Dr Antti Saario

Head of Music

Dr Antti Sakari Saario is an award-winning post-acousmatic composer, sound and audio practitioner, researchers, and an audio professional. Antti's compositions have been performed in over 200 concerts, dance performances, festivals and installations in England, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil amongst other countries, and broadcast worldwide.

External Links

Dr Antti Saario

Contact details

Telephone 01326 255925
Email antti.saario@falmouth.ac.uk

    Qualifications

    Qualifications

    Year Qualification Awarding body
    2002 PhD Musical Composition University of Birmingham
    1997 BSc (Hons) Electronic Music and Mathematics University of Keele

    Honors and awards

    Year Description
    2003 Bullet Train Ballad no.1 (2002) [7’], fixed media. Finalist in Bourges 2003 TRIVIUM A – Degre II Studio Category.
    2002 Bullet Train Ballad no.1 (2002) [7’], fixed media. 1st prize absolute for 'Electro-acoustic, analogical and digital music' section of the IV International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine" competition 2002 (1500 euros, public performance and realization of a CD of the concert), Udine, Italy.
    1998 Soft Lies, Soft Icons (1997-8) [12’], fixed media. Seventh place in the Prix Scrime acousmatic composition competition, Bordeaux, France.

    Research Interests

    Research interests and expertise

    • Sound recording 
    • Audio and music production practices and associated technology innovations, with a particular focus on creative and critical application transducers
    • Composition: electroacoustic, fixed media, post-acousmatic and studio composition
    • Sound, audio and listening praxis
    • Soundscape ecology
    • Collaborative and nomadic creative methods
    • Sound and affect theory 
    • Sound based performance practice: electronic music performance, mixed media sound making, installation, and post-acousmatic performance
    • Black Metal: production, black metal theory, blackened affect

    Research Topics

    • Black Metal
    • Composition
    • Performance
    • Praxis
    • Production

    Research Outputs

    Publications and research outputs

    • Saario, Antti and Pigott, Jon

      (2021), Speaker Park: An intersection of loudspeaker design and post-acousmatic composition, In: Innovation in music: Future opportunities, Routledge, Abingdon, ISBN: 9780367363352, Item availability may be restricted.

    • Saario, Antti

      (2018), The Blackened Affect: Affect and Production in Black Metal, In: Crosstown Traffic: Popular Music Theory and Practice, 3-5 September 2018, University of Huddersfield, UK

    • Saario, Antti

      (2017), Public Dreaming: Europe. Almost. A Fantasy., Item availability may be restricted.

    • Saario, Antti and Riikonen, Taina

      (2013), INK(ED - Ihoon Kaiverrettua: Thoughts, Deeds, Vibrations multi-lingual experimental radio feature (duration: 50')

    • Saario, Antti, Marclay, Christian, Wiegold, Peter and Young, Michael

      (2012), The Doll's House with A Game of You - for an improvising ensemble, fixed media and video score

    • Saario, Antti

      (2008), Nomadische Luftspiegelung für Eva: for accordion and fixed media (audio)

    • Saario, Antti and Iddon, Martin

      (2008), Proposition 6a: ceci n'est pas une machine de guerre (Refrain) - for fixed media, with optional amplified piano and live electronics

    • Bossey, Adrian

      (2023), Live Audience Accessibility & Augmentation (‘LAAA’), In: Live Audience Accessibility & Augmentation, 17-19 May 2023, AMATA

    • Särkelä, Janne

      (2016), Melancholy Paradox (LP)

    • Newall, Amanda

      (2015), Hoover Diaries

    • Ferrett, D

      Lamb, Johny, (2015), Dark Sound: Destructive Pop 2015, AMATA, Falmouth University

    Externally funded research grants information

    Collaborators Currency Funder HESA Category Project title Value Year ending Year starting
    GBP
    GBP

    Events

    2018 Falmouth-Yamaha Jazz Summer School (Director)

    Research Students

    Current research students

    Dinah Hayward (PhD candidate): Aural diversity and composition practice
    Thomas Hull (PhD candidate): Soundscape ecology and composition practice 
    Amble Skuse (PhD candidate): Disability and composition practice (3D3 funded)

