There was nothing in a room

Petri Kuljuntausta is a composer, performer and sound artist. He is famous for music composed of sounds both natural and extraordinary. In close collaboration with natural scientists, he has composed an underwater installation from underwater materials and made music out of whale calls and the sounds of the northern lights. In many ways Kuljuntausta's art is based on good knowledge of tradition; environmental sounds, live-electronics, improvisation and collaborations with media artists has influenced him as a composer. His recent composition project Northern Lights LIVE, based on soundscapes of the northern lights and feedback sounds, was performed at the ISEA2004 festival, 12th Symposium on Electronic Arts. The work was a vivid collaboration between art and science, recycling original field recordings of the phenomena as well as processing aurora borealis sounds. A forty-five minute long continuous audio-visual dialogue between nature's own soundscapes and their digitally altered, urban noise-art substitutes were created on stage. Kuljuntausta has composed digital music for experimental films, visual art and dance projects, and made media and sound installations in museums, galleries and concert halls. His works has been performed in many European countries, Australia and the USA, and he has made recordings for various labels in Australia, England, Finland, France, Germany and the USA. Kuljuntausta has collaborated with the experimental film director Sami van Ingen, urban architecture group Ocean-North, composers Morton Subotnick and Atau Tanaka, sound artist Richard Lerman and musician/philosopher David Rothenberg. He is the author of an 800 page History of Finnish Electronic Music, On/Off, and in 2006 he published his second book, Äänen eXtreme ('eXtreme Sound', info), on his own approach to music. Recently he won an award, The Finnish State Prize for Art, from the Finnish government as a distinguished national artist for 2005.

Cfr. nn. Arch.183.41, 184.44 ZERO is a limited edition collection of one-minute soundworks by international sound artists, experimental composers, noise makers and other audio creators. Contributors were invited to create an original recording of one-minute duration for the CD on the theme of ZERO – whether through their stripped-down, low-tech aesthetic or a focus on themes of absence, abstraction, distortion or a sense of thereshold between one state and another. The CD contains a broad variety of one-minute soundworks and presents the results of artists working thematically in chance juxtaposition. By bringing together this calibre and range of contributions, ZETRO aims to stimulate further interest in the artist work and practice, debate and dialogue surrounding sound art. The artists on ZERO range from well known world figures, to individuals and groups making their first wirks in this field. ZERO was commisioned by the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT) and was published with the support from Liverpool Art School.