The video was created to enhance the chill-out area of a party (Satiini). designed for continuous playback and centered around the event’s theme.
Source material was sourced from public domain archives via Archive.org, with additional scenes from the Pinguin Ice Cream commercial by Harry Egipt.
This two-minute excerpt is from a 16-minute track created for an artist’s Christmas-themed performances. Beyond the holiday atmosphere, the music needed to convey S/M undertones and be dynamic enough to inspire movement.
I started by experimenting with the notes of Jingle Bells, which soon inspired the basslines. The rhythm is relaxed yet driving, gradually revealing intricate details and structure. Tribal and ancient elements add a suggestive, teasing mystery that remains just out of reach.
The music supports the stage without overpowering it.
The show was produced by Blind Frame Productions and performed at the Solid Tricular LAN party. Inspired by sci-fi classics like Star Wars, Terminator, and Transformers, the second half featured a lightsaber battle.
I reviewed existing lightsaber sounds but found them insufficiently menacing and too rigid for the show’s needs, so I created my own.
Using Plogue Bidule, the core sound combines PWM sawtooth and synced sawtooth waves. Pulse-width modulation envelopes produce the ignition effect. This waveform passes through multiple filter banks adding subtle distortion, with the centerpiece being a custom monophonic formant filter. The final sound layers three distinct elements.
Movement sounds derive from processing the core signal through additional filters mixed with an amplitude-modulated copy. This creates an “energy field” effect, blended with the original via a crossfader. The crossfader and other parameters are controlled in real-time using a MIDI keyboard modulation wheel.
Though initially planned as a prerecorded track, I manipulated the sound live during the show for greater responsiveness. Contact sounds are variations of the core process, also triggered via keyboard. Beyond lightsabers, I designed many other sounds for the production.
This sound design wasn’t meant to imitate the originals but to create a unique, powerful sonic identity—and it sounded incredible through the party’s PA.
Talvisoolo (Winter Solo) was composed for an acrobatic fire performer from Trio Taika, created in collaboration with Visa Oscar. The piece captures a dialogue between a fiery spirit and a world that freezes and thaws.
The track incorporates extensive icy textures – rhythms, ambiences, and melodies – some sourced directly from the Live Antarctic Stream of AWI.
It also features samples from the following Freesound contributors: Black_Boe, c97059890, Corsica_S, deer, Dynamicell, gelo_papas, laurent, scarbelly25, and soalicesays.
Ääniviidakko (Jungle of Sound) is a generative, synthetic rainforest soundscape installation created for the chill-out area of the Manaus techno party in Helsinki. Due to the close proximity of the chill-out space to the main stage, sonic separation was limited, making a DJ setup impractical.
The installation consists of eight independent sound layers, each evolving continuously and rhythmically unrelated to the others. No natural recordings were used as source material. Instead, a few abstract rhythmic and melodic elements were processed through extensive effects chains to generate a dynamic, jungle-like soundscape that never repeats.
The composition features long cycles, shifting between impressions of day and night, relaxation and activity. Stochastic MIDI generators control software synthesizers that emulate wind and water sounds, adding organic movement.
To enhance the synthetic base, a subtle collage of real jungle and rainforest sounds – primarily bird calls – is layered intermittently, giving life and authenticity to the environment.
The installation was realized using Plogue Bidule.
Exhibitions:
2008 Manaus party chill out area, Helsinki