A project to celebrate the centennial of Finland by creating sounds from Finnish DNA has become the stirring track Symphony Of Extremes by Apocalyptica, a Finnish 'cello metal' band, with an accompanying music video by Helsinki-based directing duo Musuta, for a 'Visit Finland' tourism campaign.

Jonathan Middleton, visiting professor at the University of Tampere, has developed a program that can create sounds from the base pairs found in DNA. His work gave a starting point for Eicca Toppinen, from Apocalyptica, who composed an original song based on Finnish extremes with the help of geneticists and DNA samples.

The theme of the music comes from ad agency SEK, who have highlighted the extreme nature of life in Finland in their new Visit Finland campaign. "We are a land of extremes," says SEK creative director Sami Kelahaara, "In the summertime the sun doesn’t literally set, and in the mid-winter, the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon. We are calm, sometimes even silent, but in the summertime the whole country changes. Even our DNA is more diverse than any other European country."

Musuta - that's Timo and Jopsu Ramu – have combined performance footage and motion graphics with spectacular shots of Finland's natural beauty. ‘‘We love shooting in nature and dramatic scenery, so needless to say that the brief was very inspiring and we were very keen to take on the job," say the design and directing duo, whos clients include Issey Miyake, New Balance, Muji and Nokia. "This project was particularly interesting as we had to show different sides and extremes of Finnish nature. 

"We felt very patriotic, almost like seeing the forest from the trees, by finding all these world class spots of beauty from our own country. It was very inspiring and made us very proud of Finland. The motion graphic elements are designed to help the mind see the structure and DNA beneath and inside of nature. It is the imaginary level, the association that ties the extremes together."

On working with Apocolyptica they add: "They’re such a nice bunch of guys. Typical Finnish heavy metal cello players! And their necks are definitely in good shape for all that head-banging!"