Hoi Hoikkaset, tavallaan

Folk music, sort of. Ensemble Hoikkaset had some sort of a rehearsal - some playing, some talking and having a good time. Today we were a trio - Eero Lahti and I played domras and Reijo Korhonen accordion. Very nice! I was all smiles while walking back home across the Lake Keitele.

Juha H.

Sini and JH at Toompea, Tallinn. The weather was a bit miserable... (Photo: Hanna-Maaria)

Tallinna

Soon, actually within a few hours we - Sini, Hanna-Maaria and I - are going to leave for Tallinn, Estonia. I've never been there during the winter. Hopefully it's not very cold. Though it is possible that the wind from the sea can make the weather freezing. Let's hope for the best...

Juha H.

Asemakatu (=Railway station street) Suolahti, Finland. Sunday 10 am. (Juha H.)

While trekking today - sunset. (Juha H.)

Talvi-illan

Good Evening - the night is soon coming. The almost hellish cold continues its dominance. Last night the temperature fell down to - 30 Celcius degrees which is quite alot at this of the year. Hopefully the cold gets away during the next few days. This is not nice at all. Fortunately this is not yet as bad as it used to be when the temperature - some decades ago -fell down to almost - 50 Celcius degrees... This is not Siberia, Russia.

All evening in the warmth of my home I've been recording music - my composition Talvi-illan (=Winter evening's... It's only a working name...). Four tracks of music I've alredy done...

Juha H.

Snow itself looks quite abit boring - white on white. To add some interest to this boredom it is preferable to photograph the whiteness of winter with an object of some other colour. Thus I added a snowcovered branch to this pic.

Juha H.

Machine Men Hit the Charts

Finally today after waiting for some months (!!) J-V got his Gibson Flying V. (Photo: Hanna-Maaria)

Machine Men hit the Finnish Charts - position 8. - with their new album Circus of Fools. Well, well. Good luck for the band!

Juha H.

Viimaa

Cold weather is back - with biting wind. Right now temperature outside is - 20 Celcius degrees. The wind makes it much colder. And before morning the temperature may drop to - 30....

So it happened Sini sang her parts and I did mine. Now my song Viimaa (=Cold Wind) is ready, mixed and bounced to Disk. How convenient to create music with such appropriate name. The music sounds happy - the weather outside is killingly cold.

Finally I managed to send here a video consisting of photos I took a couple of years ago and a recording Perakamari did some years earlier. The composition is mine and called Peace On Earth 2002. All in all some peaceful feelings of autumn.

Juha H.

Pimenee

I've been trying to send a video here .... But no success. I'll try it again tomorrow.

My composition Viimaa (=Cold Wind) is recorded with the exception of Sini's singning. Tomorrow, tomorrow,

Juha H.

Skannausta

All evening I've scanned old black and white photos. Above one of them. I took the pic when I was nine or ten years old... (Juha H.)

United 93

I've postponed this for some time. I haven't been eager and willing to see the movie United 93. This evening Sini, Hanna-Maaria and I did it - we watched the film. It was a very emotional experience - to know the inevitable, to see the more or less imagined sufferings of INNOCENT people. Well, that touched me. Why did it happen? Did these seemingly very religious perpetra(i)tors do it for themselves - to reach the paradise? ( "Who cares the rest of the people if I get all the benefits of Paradise..." Quite utter selfishness...)

This all - 9/11 - has polarized the world very much. America and the rest of the world have suffered some more. But I think that the most have suffered those innocent muslims who were willing to live PEACEFULLY...

Luckily I met today some really peaceful things, too. Sini sang the melody to my song Valoa valoa (=Light Light). Now the whole is quite mixed and ready.

Juha H.

Musaa

Today Sini and I heard Machine Men's just released CD Circus of Fools the first time with written words and thus we could follow the lyrics with our own eyes. We've already been able to hear the music for some months but some of the words didn't unfold... - or we didn't listen to them carefully enough... Now we know and understand. Now the music sounds much better. This was quite a revelation - Toni's done some good work!! Circus of Fools is pretty much a Masterpiece!! This is quite wonderful.

Earlier this evening I wrote a composition - Viima (= Cold Wind) - and recorded a couple of lines of Yamaha WX5es for it.

Now it's time for Zakk Wylde, Black Label Society and their DVD Doom Troopin'.

Juha H.

Snow hanging from the branches of a rose bush.

All evening I worked with my song Valoa valoa (=Light Light). Now only Sini's singing is missing.

Juha H.

Machine Men

Today is the official release day for Machine Men's new CD Circus of Fools. Fast and brilliant Heavy Metal - though there are some songs that are more or less ballad-like. Wonderful music anyways.

The New Pro Tools 7.3 is a remarkable update. It's definately worth its price, even more so. I recorded four tracks of percussion to my song Valoa valoa (=Light Light). And what a wonderful experience it was to do it with the new software. It was so easy to add or remove something while the song was going...

Juha H.

Valoa ja varjoa

I began to record my composition Valoa valoa (= Light Light). This is my first real test for Pro Tools 7.3. Now Keyboards and some woodwinds are done. The software seems to work faster - there are some little things, improvements that ease the working process. Thank you very much, as Jim Carrey used to say in one of his movies...

Added my song Elaa varjo (=The Shadow Lives) here.

Juha H.

Pro Tools

Finally I updated my Pro Tools to 7.3.1. And everything seems fine. There are some small but nice add-ons that make the work-flow more fluent...

Otherwise - nothing much. Some hours of playing flute and domra. The cold of winter has eased a bit.

Juha H.

Ilta saa

The most horrendous days of winter are over, I hope. At the moment the temperature outside is merely -6 Celcius degrees. And that's almost nothing...

J-V visited and played a guitar solo to my composition Varjo elaa (=The Shadow lives). I mixed the whole and bounced it to HardDisk. Sort of sad folk-jazz. Music sounds fine.

Later in the evening I added some photos here.

Juha H.

Winter morning. (Juha H.)

Ilta

It's a CD/DVD listening/watching night once again. It all began with Swallow The Sun with their new - actually yesterday - released CD Hope. And then we, Sini and I, continued... Children of Bodom, Rush, W.A. Mozart, Dave Holland Quartet, Bela Fleck, Perakamari, Machine Men...

Juha H.

Ilta viilenee

The frost seems to be retreating a bit - outside right now -26 Celcius degrees only. Earlier this evening the Weather Lady told that next week the cold is over. I really hope so.

Sini sang and I recorded vocals for my composition Elaa varjo (=The Shadow Lives). Only one instrument is still missing. Is it going to be J-V's guitar, my domra or something else. Time will tell. Now the whole sounds a bit weird mix of folk- jazz and hopelessness of Swallow The Sun...

Juha H.

Pakkanen painaa

Very cold weather still keeps us in its freezing fingers here in Finland. And that is not nice at all. No chance to take any long walks in the outside world. The temperature right now is -30 Celcius degrees.

I worked for some hours with my composition Elaa varjo (= The Shadow Lives). Only Sini's singing and possible J-V's guitar solo are missing. Sini already began rehearsing her parts.

Earlier today I listened to a wonderful flutist playing W.A. Mozart. Sharon Bezaly is very skilful, actually virtuosic flautist and her tone is so beautiful . There were some add-ons, cadenzas written by Kalevi Aho. They were a bit surprising to hear, sort of virtuosic modernization of Mozart. Anyways wonderful music.

Juha H.

Cold Winter day. The temperature is right now -31 Celcius degrees. And it'll probably fall still some more before the morning... (Juha H.)

Tuli

There is so cold outside that I decided to add something warm here. Yesterday's burning ambers.

Recorded three tracks of percussions, bass guitar and some woodwinds for my composition Varjo elaa (=The Shadow Lives). It took most of the evening. And now I'm tired. Yet I should stay awake for some more hours...

Juha H.

Pasunapelimannit

Pasunapelimannit rehearsed in Sumiainen. I had my domra with me, too. I'm not yet any good playing written music with it. I need to rehearse more. Well, anyways somehow I managed to get through the sheet music. With flute and recorder everything was ok. All in all music was fun again - fun and smiling faces. We also talked alot about the things to come.

From UTube I found Andy McKee. He is quite a wonderful guitar player.

Snow has been falling all day long.

Juha H.

A photo while trekking on the icy cover of Lake Keitele.

I'm back to working with my music. And thus I began recording my song Elaa varjo (= The Shadow Lives). Keyboards and some woodwinds are done...

Juha H.

Frank Zappa taas

Right now I'm listening to an old LP-record - Frank Zappa and his Sleep Dirt. Filthy Habits is the name of the composition. As some may know Sleep Dirt was a purely instrumental LP. And it sounds still very much wonderful. At the time the music was created and recorded EVERYTHING had to be played FOR REAL. There were NO possibilities of digital fixes - in the mix. So - wow!! They could record on a different track and thus have many takes. But there were no chance to EDIT EVERYTHING - the way it is very much possible today. Nowadays it's possible to do quite much anything imaginable... But to play it LIVE and for real is something else ... Spider of Destiny is one of my all time favourites. Somehow the melody touches me...

Juha H.

Talven musaa

Jouko Takala's composition Valkeat valheet (=White Lies) is ready. Today I added three tracks of percussions and mixed the song. Actually now the whole tango-project is done - I've already mastered the music and burnt it on CD. It seems that there are some new projects coming with Jouko...

Now it is time to play some domra.

Juha H.