Mood, feeling, climax – Joona Samuel takes these elements to work on his fascinating debut EP The Act Of Disintegration. Through building on conceptual roots established by the likes of Arthur C. Clarke, Joona creates a fascinating style of instrumental storytelling with a level of complexity that transcends language. We caught up with Joona to discuss his debut EP and the ambitious cinematic flavour he brought to the final product.
Tell us about the upcoming EP. What are some of the themes, ideas or composition motifs you’re including in The Act of Disintegration?
Joona: “The compositional process to The Act Of Disintegration started with the concept of composing a soundtrack to an ‘internal film’. I wanted to compose a musical novella of sorts that could be split in three parts to represent the three-act structure present in narrative fiction: I: Setup II: Confrontation III: Resolution. The story is essentially about confronting and accepting life as an event of inexplicable cosmic horror.
“Musically I didn’t want to be confined by genre… but to be free to associate between different styles of musical expression and genres. I wanted to basically bring all my musical influences into one starting from my death & black metal fuelled early teenage years, to my high school prog influences, through the obsession with 90s Warp Records catalogue ending up in my present musical self. To bring a plethora of influences together in a somewhat coherent manner.”
What have you chosen as your first single from the EP? Can you tell us something you like about the song and perhaps an interesting fact that you’d want your listeners to know about it?
Joona: “The first single of the EP is a song titled The Stars Are Not For Man, which is the second act of the story. The title is a quote from the novel The Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. In the context of the song it’s a metaphor to how the arcane secrets of the cosmos are not to be understood by mankind, but to simply be observed without the need to pursuit deeper knowledge.”
Beyond that, what ideas do you incorporate into your music? Is there anything you’d define as the ‘lifeblood’ of your work?
Joona: “I’m always trying convey mental imagery to music, and that’s how my compositional process gets started. A feeling or an image which I try to put into music and to do this I don’t want to be bound by genre or musical convention.”
Could you discuss with us what you’ve been up to in the last 12 months? What plans do you have for the next 12?
Joona: “I’ve had a break from pursuing my own music and been more occupied with my profession as a sound mixer, sound editor and music composer in the film & TV industry here in Helsinki. The past few months I’ve slowly started making demos of my first LP and forming the concept and story of that album. Currently I’m fusing big band jazz, samba and Jean Luc Ponty-esque fusion together, it’s going to be fun!
“During the next year I really hope to form a band to play my music and take it on the road to see what kind of a live version we can cook out of my compositions and hopefully by 2020 start recording the LP!”
Are there any awards, highlights or performances that have particularly touched you as an artist? Could you share with us these moments?
Joona: “A huge transformational experience for me was when I was chosen to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal in 2016. It gave me the opportunity to record and perform with amazing people such as Thundercat and Chilly Gonzales. It was then that for the first time I thought ‘Yeah, I could do this for the rest of my life’ and felt good about it.
“On the note of performances that touched me – seeing Reinier Baas performing his instrumental jazz opera Discombulatrix XL with the Concertgebouw orchestra was crazy. It showed me that damn, you can really make highly ambitious and original music and perform it.”
