Yari seeks new levels in his film music

by Mika Kauhanen / Fimic :: 2005

Elvis-kissan jäljillä (On the trail of Elvis the cat, 1987) directed by Claes Olsson marked the beginning of the film composing career of Yari. Since then, he has written the music for dozens of full-length films, short films and documentaries. He finds inspiration in popular culture, including numerous films and comic books. He was invited to join the European Film Academy in 2004.

Yari (whose real name is Jari Ensio Knuutinen) was born in Jyväskylä in 1957. He spent his adolescence in Kemi, and in his teens he played cello with the municipal orchestra for two years. His music studies took him back to Jyväskylä at the age of nineteen; his major subject at the conservatory was theory of music, and he also studied the piano, percussion, voice and the cello. He was already thinking outside the box, however, and in 1978 he founded the band Se (It), inspired by the Sex Pistols.

The titles of the songs and albums of Se reveal Yari's fondness for the cinema, as in Rakkauden kieli (The Language of Love, directed by Torgny Wickman), Apinoiden planeetta (Planet of the Apes, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner), Köyhän pikajuna (Dô desu ka den, directed by Akira Kurosawa) and Viimeiseen hengenvetoon (À bout le souffle, directed by Jean-Luc Godard). The comic book influence is apparent in that Se was named a character in the Son of Superman, while Superman’s enemy Mr Mxyzptlk lent his name to Yari's other band entitled Yari Mxyzptlk in the 1980s.

Se released five albums between 1979 and 1984, and in 1997 a collection of single releases was released on the Johanna label. After Se, Yari was active in Onnensoturit (the name translates as Soldiers of Fortune), which included Eeva Koivusalo, Sande Vettenranta and Jimi Sumén. Subsequently, Yari has written songs for Liisa Tavi and Mari Rantasila, among others. The album Tuli (Fire, 2003) by Marja Mattlar is a tribute to Yari's versatility: he produced and arranged the album, and also played keyboards, guitar and the accordion and sang backup vocals! Yari has also released solo albums, most recently 12 askelta (12 steps, 1999).


From Se to film

Yari's film composer career began with a request from director Claes Olsson, on a recommendation from producer Atte Blom, to write music for the film Elvis-kissan jäljillä. Yari had not been soliciting work from film directors, since in the 1970s Finnish films used little music, and there was virtually no demand for film score composers.

Yari has subsequently written the music for four of Olsson's feature-length films, most recently Onnen varjot (Shades of Happiness, 2005), and for several short films and documentaries. It could be said that he has been Olsson's composer-in-residence ever since that first cat film. Olsson and Yari collaborate at the script stage, discussing the outline; but Yari does not write actual music before the shooting begins. Composition is a slow process, with about one minute of finished music created in a day, according to Yari.

Modern technology is a substantial help in making music. Yari creates demo versions of the music for rough cuts of the film using a sequencer in his home studio. In this way, the director can give feedback to the composer before actual musicians are hired to record the score. Like many Finnish film composers, Yari is at once composer, musician, conductor, recording engineer and mixing engineer. Finnish films are shot on small budgets, and luxuries such as a live symphony orchestra are rarely available.


Jussi award

Yari received a Jussi award, the Finnish equivalent of an Oscar, for his music for Claes Olsson's film Akvaariorakkautta (Aquarium Love, 1993). In this score, he employed a Leitmotif technique focusing on locations instead of people. The supermarket features Bach, and the workplace of the main character played by Tiina Lymi features Vivaldi, both arranged by Yari of course. Akvaariorakkaus was the first of the two soundtrack albums that Yari has released to date. The second, Tuliportaat / Ihanat naiset rannalla (Fire Stairs / Amazing Women by the Sea) was released in 1998.

The Jussi award for Akvaariorakkautta was followed by the Arts Prize of the Province of North Karelia in 1994 and the culture prize of Polvijärvi, the municipality where Yari now lives. In 2004, Yari became the first Finnish film composer to be invited to join the European Film Academy.

The instrumentation in Akvaariorakkautta included programmed segments and also three cellos, acoustic guitar, electric guitar and percussion, yielding unusual combinations. "Anything that works with what's on screen is possible, never mind if you're using an el cheapo synthesizer from the bargain basement or a tin can," Yari said in an interview for Rondo magazine (2/2005).

The point of film composing is not to create independent music but to serve a larger whole. Emotions and how to channel them are important aspects of film music. Yari describes the aims of his work thus: "When film music is at its best, it brings out levels that the viewer would not notice in the film without the music. And this, seeking and finding new things, is the most challenging and the most rewarding thing about making films. To find a musical expression customized specifically for the film you're working on."

One of Yari's greatest assets as a film composer is that he has a wealth of experience in both the classical and the popular domains; as early as in the 1970s he could fit a music theory lesson at the conservatory and a punk band rehearsal into a single day. Recently, he has been returning to acoustic ensembles. His work Invisible Cave for strings received shared second prize in the Nordic composition competition organized by the Turku Conservatory. A new work for male voice choir and orchestra will be premiered in March 2006.

Apart from his diverse activities as a composer, Yari has also held a variety of elected posts, for instance as a board member of the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society (Teosto) and the Finnish Composers and Lyric Writers ELVIS Association. He also frequently gives lectures on film music to students in the field.

Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi