Sataa

Now only Sini's singing is missing from my composition Pohjolan kevat (=Spring in the North). Today I recorded everything else, some eleven tracks of instruments...

It's been raining all day. About an hour ago Sini sent a txt.message from Parnu, Estonia. Everything is ok - though before crossing the Gulf of Finland they were forced to change to a bigger ship. Small ones didn't sail today because of the storm and heavy rain...

Juha H.

Musaa

Most of the day I kept on working with my music. Mixed and bounced to disk my composition Pohjolan kevat (= Spring in the North) which is based on Edith Sodergran's poem. A sad and at the same time happy story of melting snow, white clouds and a fir-tree remembering... And I began recording Sodergran's poem Syksyn paivat (= Autumnal days). Well actually no poetry yet. I managed just to lay down one synth track and that was enough for today and for my meagre skills with keyboards.

Toropainen visited. Rainy day but he just went into the depths of the forest...

Early tomorrow morning Sini and Hanna-Maaria are leaving for Parnu, Estonia.

Juha H.

Mike Stern, Jazz Kamikaze ja KeiteleJazz

KeiteleJazz 2007 is over. Last and greatest performing act was Mike Stern with his band. (The first photo above) Wonderful! Also young musicians of Jazz Kamikaze played well and energetically. (Juha H.)

Rare scene - one female wild duck and some forty small ones. (Juha H.)

Improvisages keikalla

Improvisages before their gig today at the opening of Ari Liimatainen's and Rasmus Nora's Art Exhibition. Check the works of these visual artist. If you like weird and wonderful things - they are for you. Ari's paintings on the wall behind us... (Juha H. ; photo: Sini)

I like visual arts alot. Above something from Estonia. Parn is a bit chaotic artist but his created mounts and mounts of Art - animated films etc. He must be very fast and have worked long days sketching his films and drawings. AND he has created some GREAT WORKS. He's somewhat puzzling - what is it he means with his works? Some drawings are quite wild and almost "awkwardish" ... When I was young I tried to learn to draw and paint. During the early 1980-ies I got rid of my willingness to dream visually... (That was not easy.) Today I don't draw or paint - except very rarely. Luckily I got my Nikon-camera and Photoshop... (Juha H.)

Improvisages renaa

Improvisages had a nice and longish rehearsal today. And of course everything was improvised - though we almost played some written music, too. I scanned a couple of my hand-written compositions and gave them to Jori. But no - only imrovisations, nothing preconcieved... Jori played his E-MU-USB keyboard to trigger softsynths on his laptop and I had my flute, recorder, domra, Akai EWI and Roland Handsonic... Some gigs coming.

Rainy day. It still keeps on pouring...

Juha H.

An anonymous frog - but no water in sight... (Juha H.)

Improvisages ja Tallinna

Improvisages - Jori and I - had a nice jam of three, four hours today. No sheet music or anything much planned in advance - improvising, improvising! Jori had with him a weird gadget into which he had programmed four chords - C7, F7, G7 and Bb7 - to trigger some soft-synths on his laptop. Nothing else preconcieved! Improvising comes so naturally and easily. That's what I like.

While Improvisages were jamming Sini added here some photos of our journey to Tallinn, Estonia.

Juha H.

Back from Tallinn, Estonia. Three days and two nights of travelling and visiting different places. The main reason to sail across the Gulf of Finland was Kumu - Estonian Museum of Modern Art. Above photo of the building taken by Sini. And there were so many mightily interesting works of visual arts to be seen. (Juha H.)

Photo of the day. - Tomorrow morning Sini and I are going to travel to Tallinn, Estonia for a couple of days. Vacation from the daily routines of music making - though I'll definately take my recorder with me... (Juha H.)

Dana Fuchs and her band performing at TraktoriJatzit Festival. (Juha H.)

Early this morning FWD performing at TraktoriJatzit Festival. (Juha H. ; photo: Sini)

TraktoriJatzit

Soon it's time to leave for TraktoriJatzit Festival. Within an hour Jori is coming to take us there. We're going to play some rock, some blues. I'll take tenor sax, flute, recorder and some hand percussions with me. Jori takes his keys. This is the plan. But it's been raining almost all day. TraktoriJatzit is an outdoor happening - so it may be a bit wet there... Sini is coming with us.

