I might colour the work with some other sounds".

Kuljuntausta says, that his technic has similarities with the cinéma vérité, documentary-based filming style from the 60's.

— "The director took the camera, shoot the pictures, and edited the film, all phases done by him-/herself. I am doing the same thing with soundscapes".

He has recorded city sounds, for example, in London.

— "In my composition I connected very dense sound textures of Piccadilly Circus with a very heavy electronical sounds".

He has a goal that each of his composition has its own and recognizable soundscape.

— "It is up to the composer how far s-/he wants to go with processing of sound material. For me it is important that the work has its connection to the original environment, from where the sounds are taken from".

Café bar's capuccino coffee machine sizzles and whistles so noisy, that it is difficult to hear talking. The composer Petri Kuljuntausta is not surprised about the sounds.

— "Those sounds might end up even to my compositions. I am a controversial person", the man introduces himself. "I am over-sensitive about noises, but on the other hand, I am grazy about them. Once I travelled to London just to capture noises, sounds of the Piccadilly Circus."

He is a composer of electronic music and an active board member at the association of Acoustic Ecology. The association's goal is to "raise up awareness about our acoustic environments". — "All projects dealing with acoustic environments and their's future, interests us", he describes.

— "When speaking about sound environments, we should be able to use other terms too than only the concept of noise. When designing living environments, we forget too often our acoustic environment and its effects upon us."

Sometimes the sounds of the big city annoys the man who has a sensitive ear. But on the other hand, it is always possible to use hummings, buzzings and tickings in the pieces.

— "It is not possible to completely eliminate noises from the city. It is ok, that we have sounds. A few weeks ago I was nearly killed by tram, because the vehicle was moving so silently."

Kuljuntausta is sad about the fact, that we are losing more and more noise-free, natural environments. His opinion is that these areas should be protected by law, as is the situation with national parks.

— "Think about this. Once my friend, who is a professional sound recordist, wanted to record pure nature sounds. He drove up to 50 kilometers away from the Helsinki city until he found a possible place, quiet enough, to start to capture pure wind sound. "

At the moment Kuljuntausta is interested about different intervention molecules, and how to transmit sounds through different materials to listener.

— "I am interested about water. It is fascinating to thought, that we don't always need a mechanism of ear to sense sounds. We can sense, for example, extremely low sounds through our body. In California they have arranged a water concerts, where audience was staying at pool."

Kuljuntausta lives outside of the Helsinki center. It must be quiet to live there? — "Ahh, yes... but not actually. The buzz sound of the heating system (radiator) can be really annoying sometimes. Somebody should make an invention, which helps to quiet the thing", the man says with smile on his face.

Midday sounds of the Helsinki city. Muzak and beep-sounds surround us. Rattle, humming and clatter everywhere. Unbelievable but true, these city sounds are the theme for the electronic music and sound art festival Helsinki Sound 2001 at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

— "One of the original themes was to compose all festival works from the sounds of Helsinki. Collect the sounds first and then investigate what we can do with the material", tells the producer and computer musician Petri Kuljuntausta.

— "While listening an environmental recordings, they always offer big surprises for listener. Unbelievable sound textures, lasting only a few seconds, and nobody could never organize them so well as you hear them. Several cheeping traffic lights, for example, might create interesting minimalistic textures when they are cheeping a little bit out of tune. Perhaps the people around me thought that I must be grazy when they realised that I was recording those sounds at traffic lights!"

Most of the city sounds that we hear are annoying or sounds boring. Kuljuntausta is interested about noises:

— "Yes, it is possible to say that I like noises. For years I have used so called indefinate sounds as a basis in my compositions. They have nothing to do with tones or pitches. It is their timbre that offer a great possibilities to my compositions."

— "Sometimes, for example, when the intensive composing period lasts several days, from morning till next early-morning each day, and the work is based on traffic and feedback sounds, I feel sick from the noises. There is no reason to listen these compositions all the day through. Same is true with all music. It is important to find right moments for the music. You can't listen concentrately all the time!"

At the concert the machine wizard stayed behind the sound processing unit and DAT-machine, without moving a bit. All sound material was taken from our living environment, so basicly all that I heard wasn't unfamiliar or odd to me. What was fascinating, was how Kuljuntausta connected and separated these sounds, and from that basis created an intensive sound trip.

— "We need present day sounds", says Kuljuntausta, who is internationally well-known figure in the field. According to Kuljuntausta, we should not deny the past, but we should be able to concentrate and listen to what is happening just right now around us.

— "Tape recorder, microphone and computer are the music instruments of our day. Violin, piano and electric guitar are high-tech from the past. At last we have equipments, which offer us a possibilities to record sounds from air, and create music from these sounds."

Kuljuntausta believes that the continuum of thousands of years old pitch-based music will be fade, little by little, finally comprehending just a one line in the whole music history:

— "We have grown up with pitch-based music thinking, but it is obvious what will happen in future. With sounds it is possible to do so much more, we don't need notes anymore. Pitch-based music is restricted by traditional rules and stiff systems. For me, the world of sounds, 'art of the ear', offer much more richer possibilities.

The music aesthetic of Kuljuntausta differ from the mainstream:

— "I don't want to express feelings with my music. Burning feeling and emotion in music, it is only a one tradition." But Kuljuntausta confess the power of traditional art:

— "I can't help myself with the music of, for example, Bach. It gives me unbelievable experiences, sometimes even too strong feelings. If the music moves me so deeply, I don't want to listen to it too often from that reason."

There are many kind of musicians working in the field of electronic music, off course, and all of them are not trying to alienate us from feelings:

— "All depends on a person behind the instrument. There are different values and prejudices in the music world and some people still has an opinion that the computer is some kind of evil machine. We are still living quite close with the ideas of Romantism."

I have been a witness of avantgarde music, its narrow front and the ideas of new art. The avantgarde art which will be soon followed by popular artists, who are always eager to use the fruits of their inventions. After listening to the most fascinating works performed at Helsinki Sound 2001, and comparing them to the last year's most "groundbreaking" rock record, Radiohead's Kid A, the latter is for me nothing more than a social MIDI-evening played by little boys.

Tampere Biennale festival has invited the composer Petri Kuljuntausta and sound designer Juhani Liimatainen to give a Planetarium concert, based on a theme of 'sounds from space'. Kuljuntausta and Liimatainen has co-composed music from, for example, sounds of radio satellites, but more fascinating is the piece based purely on sounds of Aurora Borealis. Kuljuntausta's composition Aurora Borealis I is constructed from the 5-hour long original sound recording.

— "I have manipulated time and drama", the composer explain his role, "which means that I have cleaned the original tape from irrelevant hiss and noise sounds, then selected sound material for the work, and at last, organised the final work from the sounds."

The sounds of Aurora Borealis are already electronic music for the composer: — "Electronic music is based on electrons, and the same electrons are the reason for the Aurora sounds too. Actually, the Sun is like a giant-size sound generator!"

Are there any literary descriptions for these famous sounds? The scientist Unto K. Laine says that they might sound like a bang, crackle, whisper or sparkle. The composer Kuljuntausta could hear glissandos of female voices or solistic voice fragments.

In a convenient way the composer's feet leaves the ground: — "A composition of mine has travelled five years through the space, its goal is Titan, Saturn's planet. The probe Huygens, launched by ESA (European Space Agency), will land to the planet after seven year long trip, in the year 2005. Two years from now, I'll start to wait a messages of possible performances", Kuljuntausta tells me while looking up to the sky.