HUORATRON (FIN)

composition of a soundtrack for an imaginary computer game

Huoratron’s peculiar musical armament, consisting of twin hand-held Nintendo Gameboy consoles, have virtually set the Europe’s electronic scene on fire. Using these nearly obsolete pieces of gaming technology, and turning them into full-fledged electronic music composing tools, is the main ingredient behind Huoratron’s unique sound.

Huoratron is a musical project of one man, Aku Raski, a Helsinki-based composer, producer and artist. Born in Helsinki in 1977, he was introduced to music at an early age. He started with purely acoustic instruments and more conventional musical projects, but was inspired by the endless musical possibilities and approaches offered by electronic instruments.
In the late 1990’s he was educated in the Center of Musical Technology of the unparalleled source of musical and technical training in Finland, the Sibelius Academy.
In 2002, Raski continued his musical studies in the highly regarded Carnegie Mellon University in USA. Currently Aku Raski is pursuing his MA studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, as well as extensive cross studies in the Sibelius Academy.
Aku Raski has produced numerous records and participated in various electro-acoustic music projects. His music has been released under various pseudonyms and aliases in Germany, Netherlands, France, Japan, USA and in Finland. He has also participated in multiple collaborations with both music and film artists.

Huoratron’s peculiar musical armament, consisting of twin hand-held Nintendo Gameboy consoles, have virtually set the Europe’s electronic scene on fire. Using these nearly obsolete pieces of gaming technology, and turning them into full-fledged electronic music composing tools, is the main ingredient behind Huoratron’s unique sound. His fascination with the early 80’s computer music set in the musical and high arts context of today is one of its kind.
Huoratron encapsulates the raw essence of what is valued in electronic music and electronic live shows; a highly intensive performance consisting of massive explosion of visuals and experimental arcade game sound scapes. Huoratron’s polyrhythmic song structures are put together on-stage, from hundreds of tiny segments of sound, forming a real time interaction with unlimited possibilities of musical variation. Huoratron’s performing motto is that electronic music should be made as interesting and as unique live experience as possible.
Huoratron has enjoyed keen interest from the media and has been widely noticed in numerous publications, both in Finland and abroad. Recently Raski has been busy touring around the world with his live show; multiple tours in France, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Sweden, USA and China have established Huoratron as one of the most intense live shows in Europe.

Project for the residency February and March 2009.

The year 2008 has been extremely active for Huoratron. I have been traveling constantly while doing multitude of live performances around the world. This active performing period has taken it’s toll time wise and I haven’t had time to do creative work and concentrate writing music as much as I would have liked to. The Quartier21 residency would give me perfect time and space to concentrate on the much time consuming creative process of composing. Also after visiting
Vienna and Museum Quartier district in 2007 I’m well aware of the city and it’s inspirational nature.

During the residency I plan to compose a musical soundtrack for an imaginary computer game.
The concept and the plot of the game will be entirely developed in the residency. The theme of the game will draw many strong elements from the culture of retro gaming consoles. The music is going to include all the above ingredients of Huoratron’s distinctive sound palette. I have been offered a possibility to produce and to work in a sound studio in Vienna during the residency.