Before gig today. From left to right - Eero Hautsalo (harmonium), JH (flute), Eero Lahti (violin) and Kyosti Jarvikallio (guitar). This time Finish Folk Music. We played mostly Matti Hintikka's compositions. (Juha H.)

Busy weekend - friends visiting, KeiteleJazz Festival and Steam Engine Festives in Suolahti, Finland. Anyways great fun. (Juha H.)

Yesterday. While we - the rest of The Ensemble Hoikkaset - were having a coffee break Eero Lahti kept on practising. I wonder why... (Actually Eero doesn't drink at all) (Juha H.) 

Pelimannimusiikkia

We played a gig for Valtra. There were a few hundred people around the world. Most from Europe but there were people from Asia - at least from Japan - too. 'We' means: Eero Lahti (violin), Reijo Korhonen (accordion), Kyösti Järvikallio (guitar), Vote Pylväinen (double-bass) and JH (flute). It was fun to play. People had fun for shure - but definately not merely for our music. There were some beverages served... We played Finish and Russian Folk Music, some Tangos, old Schlagers, Jazz and something that might be called Improvised Music. Fun, fun.

Juha H.

Antti Siirala tee tietä jumalille

Antti Siirala performed today in Suolahtisali, Finland. Very good and talented young piano player. Actually he was fantastic. Beethoven, Ravel and Kuldar Sink. I liked especially Ravel and Sink. I like modern concert music. Beethoven is very much ok, but I prefer Bach...

Began recording my song Tee tie jumalille (= Make way for the gods. The translation is an approximation...) Maybe I'll sing it someday. It's going to be hard for me. I'm definately NOT a singer. But to explain how to do it with your voice to someone else... It just might be better that I try to do it myself.

Juha H.

On of the first hundred pics with my new camera Nikon D70S. (Juha H.) 

Uusi kamera

I bought a new camera - Nikon D70S. It's extremely fantastic. I'm very surprised how good it is especially when compared to my first digital camera - Nikon CoolPix. And it's only the first day. In just a few hours I've seen so little what can be done with it.

Last night while Sini baked blueberry pies I did record four tracks of percussions to my song Minne. Today I added a woodwind line...

Juha H.

John Varley

About a week ago I read a science-fiction story In Fading Suns and Dying Moons written by John Varley. And after that the story has popped up my mind every now and then. According to it the meaning of life, of our existence is butterflies. Sometime ago, actually billions of years ago creatures or something from a more than four dimensional universe far beyond our human understanding came here and stirred the area of our Solar system - seeded it with something. So the Sun and planets came to be - and life... Billions of years went by and they came back to gather all the butterflies on planet Earth. (And something else from other planets of our Solar system...) The world of the story is quite like where we live right now. People try to destroy the harvesting creatures to no avail. They try to communicate with creatures of umphteenth dimension. Aliens say that the butterflies are so beautiful... After they've gathered all those little winged things aliens disappear. The Moon starts to fade and the Sun turns ashen... It begins to get cold...

John Varley's In Fading Suns and Dying Moons reminds me of an older story written by Arthur C. Clarke in which some scientists count all the stars in the Universe... And according to a Buddhist belief when all the stars have been counted the world will end. (At least that's how I remember the earlier story.)

Today Sini and I picked blueberries - actually we biked twice to a local forest and got possibly all we need for the coming Winter.

Somehow I didn't have much time for the Music - only played three, four hours flute...

Juha H.

Musiikkia, musiikkia

Yesterday thunder and lightning. Could not mix anything.

Today I did mix JoukoTakala's song Sunnuntaiaamu (=Sunday morning). It turned out ok.

During this summer I've written surprisingly little music of my own. June, July only some twenty compositions in lead-sheet format - melody and chords, maybe an other melody line with rudimentary structure plan for the final music. I've had so many other projects and sometimes music doesn't come out of somewhere so easily and in great quantities. For me to write less music doesn't mean any better quality. Compositions just come to existence less frequently.

Today I've recorded a couple of tracks - acoustic guitar and bass - to an old composition of mine. Minne. It's probably from the year 1996. Hope Sini is going to sing it some day next week. 'Minne' is a word with double meaning - in two languages. 'Minne' (Finish) = where and 'minne' (Swedish) = remembrance. A sad story of maybe a dead lover...

Juha H.

Kukkiva maa. Maija Piitulainen reciting Katri Vala's poem: "Oi sina ikuinen heina..." (Juha H.)

Machine Men

Within half an hour Machine Men are going to begin their gig at the Earthshaker Festival, Germany. I wish them luck. Earlier today I listened their forthcoming CD Elegies. Nice, nice music. It'll be released in August.

Recorded two saxophones - tenor and soprano - and a couple of tracks of percussions to Jouko Takala's composition Sunnuntaiaamu (=Sunday Morning). Hopefully tomorrow I can mix the whole. The story of the song is about a happily lazy sunday. No hurry - no worries. Tried to make the music sound a bit lazy and relaxed.

