Jarno Sarkula (4 August 1973 – 12 July 2020) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

musician and one-time TV-personality. Sarkula was born in

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland ...

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

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

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

. In 1997, Sarkula founded the band

Alamaailman Vasarat Alamaailman Vasarat (translated: "The Hammers of the Underworld") is an avant-garde Finnish musical group formed in 1997. Their music is influenced by European folk, klezmer, jazz and metal. Though not officially disbanded the group has been inac ...

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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, classical music,

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 Wales ...

and klezmer. The result can be categorized as world music, 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

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and Japan. They achieved their greatest fame in 2005, when they recorded the album ''Kinaporin Kalifaatti'' together with the Finnish artist

Tuomari Nurmio Judge Bone, Tuomari Nurmio, is the artist name of Hannu Juhani Nurmio (b. 1950 in Helsinki), a Finnish rock singer and songwriter. Work Since his debut album, Nurmio has been regarded one of the most original Finnish singer-songwriters. His l ...

. 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 game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

), 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 mercenary Sam "Serious" Stone against Mental, an extraterrestrial overl ...

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 stage-manager who misspelled Sarkula's name when he was touring with

. 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 ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

MTV3 MTV3 ( fi, MTV Kolme, sv, MTV Tre) is a Finnish commercial television station. It had the biggest audience share of all Finnish TV channels until Yle TV1 (from Yle) took the lead. The letters MTV stand for Mainos-TV (literally "Advertisemen ...

Nelonen Nelonen () is a Finnish commercial television channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1990 on the HTV cable network (now part of DNA Welho), and changed its name first to PTV4. On June 1, 1997, the channel expand ...

or SubTV) 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 ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, 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