jarkko hartikainen

 Jarkko Hartikainen (b. 1981) is a Finnish composer interested in the materiality of sound, ie. in the ways in which the physical and the concrete reality – say, friction, force and fragility – manifest themselves in sound. In traditional music-making, this aspect is usually hidden or largely unwanted, forbidden. Decidedly not an iconoclast, Jarkko Hartikainen hopes his art to entice the listeners' hearing-thinking towards a more empathetic and expanded understanding of the world and humanity. Acoustic phenomena, extended playing techniques, rigorous sound analysis and tight collaboration with performing musicians are key elements of Hartikainen's compositional practice. Hartikainen is not, however, satisfied with working 'only in music', but rather strives to concern his works with the real issues of contemporary life, and contemporary art in general. Many of his works are inspired by not only other art forms but also sciences – physics, biology, cosmology, sociology, even economics.

Jarkko Hartikainen's recent projects include the orchestral work Habitus (2017) for Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Musica nova Helsinki festival, the chamber quartet Studies on Empathy (2016) for Ensemble Adapter (Berlin), the post-collagic work for ensemble and sampler (seepings) (2017) for defunensemble (Helsinki), the phenomenon-based ensemble piece Elevations (2017) for Ensemble SurPlus (Freiburg), and the spectrally virtuosic ICE CONCERTO (2018) for violinist Sini Virtanen and the McCormick Percussion Group (Florida). Currently Hartikainen is working for new solo works for violinist Eriikka Maalismaa (Helsinki) and soprano Meeri Pulakka (Helsinki), both pieces dealing with the embodied physicality of a solo performer. 

Since 2016, Jarkko Hartikainen has been a doctoral student at the University of the Arts Helsinki. His stay at Circolo Scandinavo is supported by Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

For more info, including sound recordings, visit www.jarkkohartikainen.net