The composer and musician Ari Taskinen (born 1959) has been working three decades within finnish rock, electro-acoustic and multi-genré music. During the "wild years" of finnish punk/new wave (1978-83) he played with the band Problems and with Pelle Miljoona, which was among the most successfull in Finland, producing six albums, of which Moottoritie on kuuma sold gold (released by Johanna Records). The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) awarded Moottoritie on kuuma the title best popular music recording of the year in 1980.
In 1981 Taskinen composed his first solo album Threshold Paradise Now , which contais electronic and progressive music. The English magazine New Musical Express published a favourable rewiew of the record. His actual career among electro-acoustic music began when he joined the Finnish Broadcasting Company´s Experimental Studio in 1984. His first work based on early sampling technique was called Underground Mess In 1985 Underground Mess was performed in France at the Bourgess Festival of Electronic Music. A review of performance in the Computer Music Journal (1/86) praised the fresh approach toward human voice processing technique displayed in the work. In 1984 Ari Taskinen joined the well-known performance group Jack Helen Brut. Among other works he composed the music to JHB:s performance Illlumination, which was performed at various European Festival, such as the Gulbenkian Museum in Lissabon, Festival de Otoño de Madrid -85 and Reykjavik Festival 1984. Jack Helen Brut was awarded The state prize for the Fine Arts by the Finnish Goverment.
In the -80´s Ari Taskinen performed with the Transistors group. The band´s "dada-cabaret" show toured in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries. During the 1990´s Ari Taskinen´s compositions have been strongly influenced by extensive travels (Africa, Middle & South-East Asia) and study sounds in nature. These travels have resulted tape-music works African Procession (1997), Orangutan (1998), Laava (2002), Conchshell (2005) and sound-installation work of Islam world Bismillah.
He is currently creating a work on last remaining rainforest in Southeast Asia.



