Sleeping birches. (Juha H.) 

Vanhetessa

Began working with Ari Liimatainen's story Miten se vanhetessa rupeaakin aika kulumaan (= Oh how fast the time goes by when you get old). Some quite strange absurdities. An inventor of weird wheels and how lightningly fast his life gets going...

Added a photo-story here. Cold and snowy pics from the shores of Lake Keitele, Finland.

Juha H.

Lunta, lunta

I bought me an electric guitar - Fender Stratocaster. It's a Mexican model. American ones are so much more expensive but not so much better... For most of the evening I've been trying and playing it. Nice - very nice.

Lots of snow falling down. And it's so wet - it soaks.

Juha H.

Etta voikin menna hyvin

Been working with the music of Improvisages. Created a sort of radio play Etta voikin menna hyvin (= Oh how well things really are). It's a story written by Ari Liimatainen and in it a man decides to become a saint. First he dreams how mighty fine it would be to make miracels , for example to conjure up a full mug of beer... In the end guy gets chosen to a course where they teach the ones who want become saints... Two talking persons and six or seven tracks of musical instruments and odd noices.

Two weeks time to create next Improvisages CD-compilation... Christmas is so near.

Juha H.

Orthodox Church of Tampere in the snow. (Juha H.) 

Ja sitten

What next? One project is over and the next two seem to be heading this way. Improvisages is planning to compile some Ari Liimatainen's texts with music. And it has to be done real fast - within a few days. Luckily we've already done some work for it... And Sini and I are going to create our own musical inventions. I may ask J-V to be part of them...

But tomorrow it's off to Tampere, Finland.

Juha H.

Eeva-Liisa ja Joukon orkesteri

Jouko Takala visited. The recording project of his music is done! Above is how I labeled the name of orchestra on the CD, what I wrote to be its name. It may or may not be the final title. Time will tell. The music itself sounds quite good - compositions, texts and execution of the whole is very pleasingly done. Well, well I played most of the instruments, recorded, mixed and mastered it all... Do I really think to be the right person to say that the results are very good? Yes I do. The arrangements were written by Jouko. I made only minor changes to them. And Eeva-Liisa sang the songs quite superbly. I'm happy because of this quite wonderful music.

Now I wait Jouko's e-mail to tell me whether he accepts the whole...

Juha H.

Where is Winter - no cold, no snow? (Juha H.) 

Masterointia

Mastered Jouko Takala's compilation of songs - all except one. The last one is left for Wednesday. Then Jouko himself comes here. He hasn't heard the song yet and before that it's not reasonable to do the mastering of the last cut. It might be that Jouko doesn't accept what I've done. Maybe he wants only some minor changes. But anyways in such case I should do the mastering again. To make the last one sound like the rest is not difficult. Software on my laptop is ready and waiting - the pluggins are set. So I'll wait untill Wednesday.

Juha H.

Improvisages

Improvisages had a rehearsal. Actually we just jammed together for a couple of hours. Nothing pre-meditated, no written music or anything thought inadvance. Just and only wild and peaceful improvisations with keyboards -Jori- and woodwinds - me. Unfortunately I didn't record our playing. There were some very good and musical moments. But now they are lost forever. So it is with life itself: we live from moment to moment and very much it seems that no moment ever comes back, returns to be re-lived. So be it. And this is good.

Juha H.

Machine Men - Lutakko. Jyvaskyla, Finland. (Juha H.)

Machine Men

Yesterday Sini and I were in Lutakko, Jyväskylä. Machine Men played a mighty fine gig there!! Great playing, great singing and good MUSIC. I took about two hundred photos. And some of them I added here.

Juha H.

Rose bush waiting for the cold Winter. (JUha H.) 

Juniper berries - though not ripe yet. Next year. (Juha H.) 

Life on a bare rock. (Juha H.) 

Musaa musaa

Eeva-Liisa Hovi-Saari visited and sang Jouko Takala's song Uupunut enkeli (=Exhausted Angel). Everything went ok. I'm pleased and happy about the results. And naturally I already mixed the vocals to the rest of the music.

Grey day - rain and all. But that didn't stop Sini and me to take a long walk in the damp darkness.

Juha H.

This time of the year everything could/should be covered with snow. Today - photo from my backyard. (Juha H.) 

