One more candle for the winter. (Juha H.)

And the day was bright and sunny. One more photo from my backyard.

Some mixing, some recording of woodwinds for Jouko Takala's music.

Maybe I should play some domra.

Juha H.

Vasily Grossman

Yesterday I began reading Vasily Grossman's story A Writer at War with the Red Army 1941-1945. It's edited by Anthony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova - though they've written quite many explanatory fragments - in between Grossman's memoirs - and lots of footnotes. Most of the text is taken from notebooks that Grossman wrote while at the Front. Some texts are excerpts from articles that he wrote for the Red Star which was Soviet Army's official newspaper. Grossman wrote alot and much of his text must have been so critical to Stalin, Soviet army and communist society that if secret police had known better... Grossman was a jew and it must have been horrible for him to be one of the first to see concentration camp of Treblinka.

Finally I continued working with Jouko Takala's music and recorded bass for his composition Valkeat valheet (=White lies). For some reason it was a bit hard to do. Maybe it was because I'm not really a bass player.

Juha H.

Something psychedelic - a lone twig on snow. (Juha H.)

Winter's day. Scene from my backyard. (Juha H.)

DVD-ilta

DVD-night. Sini and I - We've been watching some DVDs. Music, music, music on all of them. Yes, Apocalyptica, Dream Theater, B.B. King, Path Metheny Group... Right now Lyle Mayes is playing his solo. Music is a Wonder!! And as a part of Pat Metheny's Group Richard Bona is a MIRACLE from Kamerun!!

Machine Men are going to begin their gig within an hour in Hullu Poro (=Mad Reindeer) Lapland, Finland.

Juha H.

Sci-Fi

Peter F. Hamilton announced in his blog that the Dreaming Void is ready. Some editing of the text, printing and hopefully it'll be released in Fall 2007. I'm waiting! The story seems to be continuation of Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga which was a massive two-part Space Opera with wormholes, utterly evil Prime Aliens, massively destructive fighting and all. But in the end there were only nice and kind space faring aliens and humans left. What'll happen next?

Juha H.

Machine Men ja valon pilkahdus

Machine Men's new release No Talk without the Giant is number two on Finnish Singles chart. That's nice. Melodic heavy metal. Finland "produces" quite a lot heavy-rock music. If compared to its 5 million inhabitants it's surprising how many great metal bands can be found here. Maybe we are so gloomy and somber people. Or is this just a way to have fun in these dark and cold forests where we live with bears and wolves?

My composition Valon pilkahdus (=Glimmer of Light) is mixed and bounced to HardDisk.

Outside -20 Celsius degrees.

Juha H.

Videoita

I transfered an old concert from a VHS-tape to DVD. Some ten years ago Jori and I had a band called Jorionovi. We played a gig in Suolahtisali and it got video-taped. At the same concert there were two other acts - Jori as Halparyysy playing boogie-woogie piano and Perakamarijazzduo performing its local jazz. Most of the music was composed by Jori and me. The gig was quite ok but the quality of VHS-video is relatively miserable. And the sound is monophonic... I sent two examples here. Later I can hopefully add some more.

Videos took much of my time today. So I could mix only one composition. Lumista (=Snowy) is ready and sounds big. It's thus orchestrated.

Juha H.

Pakkasta

Cold winter's day. Right now the temperature outside is probably -20 Celcius degrees. During this time of the year that's quite normal. But it feels a bit shocking after the mild weather of so many weeks. Never before in my lifetime has the winter been so warm here in Finland. How much is this a sign of climate changing...? But now the frost is here.

Sini had the time to sing her parts for two of my compositions. And I added some percussions... Tomorrow I'll try to have the time to mix them both...

Juha H.

The way home - path across lake Keitele. (Juha H.)

After sunset.

The day was bright and sunny. During the winter this means - cold. Some trekking on the Lake Keitele.

Most of the day I worked with my music and recorded some more instruments for a couple of my compositions. And J-V played a guitar solo - slow and beautiful. It's nice that a Metal Head has got such a sense of melody.

Juha H.

Lumista

Finally winter is here - snow, cold and wind. North speaks its harsh language. But on the positive side - there is more light outside. Snow reflects it better than barren ground. Light brightens mind. It's that simple.

I wrote a composition Lumista (=Snowy). Bright, happy and quite simple music of snow. I've already recorded keyboards, some lines of Yamaha WX5 and flute. Later some more Yamaha, Sini's singing, bass, Handsonic and guitar or domra...

Juha H.

Poppanat

This is what Sini's been doing lately. (Juha H.)

Vanhaan aikaan

An old photo of a painting and all... During the 1980-ies I used to paint big pictures with a friend. It was a bit like a band of visual arts - more or less improvised oil-paintings created together. (Juha H. Photo: Sini)

Vempain

I bought a gadget - digital recording device with 160G Hard Disk and DVD-burner. As an added bonus it acts as a Digi Box, too. And now I have two Boxes daizy chained. Assembling of it took some time. That was because I read parts of the manual. Connecting the device with other equipment was quite easy. Now I've already recorded some TV-programs and old VHS-videos onto HD. I also burned the first DVD. Nice gadget. And it took all evening.

Juha H.

Liikaa muuta

Today I had too many non-musical obligations so I could not work much with what I like the most. Of course I had time to play flute for a couple of hours. But almost no time for domra... "Music is the best!" as Frank Zappa's alter-ego Suzy Creamcheese said long time ago.

The world around is finally covered with snow. There is so much more light and it's so good.

Juha H.

Michael Brecker

This mornig I heard that Michael Brecker has passed away. How sad! He was definately one of the greatest sax-players ever. His playing was almost impeccable - as much as any human can be. He played sometimes so joyously cascading solos - and then he could play very peaceful and serene ballads, too. So no more Brecker Brothers.

Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig in Sumiainen - or was it Pasunapelimannit? Both bands are so much mixed together - consist of the same musicians - that it's sometimes a bit hard to differentiate them from each other. Well, it may not be that important. Music was fun anyways.

Juha H.

J-V's birthday cake, detail. (Juha H.)

Let's play! A frozen football in my backyard. (Juha H.)

Valon pilkahdus

It seems that my composition Valon Pilkahdus (=Glimmer of Light) is not any kind of serious music because I chose this old and quite childish digital painting to depict it. Anyways earlier this evening I began recording the forementioned musical bravery - simple, happy song. Some synths, some woodwinds are done. Percussions, bass, guitar and singing are waiting for their turn...

Frost outside shows some signs of Winter. Will it come?

Juha H.

Hoikkaset keikalla

Ensemble Hoikkaset (JH,fl; Eero Lahti, domra; Kyosti Jarvikallio, gtr and Reijo Korhonen, acc.) played a gig at Maija Piitulainen's and Matti Virtanen's birthday party in Suolahtisali. We played quite a lot. And there were many other performers, too. So the concert lasted way over three hours. But it was fun. It was also the release party for Kukkiva maa poetry and music CD. (Juha H. photo: Sini)

Tuulee

Ensemble Hoikkaset rehearsed again - mostly Finish and Russian Folk Music but some jazz, too. And it was nice. We're having a gig tomorrow.

Jouko Takala's song Aina yhdessa (= Always together) is almost mixed and ready. Only some minor fixes to be done.

There is a storm brewing in the night. Possibly some restless sleep ahead...

Juha H.

Musaa

All evening I recorded Jouko Takala's music - flute, clarinet and drums... Percussions are a bit hard for me. And then there was some editing. Now the whole is almost ready. Maybe tomorrow I'll add some jingles. Are they ok for a tango? I believe so! Then Aina yhdessa (=Always together) should be ready for mixing.

Drizzling rain has been going on for all day. Weird winter - no snow.

Juha H.

Me and my kids - J-V, H-M and Jopo - attaching the new number of our house. (All kids visited during the weekend.) Suolahti ceased to exist a week ago. My hometown joined with a couple of other small towns and now the whole is called Uusi Aanekoski. Not only did the number of our house chance but the name of the street, too. Now we live at Hintikankatu. And thus my surname is the same as the street! Quite nice and convenient.

And to be even more lucky - I had the time to mix and bounce to Disk my composition Joulukuun hidas sade (=Slow rain of December).

Juha H. (Photo: Sini)

Art of snow. (Juha H.)

Still Life. (Juha H.)

Candles burning season. But alas! No snow, no thick enough ice-cover on the Lake Keitele. Drizzling rain outside. (Juha H.)

Musaa

Jouko Takala visited. We talked about the ongoing musical project and some other mostly music related things. He recorded his guitar parts for his composition Aina yhdessa (= Always Together). Later in the evening I recorded bass and some woodwinds for the same song. And Sini began rehearsing the singing of it. Later she'll do her parts.

Now I may still have some strength left to read some more of the Berijan tarhat (= Beria's Garden). But was the author Unto Parvilahti a German spy, a Russian spy or what was he? He symphatized with the Nazi-Germany but his father was a communist... Anyways he was sentenced to Siberia for ten years. As a spy he would have been executed during the turmoil of the aftermath of the WWII. But he lived through his hardship. What was he? His stories somehow remind me of Maxim Gorgi and his actually quite masterful trilogy Childhood-In the World- My Universities. Both authors tell manifold stories of Russian people and their living. Gorki's view is quite positive in all its aspects. He was a communist. But Parvilahti describes more of the horrors of the Sovjet Regime- what communism caused to its partisipants. How hard was their life and living, though he doesn't say russians are bad or worse than any other people. He merely hates their political system...

Juha H.

Berijan tarhat

For a couple of days I've had some time off for reading. And thus I've been reading UntoParvilahti 's book Berijan tarhat (=Beria's Garden). It's a very shocking and frightening story of a finnish man who was sentenced for almost no reason at all to forced-labour in the concentration camps of the Soviet Union. The time was the last ten years of Stalin's regime. And the master of concentration camps was mister Beria. This couple - Stalin and Berija - was one of the most horrendous ever met by the mankind. The number of dead was more than what Hitler "achieved"... Parvilahti wrote the book after he was reliesed, after ten years of horrors, back to Finland. And somehow his text is not at all bitter.

Now is all recorded for my composition Joulukuun hidas sade (=Slow rain of December). I played flute and bass guitar. Sini sang her parts. Mixing tomorrow or later.

Juha H.

Last night in my backyard - some explosions. (Juha H.)