Mussiikkia

Good evening. Quite a great part of my day took recording of a male vocal quartet. They did eleven songs - some were first takes, some took three or more takes. All in all they were quite rehearsed and ready when they came here. And for me the whole was all fun. - I'm a fan of so diverse styles of music.

Rest of the day - 4 - 5 hours - playing different, well should I put it - diverse instruments. Actually some three hours of flute and then something...

During the late 1990-ies I performed with a jazz band in a place less than hundred kilometers from here. The concert situation was a bit diverse... And after our jazz-act there was to perform another group. And their vocalist announced:" Now comes something else, totally!" Their something else was Sweet Home Alabama... This time here and now the something else is coming through our living room's PA-DVD-system. And the something else is The Who - Live At the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. And this is so nice, too.

Juha H.

Tallinnan iltaa

Tallinn by night. (Juha H.)

Takaisin Tallinnasta

Back from Tallinn, Estonia. Above Sini in the front yard of Art Museum Kumu. 'Kunst' means 'Art'. Kumu is a wonderful place! (Juha H.)

Musaa ja matkaan

Valuu taivas (=Melting Sky) is now mixed and bounced to disk. Sini sang her parts yesterday. Today evening I recorded percussion instruments for my composition Matkalla (=On the Road). Pro Tools 8 is so mighty software. Every day I find out new wonderful features.

Tomorrow Sini and I are travelling to Tallinn, Estonia for a couple of days. We'll be back late on Thursday.

And some other travelling - Jopo and Riikka are in Los Angeles.

Juha H.

Kirppuvuori

While trekking today. (Juha H.)

Harakan astunta

Magpie's trail, view from my backyard. - While Sini was in Jyvaskyla today I spent all my time just making music. (Juha H.)

Kuuntelua - Rush ja Keith Jarrett

Right now I'm watching and listening to Rush and their latest DVD "Rush Snakes and Arrows LIVE". At the moment the band playes Free Will - and ultimately that's my ideological choice, too. - When I was young, well during the early 1980-ies, I thought that Rush's music is/was not complicated enough for my mind and liking. Oh, how wrong I really was... Years have gone and now I have to admit - I was so wrong. They've been and especially still are one of the most talented bands within the rock'n'roll business. Well, that's not all true - Rush is a mighty band even if compared to great orchestras that play traditional Classical music... Or within any cathegorization...

Earlier today Sini and I listened to Keith Jarrett's CD Facing you. It's still wonderful music, so much wonderful. Well, when I was young Jarret's music was some of the things I liked so much. And I still do. When I put the the CD into our bedroom's CD-player Sini immediately asked:" Is this Jarrett?" (In Finnish, of course.) And I'm pretty shure she's not heard this particular CD/LP ever since 1970/1980-ies...

Juha H.

Valuu taivas taasen

Now my compositon Valuu taivas (=Melting Sky) is rough-mixed with the exception of vocals. There is no singing recorded yet. Hopefully during the coming weekend Sini can do it. Anyways all is quite well.

Juha H.

Lumiset penkit

Snowy benches. - There's been some quite cold days, -20-25 Celcius degrees. I don't like cold. (Juha H.)

Kiire

Busy and quite happy was my day. Only in the evening I had more time for my music making. Pro Tools is so good to work with. I recorded one written line of recorder and some improvised domra.

Juha H.

Yksin

So alone. (Juha H.)

Teatteria

Sini and I went to Jyvaskyla to see and experience a theater performance. The name of the play was Stand up, Jesus. The story was a mixture of Scriptures and Monty Python's Life of Brian - a mixture of seriousness and hilariousity. Serious fun... The play was conducted by Vehna, bass player of Machine Men.

Juha H.

Maidon matka maailmalle

Milk's way to the world. Above one of the four little compositions I wrote today. This shown here is a bit folkish - the other three are a bit more experimental. (Juha H.)

Ja valuu taivas

I kept on working with my song Valuu taivas (= Melting Sky). Now percussion instruments are done. And I arranged, well thought how to to do the rest of the music... So much of what's there left to be done is going to be improvised... Some lines I've written already, beforehand and they are going be recorded quite precisely the way they have been composed... Anyways for me the most interesting part of music making is improvisation... Thank you very much!

Juha H.

Valuu taivas

And finally I began working with my next song - Valuu taivas (=Melting Sky). Keyboards are done. During the weekend some more instruments. This is going to be the first song that'll be recorded as a whole with Pro Tools 8. I'm learning all the time more nice things...

Juha H.

Koti

Home. This is where I live. It's still winter here in Finland. But after some weeks the snow'll be gone, I hope. (Juha H.)

Talven istuva

While sitting in the winter. - Most of the evening I studied Pro Tools 8. Fascinating days ahead. (Juha H.)

Soittimet

Domra, Miyazawa and Kaval. - Earlier today Jouko T visited. There's a new musical project brewing later this Spring. And in the evening I recorded Sini singing my composition Kuuntelin hiljaa (= I listened silently). I mixed the whole and bounced it to HardDisk. Very nice peacefulness. (Juha H.)

Talvea

Winter. (Juha H.)

Pro Tools 8

Finally I had the time, opportunity and possibility to ugrade my Pro Tools to version 8. The process took surprisingly many hours... Well,I had to install quite many other programs before I could proceed - for the real thing... And what was not nice - I had to do the Pro Tools downloading twice. At the first try while downloading the file somehow disintegrated... Luckily in the end everything was fine and very good .

Now everything is very much ok. Pro Tools works great and looks really beautiful.

Well, to upgrade my Pro Tools I did buy me a new computer earlier this week. So fine - so good!!

Juha H.

Uusi tietokone

Today I got an all new and shiny- well, black - computer. For a couple of years I've used a laptop - for Pro Tools. It's been very good so far.... But I'm aiming to update my system to Pro Tools 8 ...Well, my laptop was slightly outdated... So a new machine should be good. - Now I've installed Pro Tools and PreSonus Firestdio and everything else to go along with them. All seems to be very much ok...

Juha H.

Ensemble Hoikkaset

Earlier today Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig for the local veterans of the WWII. Finish Folk and wartime music. It's always good to perform for attentive and grateful audience. - Rest of the evening just mixing my own music and playing different instruments.

Juha H.

Usva ja kuu

Fog and the Moon. (Juha H.)

Kuuntelin hiljaa

I worked all evening with one of my song - Kuuntelin hiljaa (= I listened silently). Now everything - keyboards, bass, percussion and flute - is recorded except Sini's singing. Right now she's in Jyvaskyla. So I'll record her later this week.

Now I have to learn to sing some pop songs and accompany them with acoustic guitar. So there's some work to be done for the rest of the evening.

Juha H.

Talvi, tehdas ja laskeva aurinko

Winter, factory and the setting Sun. while walking today on the ice of the Lake Keitele, Finland. (Juha H.)

Muinainen maalaus

Yesterday Sini and I transfered a few hundred dia-photos into digital format. Above one of them. It's a painting from the year 1984. Timo P. and I painted it together. This oil on canvas is approximately 120 cm x 120 cm - abstraction with no particular name... Today - playing and writing music, nothing much else... (Juha H.)