Vuoksen rannalla

Jouko Takala's song Vuoksen rannalla (On the Banks of Vuoksi) is pretty much mixed. Took me three hours to do it. I'm somewhat pleased with the result. The song is good and it sounds quite nice.

After an hour Sini and I'll go to Toropainen's cottage. Into the deep and somber forest we'll go. Sounds nice!

Juha H.

Kukkii maa Vuoksen rannalla

Recorded some lines of woodwinds to JoukoTakala's song Vuoksen rannalla. The whole is taking shape. Peaceful and happily relaxed is the composition. Also recorded a couple of lines of percussions. Tomorrow I can hopefully mix it ready.

Maija Piitulainen and Veijo Makkonen visited - Kukkiva maa-project had a rehearsal. This was the first time all the pre-recorded tracks were triggered from my laptop while playing. We wanted multiple laughs and other effects. To pre-record some was the only way for me to do it. To laugh as a multi-person and play the flute at the same time is not possible. You can't even smile while blowing.We went once through the whole show. Two weeks and we'll go LIVE. All is quite well.

New single by the Machine Men was released today. Their next CD will be out in July.

Juha H.

The Sun is shining and then not... (Juha H.) 

Kukkivan maan valmistelua

Recorded some texts, laughs and percussions for the Kukkiva maa-project. Mixed them all in Pro Tools. Beauty and goodness of life and everything - within those poems - is going to change into something like hopelessness... The world is laughing at a woman who believes in the real existence of beauty, goodness and love.

Watched the movie Secret Window. Johnny Depp as a schizophrenic writer. Murders and all. Sad but entertaining movie...

Juha H.

Ja maa kukkii

Poetry and music-project had a rehearsal in Korpilahti. Beautiful and peaceful countryside. Maija Piitulainen and I travelled to our director's - Veijo Makkonen - summer-cottage. Actually there were two houses. We went the whole program through once and after that I recorded some lines of recitation with my laptop. In the final show some parts - voices of men - will be triggered from a computer.

Mid-summer festives are over. Bonfires have burnt down to ashes. Now the real summer may begin.

Juha H.

Yesterday morning JH playing flute ( Photo by Sini) 

Sunset at the lake Keitele (Juha H.) 

Sunset... (Juha H.) 

Vuoksen rannalla

Eeva-Liisa Hovi-Saari and Jouko Takala visited again. This time we recorded song called Vuoksen rannalla ( On the banks of Vuoksi in English). The composition is of course Jouko's. Slow music in 3/4. After Eeva-Liisa and Jouko left I recorded bass - what other instruments I'm going to add remains to be seen.

Sini and Hanna-Maaria are in Kuopio. J-V is there recording some guitar solos for the next CD of Deathchain. Heavy Metal, very much so.

Yesterday - summer solstice.

Juha H.

Wooden boat owned by Eero Lahti - violinist of the Ensemble Hoikkaset ( Juha H.) 

Kukkivan maan runoutta

Project Kukkiva maa (Blossoming Fields) had a rehearsal. Lots of work ahead. The story is very much different from what we did earlier - Runomusiikkia. Poems are all the same - except one. Music is only partly same. This time I'm the only mucisian - so I have to play flute, recorder, guitar, synth, percussion... And I trigger some tracks from laptop. Otherwise it wouldn't have been possible for me to do it all... The whole has lost most of the original hopefulness. This time life seems to be quite miserable in the end. Though there is a tiny little glimpse of hope I play as final melody...

Juha H.

eJamming

Saw in Keyboard an advertisement: eJamming.

It made me wonder. Improvisages have played LIVE on - over - the Internet. And that was GOOD - though the sound quality was pretty lousy. I did record some of it but that was mostly an experiment. Today our Internet connection is much better than a couple of years ago. Maybe we should do it again, I mean the recording. Could eJamming do it better? Weeks ahead will tell. But if eJamming means ONLY MIDI it won't be enough. I would like to play REAL instruments - and maybe some singing - LIVE over the Internet and record it. That would be lovely. But maybe it is good to try eJamming... How fast should be the connection to make my dreams com true??

Juha H.

FZ: Motherly Love... (Juha H.) 

Giant hand and face on the water - Stocholm, Sweden. (Juha H.) 

Arkea

An ordinary Summer day. Nothing much happened. Played for a few hours flute, wrote two compositions, rowed on the Lake Keitele with Sini and tended garden.

Maybe later in the evening I'll read some more of Ben Bova's Venus.

Juha H.

On our way to Stocholm, Sweden. (Juha H.) 

C6 Dbmaj7

The above is the name of the piece of music I worked with today... Well, it's only two chords slowly changing with one another - to and fro... Couple of weeks ago I improvised the original synth-track. This evening I added a melody line with my Yamaha Wx5 - improvised, too. And to that one percussion track - clay-bells. Little bit of mixing and that was it. Sometimes it's quite easy to create improvised music.

