Biography

Known across the globe for his theme to the game Angry Birds, Ari Pulkkinen is a video game composer and sound designer specializing in computer music. Born in Helsinki, Finland in 1982, he began piano lessons at the age of six, writing songs at 12, and cultivated an interest in computer music (trackers) as a teen. He recorded a soundtrack album for the freeware game Starfight VI: Gatekeepers in 1999. Four years later, at the age of 21, Pulkkinen was hired to do original music and sound design for Finnish game developer FrozenByte. His many projects there included the games Shadow Grounds and Shadow Grounds: Survivor. Pulkkinen started his own sound production company, AriTunes, in 2008. In 2009, Pulkkinen's theme to the blockbuster game app Angry Birds premiered on iOS devices, followed quickly by other smartphone operating systems, PC, and video game consoles. The game spawned over a dozen sequels and spinoffs, as well as TV series, theme park attractions, and, in 2016, an animated feature film. In September 2011, Pulkkinen's Angry Birds music was played at a video game-themed concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His subsequent work has included the video games Trine 2 (2011), Resogun (2013), Trine 3: The Artefacts of Power (2015), and Nex Machina (2017). ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi