Ilta

Evening, Lake Keitele. (Juha H.)

Auto

Sini's car - a detail. (Juha H.)

Erilaiset Pasunat keikalla

PasunaPelimannit played a gig. This time we were JH (fl), Oskari Minkkinen (cla), Hannu Wacklin (cla) Heikki Tourunen (mandolin), Heikki Lahti (mandolin), Katja Lampinen (acc), Reijo Korhonen (acc) and Eero Lahti (bass). (Juha H.; photo: Sini)

Improvisages keikalla

Improvisages played a very nice gig today. Jori and I had five women performing with us - Very Nais Quartet (=Very Nice/female Quartet). We had fun and according to what I saw the audience did have fun, too. Local elections are coming and we performed while politicians had breaks during their talks.

Juha H.

Pasunat renaa

PasunaPelimannit - well, sort of - rehearsed today at Oskari Minkkinen's summer place in Konnevesi. In this case the expression 'sort of' means that most of the musicians were members of PasunaPelimannit and then there were some other players - and on Sunday we'll have even some more... Nice day and a nice gig ahead.

Juha H.

Tehdas

Factory fuming after sunset. - And now it's tume for sauna. (Juha H.)

Sumuinen aamu

Foggy morning. - All evening I just recorded percussion instruments and bass guitar into ProTools... And now some domra playing. (Juha H.)

Illalla

This evening. - Earlier today some lunatic shot dead ten young people in Kauhajoki, Finland. (So stupid and evil, evil.) Condolences for those in deep sorrow. (Juha H.)

Aamulla

Early this morning. (Juha H.)

Tyrni

Sea-buckthorns from my backyard. - Improvisages rehearsed today with five singers. There are some gigs coming. (Juha H.)

Illalla tulilla

Campfire from my backyard. (Juha H.)

Ei kovin puhdasta Bluesia

Above the other composition I wrote today. Its name is Ei kovin puhdasta Bluesia (= Not so Clean Blues). Well, it's not at all Blues -well, almost not...There are some hints of plagal ending... One of the main charactheristics of Blues is its turning from the fourth chordal scale degree to the first. And above are some examples of it... (Juha H.)

Puolukoita taas

Mountain cranberries. I like to photograph them and I like the juice made of them. (Juha H.)

Kuusaa

Water flowing. (Juha H.)

Private Line

Today Private Line plays the last gig of their Prozac Nation Tour 2008 in Stuttgart, Germany. Two weeks of touring is almost over. And according to J-V's sms-messages and e-mails the band has had fun. Tomorrow boys'll be flying back home to Finnland.

Juha H.

Puska

While in the forest. - All evening I recorded different instruments into ProTools - bass guitar, recorder, domra and many tracks of percussions... (Juha H.)

Vasily Grossmann

For some time I've been reading Vasily Grossmann's book Elämä ja kohtalo (=Life and Fate). (I'm not proficient enough in Russian language. So I read it in Finnish...) The book is a panorama set to the time of the battle of Stalingrad during the WWII. The number of its characters is massive - the story ranges from German and Russian concentration camps to military units fighting in and near Stalingrad. There are Russian scientists and civilians behind the lines, some wounded German soldiers in a military hospital and ... Every Russian military unit had a real officer and a political officer. In many cases the political officer decided what the unit should do in fighting situation - though he was in no way militarily competent...

Grossmann was one of Stalin's best writer and propagandist. During the war he was very famous and popular. Grossmann was himself in Stalingrad while the fighting was at its hardest. So his writings were/are for real. He was no fake. But if Stalin had known what Grossmann wrote in his private diaries maybe his fame couldn't have saved him from Siberia or even worse...

In the massive battle of Stalingrad number of losses on both sides was gross. Germans and their allies lost almost 500 000 men - dead, wounded and lost. Russian casualties were more than 1 800 000 and all the innumerable civilians who lost their lifes... Stalin didn't let the civilians leave the city so that the military units would fight more bravely. Well, and the Germans didn't care very much how many Russian non-military people got killed...

Juha H.

FC Konemiehet

FC Konemiehet (= FC Machine Men). The above football team took part in a local tournament today. They won bronze! There are for example a couple of MM roadies in the back row - Tony (right) and Jopo (left) in the front row. (Juha H. ; photo: Sini)

Pienet Pasunapelimannit

Above a photo of PasunaPelimannit performing on Steamship Keitele. Well, and the lake is called Keitele, too. Pasunapelimannit were this time: Reijo Suutala (Banjo), Eero Lahti (domra), Reijo Korhonen (accordion) and JH (flute). (Juha H. ; photo: Sini)

Armahan kulku

During the evening I recorded some tracks to my composition Armahan kulku (= The way my loved one walks). The whole is based on a poem from Kanteletar. Kanteletar is a compilation of old Finnish poetry - some of its expressions are very well understandable and some are quite obscure... Armahan kulku is a straight love song.

During some four or five days in August this year I composed fourteen songs based on poems of Kanteletar... Could not write more because of the strange words and old expressions. Never the less one future day I may write some more music with those ancient words...

Juha H.

Muutama puolukka

Mountain cranberries. (Juha H.)

Jatkuu

Fine day it was. The weather was great - cool and sunny. Sini and I went to forest and picked some more mountain cranberries. So nice. And we didn't even see any vipers...

J-V sent an e-mail from Germany. Finally they're booked in a hotel with InternetConnection. Today Private Line is having a day off in Berlin. Everything's been fine and they've had great time playing music.

Rest of my day - mostly just writing and playing music. Ah the beauty of blowing an alto sax...

Juha H.

Syksy tulee

Autumn is coming. Leaves are slowly turning yellow. (Juha H.)

Puolukat

Mountain cranberries. - My musical project Lutoslawskia kuunnellessa (= While listening to Lutoslawski) is mastered and done. (Juha H.)

Pasunapelimannit

Pasunapelimannit played a gig at a wedding party. But before that Timo Hytönen and I played two compositions - with clarinet and flute - during the wedding ceremony. Classical music, Finish Folk and Old Jazz. Nice and happy all and everything!

Earlier today J-V sent an sms-message from Europe: "Now was a tight band found. We're travelling to our next gig place and we're listening to Earth Wind and Fire. Good groove." PrivateLine 's tour seems to go on pretty well. When I was young I did really like Earth Wind and Fire.

Juha H.

Miksaamista

I mixed four of my songs. Now project Lutoslawskia kuunnellessa (= While Listening to Lutoslawski) is ready. On sunday I hope to have time to master the whole. At the moment the music sounds already very ok...

Private Line and J-V with the band are right now performing in Bochum, Germany.

Juha H.

Villit kukat

Wild flowers. (Juha H.)

Sataa taas

After a couple of days pause rain began pouring again. That's the way it goes.

Jopo's Birthday. Grandparents and some more people celebrated him with us. Congratulations.

J-V flew today to Germany. He playes guitar on Private Line Prozac Nation 2008 Tour. Two weeks travelling and music making in the Central Europe.

Juha H.

Musaa ja musaa

J-V was here. He recorded seven fine solos for five of my songs. And his playing made me very happy. There is a nice mixing project ahead for me later this week.

Earlier Sini sang her parts to my song Toive (=Wish). And I mixed the whole and bounced it to Disk. Happy Folk music.


Juha H.

Kultapallo

Goldball from my backyard. (Juha H.)