Jarno Sarkula (4 August 1973 – 12 July 2020) was a Finnish musician and one-time TV-personality. Sarkula was born in

Vantaa Vantaa (; , ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the north of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population of Vantaa is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland. Vantaa is part of the Helsinki Metropoli ...

. As a musician, he first became known with the band Höyry-kone ("Steam-Engine"). Sarkula wrote music for the band and played the

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and

woodwinds Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and re ...

. The music of the band took influences from e.g. the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. In 1997, Sarkula founded the band Alamaailman Vasarat together with Teemu Hänninen. After developing the band's music for a couple of years, they began to play in public. The band took its influences from

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

klezmer Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...

. The result can be categorized as

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

, and the band said that they played music from the fictitious continent of Vasaraasia. The band played concerts in e.g. the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. They achieved their greatest fame in 2005, when they recorded the album ''Kinaporin Kalifaatti'' together with the Finnish artist Tuomari Nurmio. Sarkula also became known as a TV-persona on the free cable-channel MoonTV. Sarkula started out as the host of PC game-oriented shows such as ''PC-Peliluola'' (''PC "Game Cave"'', a name for an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

), his best known program, and the in-depth gaming show ''PC-Planeetta'' (PC-Planet) which was split from the show ''Game Planet'', after it was divided into two shows. He also hosted the show ''Damage'' which dealt with DVD-releases and was one of the last 15-minute shows on the channel. On screen Sarkula went by the name Kreivi Stakula (Count Stakula) which went hand-in-hand with the gothic look of the show. Despite his unshakable demeanor Sarkula entertained audiences with his ''verbal acrobatics'' which often had gothic undertones and even by doing skits relating to games he was reviewing (while reviewing

Serious Sam ''Serious Sam'' is a video game series created and primarily developed by Croteam. It consists predominantly of first-person shooters. The series follows the advances of Sam "Serious" Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overlord who att ...

he did an imitation of the Headless Screaming creatures in the game). Sarkula quickly became one of the channel's best liked hosts. The name Stakula was originally a goof on the part of a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

stage-manager who misspelled Sarkula's name when he was touring with Alamaailman Vasarat. The name stuck and Sarkula would often go by this alias in almost all of the shows he hosted. After the end of MoonTV however Sarkula did not follow his fellow hosts by going to work on other channels (like

YLE Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

MTV3 MTV3 (, ) is a Finnish commercial television channel owned and operated by the media company MTV Oy, originally launched on 13 August 1957 as a programming block, becoming its own channel on 1 January 1993. It had the biggest audience share ...

, Nelonen or

SubTV MTV Sub (formerly TVTV!, Subtv and Sub) is a Finnish television channel owned by MTV Oy. The previous owner Alma Media sold Sub and its sister channels (MTV3, C More Max, MTV Ava Radio Nova and Sävelradio) to Swedish Bonnier and Proventus in ...

) but instead decided to concentrate on his musical career. Stakula made several guest-appearances on the Game Review-show ''Play'' (sharing a title with a show which aired on MoonTV) on Nelonen which was hosted and maintained by his former MoonTV co-workers Thomas Puha, Miika Huttunen and Elias Poutanen. He owned ''Stakula OY Audio Visual productions''. In 2014, Sarkula moved to Berlin and started working on a solo album. Sarkula died in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, Portugal, on 12 July 2020.

References

External links

Alamaailman Vasarat
(offline)
Stakula OY homepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkula, Jarno 1973 births 2020 deaths Finnish male musicians Finnish television presenters People from Vantaa