Tomorrow morning to Stocholm, Sweden.

Juha H.

Vanhan Korgin juhlaa

A couple of weeks ago I MIDIed my old Korg 05R/W to a keyboard and recorded, improvised some tracks. It was nice - a remembrance... Today I've been working with one of those recordings. Actually I added some more music - three lines of melody instruments, bass and some percussions - to it earlier this week. But today I had finally the time to mix the whole. All turned out quite nicely, wisely. Vanhan Korgin juhlaa (=Some Celebration of the old Korg). Old time music - a bit like Renaissance...

Also worked with Kesätango (=Summer Tango). Could make some of those musical slow-downs to dissappear. Now the whole sounds quite alright.

Juha H.

Kesatango

Been working with Kesätango (=Summer Tango) . Recorded percussions and a couple of accordion-like tracks. But for example djembe is a bit troublesome. It's definately not any ordinary tango-instrument. And the original recording was done without click-track. The rhythm slows down somewhat in between choruses. It's a musical place to slow down, ease the tension of music. Without percussion the swaying rhythm is no problem. But to add any kind of drum is calling troubles. Have to ask Jouko should I leave them percussions out...

Began reading Armageddon. The battle for Germany 1944 - 1945 by Max Hastings. Stories about the horrendous end of the Second World War in Europe.

Pretty soon Sini will be back home from Pärnu, Estonia.

Juha H.

Didn't have time to write anything. Pics are great then... (Juha H.) 

Kesatango ja Improvisages

Eeva-Liisa Hovi-Saari and Jouko Takala visited. This time they taped Jouko's composition Kesatango (Summer tango in English). Singing and guitar are now ready and waiting for mixing. I recorded bass. All is quite well at the moment.

Been listening to Imrovisages compilation - Ikuisen kevään jälessä (Some double meaning in that name. So it's a bit hard to translate. But it might be called Waiting for the eternal Spring.) The whole still sounds ok. Though there are some slight problems with the sound of some cuts. Inevitable is the trouble with mere stereo-recording.

Sini is in Pärnu, Estonia.

Juha H.

Improvisages ja Kukkiva maa

Finally I had a day off and could do the mastering of some Improvisages-music. I did it quite fast. That's the way things go sometimes. Fifty minutes of music and right now I'm quite pleased of it. The whole sounds surprisingly good and musical. Almost all of the music is Real-Live - stereo-recordings. So there was nothing in the music "to fix in the mix..." It's almopst all FOR REAL!

Poetry and music-project, this time Kukkiva maa (Blossoming Fields) had a rehearsal. Some very interesting things coming... !!

Juha H.

Kukkiva maa

The real name of the next poetry and music-project is Kukkiva maa ( in English Blossoming Fields or at least that's the way I like to translate it). Poems are almost all the same as before - Edith Sodergran and Katri Vala. Great writers who might have been wonderous heroineses in English speaking world if they had written their lyrics in English. But unfortunately - or luckily? - they wrote in Swedish and in Finnish. Both languages are quite understandable here in Finland. Well, for some at least. - I worked the music pretty ready for the next performance. At least so I believe right now at the moment. Improvisation is going to be a more prominent part of the whole...

Mixed the song Ulkona tuulee (The Wind Outside). I like it quite much, the composition and the lyrics. Maybe it is the best yet of Jouko Takala's compositions I've worked for to this day. We've been doing music together for almost ten years. This time, this song may be some kind of personal liking of me of this particular piece of music. But anyways it's quite a good composition

Juha H.

Runomusiikkia taas

Poetry and Music-project had a rehearsal. Some changes in performers: Maija Piitulainen (recitation), JH (all music) and Veijo Makkonen (director). Poems are almost all the same - but their meaning as a whole is totally something else. The earlier version was mostly happy with so much hopefulness. Now the story is more threatening. There are still many positive moments. The end will stay a bit open and... Some of the music will change. I can't be two musicians at the same time. There will be some somber and dark synths (Wx5...).

Juha H.

Yesterday or day before yesterday - evening anyways... (Juha H.) 

Paluu Ulkona tuuleen

Finally I got my hands (and ears) on the song Ulkona tuulee ( The Wind Outside). Many days I lost in hardware troubles and in other less meaningful meanderings. But finally, finally I got back to the real thing, meaning Music. Recorded bass, three lines of woodwinds and a couple of tracks of percussions. Could not get the rainstick saved properly - no quality takes - on the hard-disk because the closet in which I mostly record my music was too small. The stick is approximately as long as I am. Well, I'll do it tomorrow in the living room.

Sleep - I need sleep. Lately I've been sleeping way too little.

Juha H.

Road in the forest (Juha H.)