Juha H.

Kaustinen ja Planeetat

Finally I had the time to choose and fix some photos from the journey of Pasunapelimannit to Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. Most of the photos were taken by Toropainen and Miika - I had something else to do... And as an added bonus there is a video by Toropainen - The Big Mandolin Orchestra - more than a hundred musicians - conducted by Heikki Lahti performing Mandoliinien esiinmarssi (= Come Forth Mandolins!). - Oh, photos can be found here.

J-V visited and played a couple of guitar solos to my composition Planeetat (=Planets) which is composed around a poem written by Edith Sodergran. Nice solos, J-V - thank you very much!

Juha H.

Tietokoneita ja musaa

Yesterday I bought a new computer. Already in the evening its power-unit decided not-to-co-operate. It broke down... Today I got a new one. Now everything is fine - 22" Acer monitor is nice.

Finally after so many days of doing something else - giggin' etc. - I got back to mixing my music. Now the songs Ihmeellinen meri (=Wonderous Sea) and Animaalinen hymni (=Animal Hymn) are ready and bounced to HardDisk. Project Edith Sodergran - the recording of her poems - is now half an hour long. There's still much to do...

Juha H.

One more photo from Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. Musicians from Inner-Mongolia performing. (Juha H.)

Pasunapelimannit

Pasunapelimannit performing at Kaustinen Folkmusic Festival, sunday July the 8th. Front (left to right): JH (flute), Eero Lahti (violin), Veikko Liimatainen (violin), Reijo Suutala (banjo), Heikki Tourunen (mandolin); Second row: Timo Hytönen (clarinet), Kyösti Järvikallio (guitar), Reijo Korhonen (accordion); behind: Ahti Hänninen (percussions) and Unto Lappalainen (double-bass). (Juha H. ; photo: Miika)

Kaustinen

Back from Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. I was there for two days and above is one reason why - more than one hundred mandolins played a concert conducted by Heikki Lahti. I played domra with this quite massive orchestra and performed with PasunaPelimannit, too. (Juha H. ; photo: Miika)

07.07.07, DDR ja Kaustinen

It's a bit peculiar and memorable date. Years ago - 7.7.77 - Sini and I were in DDR (=German Democratic Republic). That was a memorable date and day, too. We wrote lots and lots of postcards and sent them back to Finland for our friends and relatives. Actually that was the only time I ever visited DDR. Nowadays there's only one Germany and communism has lost its rule all over the Europe. And there are only a few countries in the whole wide world that resemble Sovjet-style socialism...

Early tomorrow I'll be leaving for Kaustinen Folkmusic Festival - for a couple of days of music making. I'll take only flute, recorder and domra with me... and of course my camera.

Juha H.

Dream Theater

Finally, Sini and I, watched the DVD that was included with Dream Theater's latest CD Systematic Chaos - the making of the record... I bought the CD the day it was released in Finland. But only today we had the time to watch the DVD. CD itself is suberb! Dream Theater plays for the most very complicated and seemingly quite humourless music. But the DVD showed them to be somewhat funny and not always so serious. Maybe this is where it shows that at least some of them are Frank Zappa fans...

Most of the day I just played flute, tenor sax, recorder and domra.

Juha H.

Objects under water. (Juha H.)

View from Naurissaari, Lake Keitele. (Juha H.)

Musiikkia ja runoutta, tavallaan

Amidst of every now and then rumbling thunder Sini managed to sing two of my compositions of poems written by Edith Sodergran. She sang well and everything was done with a couple of takes. Everything sounds so good that there is no need for any kind of fixing. No need for autotune or anything more exotic manipulation of sound. Actually I don't use pitch correction with Sini's singing. She wants to do as many takes as is neccessary with the material so that there is no need for such... But because of the weather and other obligations I didn't have time to mix the music...

Juha H.

My hometown Suolahti is situated in the middle of forest and by the lake Keitele. Actually it's been part of a bit bigger town, Aanekoski, for some months... View from Kirppuvuori. (Juha H.)

Ice melting on a summer day... (Juha H.)