    Previous student supervision

    Dr Philip Reeder: Composition (AHRC Funded) 
    Dr Tom Slater : Composition, Sound art

    Number of research students supervised to completion

    2

    Research degrees examined

    Associate Director of Postgraduate Studies, Lancaster University, 2008-2010
    Internal Examiner (PhD), Musicology, Lancaster University, Dec 2010
    External Examiner (PhD), Cheung, Kaho PhD Rapid Transit Systems: a portfolio of music compositions, University of Manchester, February 201.   
    External Examiner (PhD), Jansch, Adam PhD Towards the open outcome record: a portfolio of works exploring strategies of freeing the record from fixity (2011) , University of Huddersfield, March 2012
    Internal Examiner (PhD), Musicology, University College Falmouth/University of Plymouth, July 2012
    University of York (2021) McNeill, Adams PhD Articulating the Dancefloor: Examining spatial, social and sonic identities of contemporary club culture through an interdisciplinary creative practice

    Number of research degree examinations

    4

    Teaching

    Areas of teaching

    • Sound Recording
    • audio and music production
    • Studio composition
    • music technology theory and practice
    • Professional Practice
    • sound art
    • audio theory
    • Contextual studies

    Courses taught

    • BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology
    • BA (Hons) Music
    • BA (Hons) Popular Music
    • PhD Supervision

    Policy engagement within Cornwall

    Engagement with organisations which contribute to the development of educational, cultural or socio-economic policies in Cornwall

    Cornwall Music Education Hub (CMEH) Strategic Advisory Board Member
    Cornwall Music Network(CMN) Board Member

    Business Engagement

    Consultancy and facility services

    Delivery of HEIF Business Assists (incl. recording, production and creative consultancy) for Cornish artists, business and musicians (2011-15)

    Professional Engagement

    Independent professional practice

    Creative output

    Antti’s praxis focuses on fixed media composition and its experiential, critical and performative application in interdisciplinary, collaborative and multi-media contexts.  
    Commissions by YLE (Finnish Broadcast Company), Frieze Art Fair/Channel 4 film, Cecis Art Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Duo Roche/Zöllner, Nuffield Theatre and London Musicians Collective (LMC).

    Full project details and list of performances, broadcasts and media releases available on request.

    Recent

    World Premiere and performances of GhXsts by Eva Zöllner and Heather Roche in UK (York, Leeds, Belfast) and Portugal (Seia) 
    Installation and VIP performance of Public Dreaming: Europe. Almost. A Fantasy. at the Nordic Bienniale of Contemporary Arts: Momentum 9 'Alienation', Norway
    Screening tour of Hoover Diaries, New Zealand  

    Forthcoming

    • Split LP release with Stephen Grew (piano: UK), Summer 2018
    • Live performances at Jaguar Hotel, London, June 2018
    • EP release of Crescendo of Doom with Heikki Helanterä (drums: FIN), Late 2018
    • Dangers of reading too much presented by A|R (Aero Ionian Risk) performance-installation, Arkadia International Bookstore, August 2018, Helsinki, Finland

     

