Swans in the morning. (Juha H.)

Konsertti Suolahtisalissa

Sini and I went to a concert in Suolahtisali. Classical music for violin and piano. The venue itself is acoustically propably the best concert hall in the Middle-Finland. But there were so few people in attendance. The music itself was quite well performed. But for some reason classical music is becoming so sadly unpopular. Is the great tradition of the Western Music getting somehow marginalized? That would be disasterously unfortunate. Hopefully my fears are totally unfounded... The musicians Jonas Hirvelä (violin) and Jari Hiekkapelto ( grand piano) performed music of Handel, Franck, Faure, Elgar, Albeniz, Brahms etc.

Juha H.

Marsh. After mixing music all evening it's just nice to watch pictures of marshland... (Juha H.)

Huilu

Most of the day I've just played flute... Some of it alone - practising and blowing are important. Some of my flute playing was with a musical project. There is a concert - actually a church concert coming within two weeks. Jori and I are a part of it. We accompany and play with most of the other performers. Much of the music is religious but some parts of the whole are not. We perform our own compositions, too. Anyways I have quite a lot freedom to improvise.

Now's the time to play some mandolin or domra...

Juha H.

Path in the forest. - Right now Machine Men are beginning their gig in the Bar 68 - Jyvaskyla, Finland. (Juha H.)

DVDs

Sini and I watched and listened to some DVDs of Dream Theater, Stevie Vai, Jethro Tull, Bela Fleck, Yes, Hector and etc... Great fun!! Right now and at this moment Dream Theater is playing one of their - DVDs through the PA in our living room... An it sounds so fine.

Juha H.

Sci-fi ja Sandmonkey

Every now and then I read a book. This time I began reading The Eternity Artefact written by L.E. Modesitt, jr. Four differing views of the same story. Hard Science-Fiction - more than two thousand years into the Future...

I haven't been surfing the blogsphere for some time. Today I realised to my delight that Sandmonkey is back. How nice.

Juha H.

Frost bites. (Juha H.)

Colourful colony. (Juha H.)

Forest's still so green. (Juha H.)

Improvisages rehearsed today. Drummer Timo Laatikainen relaxing - while Jori and I just kept on playing. Our visual artists were not there anymore - Terhi had just left and Ari didn't even come. While we rehearsed and tackled with our music he did something useful - patched a roof... (Juha H. ; photo Sini)

FZ ja keikari houkutukset

Just some moments ago Sini and I watched and listened to Frank Zappa with his band playing Zoot Allures (=Keikari houkutukset). Wonderful piece of music. Frank played guitar so differently, so wonderfully - his sense of rhythm was something else and his melodies were so catchy-and-yet-so-often-complicated... No quarter notes, no four-on-the-floor, whole tone scale... Quintuplets, septuplets, rhythms of speech and what ever you can imagine.

Machine Men in Salo, Finland.

Juha H.

Omaa musaa ja Jethro Tull

Woah! Sini sang two songs today and I recorded her singing. One of them she had rehearsed a few times some earlier days. But the other one she heard the first time today. Some takes and all was done. I'm very happy!!

Right now the PA in our living room is SHOUTING - Jethro Tull!! And their DVD-release of the Isle of Wight consert for some 600 000 people. Well, there were other bands, too... for a five-(?)-day festival. Tull sounds very, very good - though Anderson was not yet then any Master of Flute. Music sounds surprisingly good. Modern day mastering systems are amazing!!

Juha H.

Sini's black car with reflection... Psychedelic? (Juha H.)

Ongelmia tai sitten ei

There seems to be some problems with the Bogger.com. It was a bit same yesterday - to send photos is not possible... Well, later then - maybe another day.

Otherwise, nothing much - just some hours of playing flute, domra and mandolin. Plus writing music.

Juha H.

Marshland - while picking cranberries today. (Juha H.)

Improvisages ja Stevie Vai

Just some moments ago I stopped compiling Ari Liimatainen's paintings for the next Improvisages Project. Now there are 250 pics to go with 12 pieces of music. During the rest of this week I believe that I'm going to add some hundred or more paintins to our MultimediaHappening . And maybe some more music...

Earlier today Sini and I listened to Stevie Vai and his latest masterpiece, double CD - Sound Theories vol. I and II. And as a surprise the whole is for symphony orchestra. Wonderful music - some of it is quite greatly infuenced by Frank Zappa. And that is NOT a bad thing.

Now we're listenig Bishop Arseni on the Finish radio...

Juha H.

Iltaa

Good evening. According to weather reports the winter recedes a bit next week. That's good news. Sometimes during the winter it's very cold here in Finland. Though I do like those bright and sunny NOT so cold winter days. They can be incredibly beautiful and shiny.

Luckily I had time to record some more instruments to my composition Onni (=Happiness) - words are written by Katri Vala. It's a simple love song. Some happiness stuff - and that's a reference to Stevie Vai...

Right now Machine Men are boarding their plane to Dusseldorf, Germany. Tomorrow they are going to play a gig in Geleen, Holland.

Early tomorrow Sini and I are going to Helsinki. We'll be back on monday.

Juha H.

Most of the leaves have already fallen. Slowly but steadily the winter is coming. (Juha H.)

Katri Vala ja Onni

Finally, finally came the time that I began recording my compositions of poems written by Katri Vala . First song is Onni (= Happiness), a lovestory. I think it's good to begin a project with a happy, happy piece of music. Later I'll probably tackle with more sinister poems...

Sini is listening to Apocalyptica and their latest album Worlds Collide. Now I'm going to do just the same...

Juha H.

Erilaista Musaa

Most of the evening I recorded instruments for a composed poem for Sini to sing later. This is a project that I promised to do some weeks ago. Unfortunately other obligations postponed the realization of this session way too long. But now finally and luckily most of it is done. Actually only the singing is missing. And then maybe some percussion...

Tomorrow something else. The night may be freezing.

Juha H.

Syksy. (Juha H.)

Improvisages renaa

Improvisages rehearsed today. This time we were Timo Laatikainen, Jori and I. We played music composed by Jori and me - exclusively. There is a concert coming. It's been ten years since we played with Timo and so much fun it was again! But should we have a bass player, too? Anyways during the next two weeks I'm going to sequence a few hundred Ari Liimatainen's paintings to go along with our music...

Juha H.

Fall and blossoming... Earlier today I Recorded two stories Ari Liimatainen wrote some years ago. They are for the next Improvisages show. (Juha H.)

Something old. (Juha H.)

Hoikkaset keikkailee

Once again Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig. This time we performed as a trio - violin, flute and accordion - for local veterans of WW2. Oldtime music.

Later in the evening Jori and I rehearsed with a female vocal quartet - with the exception that there were only three singers. One of them could not come this time. Otherwise pretty much everything was fine.

Juha H.

PasunaPelimannit

Pasunapelimannit played a nice little consert today. Some half an hour of Finish Folk Music, most of it locally composed. There were two, three hundred people listening to us perform...

Now Sini and I are watching Pan's Labyrinth...

Juha H.

Konsertti

I feel pretty relaxed after the consert today. Sini and I went to listen to Arto Noras and Ralf Gothoni. They played Beethoven, Bridge, Sallinen and Martinu - with cello and grand piano. And very well they played indeed. Masterful musicians. I liked especially the way they intepreted Bohuslav Martinu's Sonata for Cello and Piano no. 2 H.286.

Juha H.

Improvisages visited today visual artist Terhi Toropainen. She's going to be part of our next project. (Juha H.)