Kristjan Ruus makes “OF ALL WARM THINGS” a one-minute music film about a summer that is already disappearing while it is still happening. The feeling of summertime sadness sits at the center of both music and image, built around the awareness that this should be the moment to embrace, even as it keeps slipping away. Ruus composed the score entirely from Orchestral Tools’ Irish folk library Eavan, giving the short film a musical vocabulary drawn from concertina, Irish flute, tin whistles, bodhrán, stomps, and spoons.
The intimacy of those instruments gives the film’s brevity a particular weight. There is no separate song to extract from the visual piece, because the music and film were conceived as one object. Ruus directed, shot, edited, and color graded the entire film himself, keeping the movement from composition to image inside the same creative process. The result does not need a long narrative to establish its feeling. A minute is enough to notice that something is passing.
Ruus comes to the film through his work as a composer and producer, but “OF ALL WARM THINGS” narrows that broader practice into a small meditation on time. Summer remains present in the images and music while already becoming something remembered. The moment keeps slipping.
For those who might not know you yet, how would you introduce yourself?
A storyteller through music and film. I’m a film composer and music producer from Estonia.
If you had to bottle up your sound into just three words, which ones would you choose?
Experiential. Depth. Longing.
Which artists (not only music-related) or moments have left the biggest mark on your music?
I’ve got a tremendous love for cinema. That feeling after leaving a movie theater is one of my all-time favorites. Same goes for concerts.
When you hit play on your songs, what kind of feeling takes over?
I think that’s personal for everyone. Playing the same track for 10 different people can result in 10 different experiences. When I’m listening to my own music, I can personally trace it back to the beginning. If the piece of music was born from a pure state and raw emotion, that emotion will be there even on the 100th listen.
If you could team up with anyone in the world, no limits, who would be that dream collaborator?
There are many names, but more generally I’d say I just love original ideas and artists that push the envelope. I’m very inspired by such people and always walk away with something after having worked with them.
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future?
Currently working on my next music film. These always require a lot of solo work, but I find the end result very rewarding. There are also some upcoming songs that I’ve worked on with artists.
Can you walk us through the story or emotion behind “OF ALL WARM THINGS”? If you can, tell us about the storytelling of the video and the musical approach to it.
Orchestral Tools was about to release Eavan, a traditional Irish folk-inspired sample library. They reached out to see if I could make a music film for it using its instruments. I had already made two music films for them prior and loved the process.
I approach projects conceptually. Music comes first.
With “OF ALL WARM THINGS”, something pulled me to the concertina. It’s usually not that melancholic at all, but for whatever reason, when I started playing it, that was the direction I drifted toward.
It became a repetitive musical motif that never stops throughout the track. That, to me, felt like time ruthlessly passing by. It’s what I’ve been feeling lately.
I shot most of it in my home studio in Tallinn, while the outdoor sequences were filmed in different parts of Estonia.
“OF ALL WARM THINGS” is existential. It’s built on summertime sadness and that feeling where you’re trying to be present and enjoy the moment, but it keeps slipping away.
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