Juha H.

Dream Theater

I've been listening to Dream Theater - their Octavarium CD. Wonderful, wonderful music. Very skilfully executed. Compositions are surprisingly relaxed. Music is not so very heavy metal. Nice rhythmic complexities played somehow more furiously than in their earlier CDs. For me Jordan Rudess is the greatest hero and virtuoso player of this bunch of virtuoses...

Recorded bass for Jouko Takala's compositions Sateinen suurkaupunki (=Rainy City) and Sunnuntaiaamu (= Sunday Morning). In the afternoon Jouko e-mailed me flute-part for the former composition. I recorded it, too. And mixed the whole. Now Sateinen suurkaupunki is pretty much ready.

Juha H.

Takaisin Helsingista

Back from Helsinki. Though actually we - Sini and I - were most of the time of our journey in Nupuri, Espoo - some thirty kilometers or so from Helsinki, Finland. Nice trip to meet friends.

After many, many very warm days the rain has come back. And some thunder rumbled in the distance.

Eeva-Liisa Hovi-Saari and Jouko Takala visited. We recorded two Jouko's compositions Sunnuntaiaamu (=Sunday Morning) and Sateinen suurkaupunki (=Rainy City). Later I'll add bass, woodwinds and maybe some percussions.

Juha H.

JH behind the desk of Kukkiva maa just before the performance. And now it's off to Helsinki. (Juha H.) 

Maija Piitulainen and Veijo Makkonen before the premiere of Kukkiva maa at Suolahtisali, Finland. And the performance succeeded pretty well and good. I'm comfortably satisfied. (Juha H.) 

Sunset at Sumiainen's Graveyard... (Juha H) 

Kukkiva maa ja Doina Klezmer

Kukkiva maa-project had a long rehearsal - last before the premiere in Saturday. Music is ok. I really hope that Maija will learn and remember all the poems by heart. Everything else is ready.

I've been listening to Doina Klezmer - their CD Nomada. A very talented and interesting group from Finland that mixes klezmer and jazz. Some of the compositions are traditional, some written by the musicians of Doina Klezmer. The music is sad and joyous at the same time. And everything is executed very skilfully and imaginatively.

Juha H.

Brothers Eero and Heikki Lahti jammin' with friends at Kaustinen Folk Music Festival 2005. (Juha H.) 

Takaisin

Back from Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. Three days of music making and meeting people. Seven gigs in a row with two bands. The weather was quite hot. Didn't sleep enough. Now I'm pretty tired.

Juha H.

Kansanmusiikkia

Been practising Finish Folk Music - mostly compositions of local musicians. I've tried to get a good hold of them. This time the bands - two different groups - won't play my music, probably so... Tomorrow I'll travel to Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. Three days of music making. And in Kaustinen I'll probably have no Internet connection. So - off duty.

Hot days ahead! The weather is going to be very warm.

Juha H.

Lake Keitele, Finland. (Juha H.) 

Soittoa, harjoittelua ja visiteeraamisia

Yesterday and today a lot musical practising. Had no time to write anything. And on top of that yesterday evening Toropainen and Alvin came to visit. But that was fun, great fun. Toropainen is here every now and then. Alvin visits only once or at the tops twice a year. Rest of the time he drives his truck around the Europe.

I'm getting to know Finish Folk Music. Been practising and playing it a lot lately. Some gigs coming. So I have to prepeare me for the forthcoming challenges. Some violin parts are not so easy to play with flute or recorder - at least not Prima Vista. Earlier so often I had gigs that I saw sheet music in front of the audience First Time. Sometimes it was hard - sometimes it was ok. This time I try to prepeare myself for the task.

Horrible things happening in London.

Juha H.

MIDI-guitar

Terratec seems to be producing some nice stuff. Check out what they've done.

Synth-guitar in the Eighties and Nineties was quite a clumsy apparatus. It reacted too slowly to fingers creating music. John McLaughlin - and some others (Alan Holdsworth, Metallica...) - tried it but it was probably more like an experiment. McLaughlin's flashy fingers were too much for the abilities of the synth-guitars of those bygone-days. But today it seems that Terratec is getting into something. Burr Johnson shows in his videos quite incredible things. And I believe this is just a beginning. When the rest of the guitar heroes find out what you can do with MIDI and other companies get more involved in the developing of the MIDI-guitar there is going to happen some nice things. I've seen guitars with MIDI-abilities - pickups and so - but but Burr Johnson's show with Terratec AXON Ax 100 is the best yet.

Juha H.

Kukkiva maa taas

Kukkiva maa-project had a rehearsal in Korpilahti - some 75 kilometers from here. (Where is here? Here is always here it seems...). Everything seems to be ok.

It was a pretty warm day: 26 C.

Juha H.

Makers of the Project Kukkiva Maa waiting outside the venue of their forthcomig Premier... (Juha H.) 

Toropainen. After felling a tree he's sipping Cognac - from a plastic mug... ( Juha H.)