    List of compositions

    Fixed & mixed media composition


    GhXsts (2017) 8:30, stereo fixed medium and score for unspecified forces Work commissioned by Duo Roche/Zöllner.  
    Public Dreaming: Europe. Almost. A Fantasy (2017) c.45’ live laptop performance at Momentum 9 – Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art: Alienation  
    Public Dreaming: Europe. Almost. A Fantasy (dreamscape) (2017) 110:15 stereo fixed medium soundtrack for a ‘sleep structure’ and public sleep clinic by Amanda Newall (NZ) and Leon Tan (NZ)  
    Hoover Diaries (2014-16) 45:00 stereo fixed medium soundtrack and post-production for HD video Director and project leader Amanda Newall (NZ)  
    Don’t Leave Stay a While Longer… (2011), Open duration stereo fixed medium composition and sound design for Ivars Drulle’s Cecis Art Festival commissioned multimedia installation. Old Cesis Brewery, Cesis, Latvia, Summer 2011.
    The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of FAME (2010) Sound consultant and audio production supervisor, sound recording, remixing and a collaborative composition with Philip Reeder (UK) for Frieze Art Fair/Channel 4 film commission and series of 13 hour performances conceived and directed by Linder Sterling, feat. Stuart McCallum (Cinematic Orchestra)  
    Nomadische Luftspiegelung für Eva (2008) 9:30 stereo fixed medium and accordion Commissioned by Eva Zöllner (GER)  
    Aboriginal Terraformations (2008) stereo fixed medium for HD video Collaborative video and research project with Ola Johansson (SWE), Amanda Newall (NZ) and Stephen Pritchard (AUS)  
    The Hollywoods: We are Legion – Mixed Reality Jockeying (2007) Stereo fixed medium compositions Collaborative multi-media art and research project with Amanda Newall (NZ) and Leon Tan (NZ)  
    Pilgrim Sunrise, Pagan Sunset (2007) score for unspecified forces and fire Commissioned for the Guthrie & Streb Summer 2007 Extravaganza www.gutrhieandstreb.com     Frames for One  (2004-07) stereo fixed medium soundtrack for a dancer and video Video by Olaf Knarvik (NOK), Dance and Choreography by Gitte Bastiansen (NOK)  
    Bullet Train Ballad no.1 (2002) 7:18, stereo fixed medium Winner of 1st prize absolute for "electro-acoustic, analogical and digital music" section of the IV International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine", 2002, Udine, Italy Contemporanea 2002 : Interensemble (Taukay123), CD Yachtclub vol.1 – Alkumeri Yachtclub (Yacht001), CD     Crystal Man (2002) (remix) 1:00, stereo fixed medium Released on Bottoms Up Limited Edition CD featuring 51 remixes of the work of Professor Jonty Harrison  
    Portrait Concrète: Jo Hamilton in fixed media [21'36" x 44.1 kHz/s x 16bit] (2001) 21:36 stereo fixed medium  
    G&T Swimmers (2001) c. 11’ stereo fixed medium Commissioned by Aldeburgh Festival CD release on Viewpoint ‘Works from BEAST – vol.3’. Sargasso Records  
    Invisible Tattoos (2000) c. 25’ stereo fixed medium  
    nausea (1999) c. 17’ stereo fixed media  
    Kuollut Radio (1998) c. 4’ stereo fixed medium Produced to form a part of LMC commissioned Ways of Hearing by David Prior (UK), Dugal McKinnon (NZ), Ian Chuprun (CAN) and Antti Saario (FIN), for John Peel Festival, London, 1998.  
    B-Side (1998) 3:15 stereo fixed medium CD release on Spike ‘Works from BEAST – vol.1’. Sargasso Records CD release on Presence II. PeP  
    Soft Lies, Soft Icons (1997-8) 12:03 stereo fixed medium  

    IN COLLABORATION w/Martin Iddon (UK) as [zygote]
     
    The Doll's House, (2014) 15:45 stereo fixed medium  
    A Game of You with The Doll’s House, (2012) c. 15’ animated video score, stereo fixed medium audio and an ensemble Video by Adam Gregory York.  
    5 closed vessels, (2011) Stereo fixed medium  
    complicity simplex, (2011) 8:06 video score & stereo fixed medium audio   Video by Adam Gregory York.  
    virtuoso, (2009) c. 80’ stereo fixed medium  
    proposition 6a: ceci n'est pas une machine de guerre (Refrain), (2008) 9:52 stereo fixed medium, with optional amplified piano and live electronics CD release on Sound Report: The Comfort of Strangers (Sound Network, 2008)  
    dead white male, (2008) stereo fixed medium  
    dead white male (edit), (2007) stereo fixed medium  
    closed vessel: Ausstrahlung, (2007) 1:00, stereo fixed medium DVD release on FrammentAzioni (Taukay, 2009) CD release on Soundtrack to a Catastrophic World (cantaudio32, 2010)

