Snowing again. The little lighthouse of Tallisaari. (Juha H.) 

Frank Zappa ja Improvisages

And today I had the time to listen to the rest of the music Improvisages recorded a couple a weeks ago. Yesterday I managed to hear only half of the tracks. The last jams we saved then on the hard disk of my laptop were somewhat superiour if compared to the earlier ones that I listened yesterday. Well, it may be that this is understandable - after jamming for a few hours you really get warm, concentrated, focused and the musical ideas get flying - back and forth...

On Wednesday I finally bought Frank Zappa's DVD The Dub Room Special. And what a treat of musical entertainment it is. I'm very happily pleased. Zappa's compositions are so great and the musicians are so talented, virtuosic. Such a pleasure to hear and watch the bands - two different ones - working so easily and fluently through the complex material at hand...


Tuikku visiting us. She's staying for the night.

Juha H.

Improvisages ja Rogue Angel

J-V visited. We finalized the Rogue Angel demo-CD. The music was recorded, mixed and mastered at the WaterCastle Studio. Here at my studio we made some fade-ins and outs, copy-pasted and cross-faded the songs together, indexed the whole and burned it on CD. That was it. Music sounds quite good. Heavy rock.

Finally I had the time to listen to the music I played and recorded with Jori a couple of weeks ago. Or at least I listened some of it. Tomorrow I'll try to hear rest of the recordings. On the whole some jams sound pretty good. I believe that there are some backtracks for Ari Liimatainen's Visual Art - on the forthcoming Improvisages DVD...

At the moment Jori is having a gig with Eeva-Liisa in Jyvaskyla. I gave them my PA-system to use. Hope them happy gigging.

Juha H.

Finally Christmas is over - Plektra-Buddhas fell Santa... (Juha H.) 

Snow on the branches. (Juha H.) 

Joulu miltei ohi

Well, Christmas is almost over and gone. That's the way it goes! ( Is that a quotation from Cat's Cradle written by Kurt Vonnegut? I really don't remember... I red the above mentioned book in the 1970'ies - how could I still remember it...)

I began reading Judas Unchained written by Peter F. Hamilton. For more than a year I've waited for this Masterpiece. And finally I got my hands on it! Now it's hard to put it down - even for a while... Hard Science-Fiction with very sophisticated worm-holes, very bad aliens, very good and also treacherous humans - and yet there is something even worse lurking in the pages of the story... A Grande Space Opera.

Alwin visited us. Nice, nice.

Juha H.

Santa and Tree Kings. (Juha H.) 

Iltaa niin rauhaisaa...

I've been doing things, stuff and all for Christmas - preparations, preparations. Sini has done a lot more... Actually I had time to mix a couple of songs of mine. And to mix two tracks of music within one day - well that's quite alot of work. Yesterday Sini sang them songs - Ja aamulla kaikki tähdet sammuvat pois (=And In the Morning all the Stars they fade away) and Helajavat jaiset tiu'ut (=Tingling tiny little Ice-Bells). Well, well for real - yesterday I mixed the first one for the most of it... But still - while Sini's been working and toiling for Christmas - I've had so much time for my music. Well and good, for me.

Our family tradition has been for many years that our parents, grand parents of our three children, visit us the day before Christmas Eve. And thus it was again this evening. Sauna, coffee and lively chatting.

Juha H.

Frosen rowan berries. (Juha H.) 

Pakkasta

Winter is here for real. Frost finally begins to bite slightly , - 17 Celcius degrees.

Jouko Takala visited. Kuinka suhtautuisin (= How should I think about it) CD-project changed just a little bit. I moved one violin in one song behind in time just a little bit. With ProTools it's pretty easy. Now everything seems well and good.

Listening to Jethro Tull's Christmas Album. Wonderful music. When I was young I used to listen to Tull a lot. But then I grew older and jazz took a pretty strong hold on me... Years have gone by. And now I really like and appreciate Jethro Tull again. Amazingly happy music.

Juha H.

Hidasta musaa

Recorded pile of percussions to couple of my songs. I did Some rough mixing before J-V came and played guitar solos to both compositions.

Now he's recording Arttu playing guitar to Rogue Angel's demo-CD. Basically J-V is producer of the project. But he came here to do some of the recording - some guitars and maybe tambourine. Later - tomorrow or so Rogue Angel and J-V plan to go back to Water Castle where they've recorded the project and where they'll mix the whole.

Winter goes on. Christmas is getting near...

Juha H.

Talvi

Lake Keitele is frozen over. There is a path across and that is good.