Tree sisters. (Juha H.) 

Viikonloppu alkaa

Recorded flute, two clarinets and three tracks of percussions to Jouko Takala's song Uupunut enkeli (=Exhausted Angel or Burnout Angel; some days ago I wrote the name of the song wrong...) Surprise is that the whole already - before mixing and adding of vocals - sounds so good. The arrangement and my playing must be quite ok. I tried to follow Jouko's notations somewhat meticulously. The percussion arrangement is my invention and time will tell whether Jouko accepts it. This is the way it has been for the whole project - I've made only minor changes to what Jouko has written. But the percussions are based on my ideas. And thus far Jouko has accepted them...

Weekend is here, I think.

Juha H.

Old trees. (Juha H.) 

Unohdettu enkeli

Jouko Takala visited again. This time we began recording Jouko's composition Unohdettu enkeli (=Forgotten angel). It's a story about an angel who wants to be guardian for a princess but everything turns out a bit wrong - the guarded one is a boy and he grows to become a barfly. The task is so overwhelmingly hard that the angel's feathers become grey, even black... Jouko played acoustic guitar and I played bass. Later I'll add flute, clarinets and percussions. And when everything is ready Eeva-Liisa can come and sing the story.

This week is taking its toll - right now I'm very tired. So I can go to sleep.

Juha H.

Star Wreck in the Pirkinning

Just came home from the movies - Star Wreck in the Pirkinning. ScienceFiction made in Finland. The story is very much a parody and a cross between Star Trek and Babylon 5. I really liked it. Lots of jokes and action in space - timelines funnily mixed... It took seven years to make the movie. And it was created with minimal costs - approximately 10000 Euros . Where do the Americans hide the money while making hundreds of times more expensive movies and the quality of filmed material is barely only slightly better? Now Star Wreck has been ready for a few weeks and it's free to download over the Internet from here. I really recommend it. This evening here in my hometown was its Second or Third performance on WideScreen.

Juha H.

Tiistai

Yesterday evening Bishop Arseni came to visit us. (Earlier he was an honorary guest at Praasniekka Festives of the day of St. Michael the Archangel.) We stayed awake quite late - discussions about arts and everything. And of course we updated what has happened to each of us and to our mutual friends etc.

Today the weather is very, very grey. The world is waiting for the snow and its bright light. It would help so much to get through these dark autumnal days.

Juha H.

Jazzia ja kuvia

Last night came back home from Tampere. Could not post anything, because the the Blogger.com was down.

Tampere Jazz Happening is definately one of the best Festivals in Finland. I've been there many times. And there is always some music that is very much worth listening. This time it was E.S.T. from Sweden. Nice soft pianotrio, sort of cross between Anders Widmark and Keith Jarrett. Not too many chords changes, not too furioso - more meditative ... And always it is good to meet friends at Tampere.

Last night I made a picture story of our - Sini and me - hiking trip to the area of Sirkkalampi. It is a tiny lake adjacent to small hill-ridge in Suolahti, Finland. Photos can be found here.

Juha H.

Jazzia Vai

I finally had the time to listen to the Stevie Vai CD I bought a couple of days ago. Real Illusions: Reflections . WOAH! Some fantastic music and virtuosity. I like really much most of the guitar sounds Vai uses - the way he abuses his guitar. I like surprises and changes of moods in music. And I like what Vai "says" with his guitar - he has created a sonic world of his own.

Now Jouko Takala's songs are ready and waiting for Eeva-Liisa to come and sing them. The recording is likely to happen on sunday this week.

Added two Mp3s here.

Tomorrow I'll go to Tampere Jazz Happening. So it seems.

Juha h.

Autumn leaves. (Juha H.) 

Aika vierii

I've now recorded my parts to Jouko Takala's songs Armahan kulku (=The walk of my dearest) and Mummo ja ikoni (=Grandma and the icon). Clarinets, flute and percussions. Hopefully tomorrow I can mix them roughly ready - ready enough so that Eeva-Liisa can come and sing them.

Bought a couple of CDs - Stevie Vai - Real Illusions: Reflections and Deathchain Deathtrash Assault. On the latter CD plays J-V a couple of guitar solos. Heavy metal - very much so.

Juha H.