    IN COLLABORATION w/Taina Riikonen (FIN) as Aero Ionian Risk (A|R)
     
    INK(ED) - Ihoon Kaiverrettua: Thoughts, Deeds, Vibrations (2013) c.50’, stereo fixed medium, multi-lingual radio programme Commissioned by YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company)  
    Visceral Logic Romances with the Facts and Fiction of the Conceptual Machine (2012) multimedia performance for Arkadia International Bookstore, Helsinki, Finland  
    Aero Ionian Risk at Nudge (2011) Multi-channel open duration sound installation Commissioned by consumer awareness company Nudge, with support from Apple, Finland and Genelec loudspeakers. Nudge, Design District, Helsinki, Finland, April 2011  

    IN COLLABORATION w/Iain Armstrong (UK) as Anvil & Stirrup  

    Run Blood, Blodlopp no 3 (2012), soundtrack HD video.  
    Anvil & Stirrup, ThousandUnfold (2010) [3’], fixed media  
    Boom Boom Boom (BudDub mix) (2001), [9’] remix of the Jo Hamilton original. Original track produced by Jon Cotton.  

    WORKS FOR STAGE/PERFORMANCE ONLY    

    Making Space: When The Curtain Falls (2007) 21:00, an acousmatic play for multichannel playback system and blacked-out space  
    Flocking: an improvatorio (2007) for voices, string quartet, fixed medium and live-electronics Collaborator on and a co-researcher in the ACE, PRSF and LCC funded research project into group free improvisation led by Steve Lewis (feat. Maggie Nicholls, Phil Minton, Cleveland Watkiss, Beth Allen, David Prior, Four Candle quartet)  
    Unprepared (2007) a collaborative performance, interactive environment and concept for stereo fixed medium, live-electronics (Saario) and keyboards (Stephen Grew).  
    Tok Tok#2 (2006) c. 60:00, multi-media performance-cum-installation with Phil Dadson (NZ) and Amanda Newall (NZ)  
    Europa; Woman (2006) c. 60:00, stereo fixed medium composition and sound design Karen Foss Quiet Works dance company production.  
    quiet,red (2004) c. 60:00, stereo fixed medium composition and sound design Karen Foss Quiet Works dance company production.    

     

    Professional audio work

    Freelance audio production, engineering and creative consulting since 2001 (clients include TV2 (Norway), Linder Sterling (UK), Erototox Decodings (USA)).

    Publications

    Riikonen, T, Saario, A, (2011). Listening to the Replayed Touch: A Strata-aural Manifesto. Body, Space & Technology, Vol. 10/01.
    Riikonen, T, Saario, A, (2011). Äänen kosketus. Kybervärähtelevä manifesti. [The Touch of Sound. A Cyber-vibrating Manifesto.]
    Nuori Voima 1 (2011): 24–25.      
    Riikonen, T, Saario, A, (2011). Listening to the Recorded Touch: Towards Visceral Methodologies of Mixed Media Sound Making. [Paper presentation] sforzando!, EMS/EMF Conference, NYC, USA, June 2011.    •  

    Social, community and cultural engagement

    Keynotes and Invited Speeches:
    Cornwall Music Education Hub, Post 16 Conference, AMATA, Falmouth University, October 2016   
    Environmental Utterance, Falmouth University, September 2012
    Breathing, Sibelius Academy in collaboration with Uniarts, Musiikkitalo, Helsinki, Finland, Septemer 2011
    Cecis Art Festival, Old Cesis Brewery, Cesis, Latvia, Summer 2011      

    Engagement with professional associations and societies

    Audio Engineering Society (AES) Member
    Association for the Study of the Art of Record Production (ASARP) Member
    Cornwall Music Education Hub (CMEH) Strategic Advisory Board Member
    Cornwall Music Network (CMN) Board Member
    The Music Producers Guild (UK) Member