I've been working with my own music. Recorded bass guitar to couple of my songs.

Nothing much happening.

Juha H.

Lizard Forest in Winter. After watching The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy I twisted a bit a photo that I took yesterday in the deep and peaceful forest of Sumiainen, Finland. (Juha H.)

PasuunaPelimannit

PasuunaPelimannit had a great jam-session and Christmas Party in the Koyhyyden Kyla (=Poverty Village) , Sumiainen Finland. Music that we played varied from Finish Folk music via any kind of folk music to any kind of music - and even to Free Jazz. Folk musicians playing Free jazz? Some of those involved were able to do pretty much anything. Wow and Woahh!! Since last Summer I've been playing with PasuunaPelimannit. And right now I'm utterly amazed of what they, at least some of them, are able to do. So many of them are composers and so many of them are willing to try to do quite much anything... So it seems and that is very good.

Juha H.

The original photo was a moonlighty night-scenery from a graveyard. But it got a bit twisted... (Juha H.) 

Factory at Sunset. (Juha H.) 

Improvisages after the gig at an Art Exhibition. Visual artists Jaana Harlin, Ari Liimatainen, Terhi Toropainen and Sirpa Hasa in the front. JH and Jori at the back. (Photo by Sini) 

Hoikkaset keikalla

Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig, again as a trio - Eero Lahti (violin), Reijo Korhonen (accordion) and JH (flute). Christmas carols, Finish Folk Music and some good food. Nice gig.

Added two tracks of Ensemble Hoikkaset here.

Juha H.

Morning a week ago. (Juha H.) 

Jamitusta

Improvisages jammed once again. And it was very enjoyable to make music with Jori. I recorded almost everything we played, a couple of hours of weird and maybe wonderful tracks. Original idea for our jamming today was to practice some Christmas carols for the forthcoming gig next week. But no - we just and only improvised everything. Well, I'll take with me some sheet music for the gig and we can play them or just improvise everything. Time will tell.

Jori had a new Nord-synth - Eighty eight Nord Stage. Quite a fantastic keyboard.

Juha H.

Mussiikkija

"Late at night..." - That is a Zappa-song. Which one of them?

I've been listening to music, I've been watching DVDs - Frank Zappa, Improvisages, DreamTheater and Rush. Wonderful is THE Music!! Well, well... Music is wonderful.

Juha H.

Netti petti

Yesterday my Internet connection was down. So I couldn't post anything. This morning Net came back to life again. So happens every now and then. My Internet access provider's services are not always rock solid. But this happens sometimes for everyone - no matter who's the provider.

Juha H.

Hoikkaset trio

Ensemble Hoikkaset, trio this time, had a gig at the Christmas party of local veterans of the Second World War. We were Eero Lahti (violin), Reijo Korhonen (accordion) and JH (flute). Christmas carols, hymns and bits and pieces of classical music, sort of. And again it was good to play live for an appreciative audience.

Eminem and 8 Mile on TV.

Juha H.

Pasuunapelimannit ja Liimataisia

Finland's Independence Day. I had a gig with PasuunaPelimannit in Sumiainen at the local Independence Festives. We played some folk, some a bit more serious music and of course Finland's National Anthem.

Petri and Marjukka Paivarinne - brother and sister - played Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Sibelius with violin and piano in Suolahtisali. Nice concert. I especially Liked Brahms and Sibelius.

For the rest of the day I mixed and mastered Improvisages recordings. Most of the pieces of music were built around Ari Liimatainen's stories - weird and wonderful. Now the whole is ready. It was quite a lot of work. Now I'm pleased and happy.

Juha H.

Jamitusta

Jori visited. We recorded some music, Improvisages Music. Jamming. But that's how we've always created most of our music. During the years we've known each other we've played compositions from the Renaissance up to this day... Improvisation, living and creating in the Here and Now, has always been our favourite. Some of the music we jammed I already mixed.

Lake Keitele is frozen over. Within a few days I hope we can go across.

Juha H.

Stones on shore of a frozen lake. (Juha H.) 

Tiu'ut aamulla

I began working with a couple of my songs. Jaiset helajavat ti'ut (=Ringing Ice-Bells) and Aamulla kaikki tahdet sammuvat pois (=In the morning all stars fade away). I laid down rhythm guitars and some woodwinds. Later I'll add some more woodwinds, bass guitars, percussions and Sini will sing the songs. That should be it.

Lake Keitele is finally almost frozen.

Juha H.

Myllypuro again. (Juha H.) 

Myllypuro. (Juha H.)