Omaa musaa

Time goes on and such... Sini sang a song and I recorded her doing it. Thank you very much! One more poem of Katri Vala recorded. Only some things missing - J-V's guitar and me playing bass guitar... Somehow it seems that in so many cases I leave bass to be recorded the last... My dream has always or at least for so long been to be a bass player - I love low notes - but no, it may never really come true. So be it and that's good. I can play some other instruments...

Juha H.

Winter. The icy cover of Lake Keitele is not yet thick enough to walk across. - Today multi-instrumentalist and composer Eero Lahti turned 75 years old. Ten co-musicians of PasunaPelimannit celebrated the event with him. Some coffee, some cake and merry music making. (Juha H.)

Peter F. Hamilton

For a few days I've been reading Peter F. Hamilton's book The Dreaming Void. I bought it, well ordered from Germany, some weeks ago but had the guts to postpone the begining of its reading up to last weekend. And now I'm so busy that I can take the book in my hands so late at night that I can read only some pages before my eyes begin to droop... The story itself seems to be a massive saga - set into the Future more than two thousand years from now. And the world is really weird - many advanced alien civilizations, ftl space travelling and in the middle of our Galaxy something frightening - or the greatest opportunity ever or what...

Music keeps me busy. That's really good because music is the best.

Juha H.

Ice formations. (Juha H.)

Improvisages keikalla

Improvisages played a nice little gig - though only for three compositions. All music was our own. We performed before and after a humorous and meaningful lecture given by Aino Suhola. All was quite nice and cozy though Kawai Grand Piano was a bit out of tune. It's somewhat hard to play really well with flute and recorder when your point of reference is not where it should be.

Juha H.

Full moon last night. (Juha H.)

Improvisages

Improvisages performing Christmas Carols with some seriousness in a shopping mall. We played our own compositions and free improvisations, too. And actually we had a LIVE rehearsal for our next gig... (Juha H.; photo: Sini)

Ja taas ilta

Music goes on. Nothing serious - recorded some more percussion tracks... And for tomorrow - Improvisages are going to play some street music in a smallish local shopping mall. We're going to practise for our next gig LIVE and play some Christmas Carols. This is the plan. Anyways improvisation is definately going to be an important part of our performance...

Juha H.

Ilta

All evening I worked with my music and recorded backing tracks for a song the words of which were written by Katri Vala. She wrote the poem during the 1930ies and yet it's a very happy story...

Rainy night outside. The winter recedes again.
Juha H.

Sad little brook. (Juha H.)

Eeroviisut siirtyy tammikuulle

Unfortunately the great Folk Music Happening Eeroviisut 2. is being postponed. Very unfortunate. (Juha H.)

This is what the world looks today... (Juha H.)

Machine Men ja sunnuntai

Last night Machine Men played a great gig in NightLife, Aanekoski, Finland. The band was in mighty fine shape. Great enjoyable music. I added some pics here.

An ordinary sunday - some playing, some mixing and resting...

Juha H.

J-V ja Machine Men

Above J-V recording a guitar solo to my composition Virta (=Stream). - Later tonight Machine Men are going to play a gig in NightLife, Aanekoski. (Juha H.)

Virta

Music continues. I began to record backing tracks for my composition Virta (=Stream). The words were written by Katri Vala some years ago. It's a cruelingly dark story of a stream we're all floating - on a raft... And the falls are approaching - some cry, some sing, some laugh, some pray... In the end Pink Noize - on top of which I hope J-V'll play some guitar... Maybe tomorrow.

Juha H.

Hoi Hoikkaset!

And once again Ensemble Hoikkaset rehearsed. There is a big Folk Music Concert coming. Now we're ready for it. And as seems customary for the band in the end of the rehearsal we played some pieces of old time jazz... But after that there was a surprise. Eero Lahti, our violinist, wanted us to listen to B.B. King playing guitar. What happened next? We played some Blues and had great fun.

Juha H.

Talvista musaa

All evening I worked recording woodwinds for a song Elama (=Life) - the words of which were written by Katri Vala some 70 years ago. Now only a guitar solo and Sini's singing are missing.

The wind outside is bitingly cold. And it doesn't feel nice...

Juha H.

Onko keli?

Winter is drawing near. The ground is already covered with a few centimeters of snow. White everywhere. Lake Keitele is not yet frozen over.

All evening I recorded percussion instruments.

Juha H.

This is what I wrote today. Folk Music - possibly to be played by Ensemble Hoikkaset. (Juha H.)

Konsertti

The concert in the little church of Sumiainen is over and done. Jori and I - as individuals not as Improvisages - accompanied almost all the singers. And fun it was though much of the music was religious. There were some secular songs, too. And we performed a couple of our own instrumentals. Luckily I had quite many possibilities to improvise.

Juha H.

Improvisages after the Happening today. We had great fun - though there weren't too many people listening and seeing... From left to right: JH (woodwinds, percussion and laptop), Timo Laatikainen (drums and percussion), Jori Maenpaa (keyboards), Ari Liimatainen (paintings and weird stories) and Terhi Toropainen (videos, picture manipulation and computer). (Juha H. ; photo: Sini)

Improvisages

Now quite everything is ready for the Improvisages Concert - or Happening - tomorrow. Some equipment I've already bagged - in the morning I'll do the rest. Tomorrow two visual artists and four musicians combine their ideas and dreams into one - something never seen before... And it can never be experienced again because there is so much improvisation involved. But hey, that's life - you really cannot re-live your moments, days...

Juha H.

Hoikkaset renaa

Ensemble Hoikkaset rehearsed once again. There is a big concert coming within a couple of weeks. And there are some smaller gigs ahead, too...

Rest of the day mostly just playing - flute, domra, Akai EWI, tenor sax, violin...

Juha H.

This is what happens next sunday - a church concert. Jori and I are going to accompany some singers. We're going to play a couple of our own compositions, too. (Juha H. ; poster by Hiltsu)

Gig poster for Improvisages. Above is what's going to happen next Saturday. The painting is created by Ari Liimatainen and the poster design is by JH. (Juha H.)

Stone in the water - Lake Keitele is not yet frozen over. (Juha H.)

Thorns from my backyard. - Back from TampereJazzHappening. Music was quite ok. And in the evening rehearsed PasunaPelimannit. Now I'm quite tired. (Juha H.)

Machine Men ja TampereJazzHappening

This afternoon some of the Machine Men - J-V, Jani and Jarno - ready to back their equipment for their gig tonight... Early tomorrow morning Sini and I will leave for TampereJazzHappening. We'll be back on sunday. (Juha H. ; Photo by Sini with her mobile phone)

Musaa

Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig - once again for the veterans of WW II. Happy music for elderly people.

During the evening I finally had the time and recorded keyboards to my composition Elama (=Life). The song is built around a poem written by Katri Vala.

The temperature is slowly dropping below zero...

Juha H.