Keitele toiseen suuntaan

Lake Keitele. Today's photo taken to the opposite direction than yesterday. The hill in the background is where I took the earlier pic. - I recorded Sini singing one of my song. Then I mixed the whole and bounced it to Disk. (Juha H.)

Keitele

Lake Keitele, Finland. (Juha H.)

Sound Forge 10 ja Pro Tools 8

Day of updates. Downloaded Sound Forge 10. It's still got the old familiar grey outlook. But there are some nice new features added underneath - like the new version of iZotope's Mastering Effects Bundle and elastique time stretch... For years now Sound Forge has been my mastering software. And it seems that so it'll be for years to come.

Finally I had time and updated my Pro Tools, too. Now the version number is 8.01. Setup was smooth and the software works fine. I already recorded four lines of percussion and one recorder track. Nice!

Juha H.

Syksy

Autumn. - I had a gig today, this time as a photographer. (Juha H.)

Puolukat

Mountain cranberries. I took the above photo while pickin' them today. - And after trekking in the forest I recorded some keyboards and woodwinds. So nice! (Juha H.)

Vaahtera

Mable from my backyard. - I made a video: wrote music, recorded and mixed it; filmed the material to go with the whole; compiled everything; and sent the final product here. (Juha H.)

Dream Theater ja Pablo Picasso

Back from Helsinki. Yesterday Dream Theater played a fantastic gig. The band performed some songs from their latest album Black Clouds and Silver Linings and some olden goldies like Hollow Years and Take me as I am. And of course they played quite fantastically. Virtuosos doing their best - though this time they didn't perform any much of their most difficult material. Now and then the band was even funny! That was a nice surprise. And maybe the greatest surprise was that James LaBrie sang so well. He's a good singer but yesterday he somehow exceeded himself and even overshadowed a bit those fantastic instrumental virtuosos. All in all the gig was too short! Of what I heard I wasn't the only one who thought so. - And of the other bands. Opeth was quite good. They played quite well and their material was well-thought. Bigelf was somewhat like a Heavy Metal version of Wigwam from the 1970-ies. They looked like real hippies and even sounded a bit like the forementioned group.

Today Sini, J-V and I went to see a big collective art exhibition of works greated by PabloPicasso . This is the biggest exhibition of his art ever - well, here in Finland. It was a fine and humbling experience to see so many great works of Picasso at the same time. Some paintings and sculptures were very impressive - and on top of that funny.

Juha H.

Dream Theater

Tomorrow Sini, J-V and I'll travel to Helsinki. Dream Theater is going to perform there. It's one of my all time favorites. And there are a couple of other bands - Opeth and Bigelf. I'm very eager to listen and see the them all.

Juha H.

Sininen taivas

Blue sky. - All evening I recorded percussion, ocarina and tenor sax. And it was so nice. (Juha H.)

Tyrnit

Today Sini and I picked a lot of sea-buckthorns. Now all is done. (Juha H.)

FC Konemiehet

FC Konemiehet (= FC Machine Men) made history today and won the local Football Cup. Sini and I documented this wonderful event here - a video and nineteen photos. J-V was the team's "manager"... (Juha H.)

Nuotio takapihalla

Bonfire in my backyard. - Finally I had more time for my music. And it's been so nice to play different instruments, compose and listen to music. CD of the day was John McLaughlin's Industrial Zen. (Juha H.)

Takapihan kukka

And again and again - one more flower from my backyard. It seems that quite often I don't have to go further to take photos. There's so much to see in my backyard. (Juha H.)

Tyrni

Sea-buckthorns from my backyard. - Lately I've had lots of other obligations than music. I still have to toil for some long days before I can have long and hopefully joyous days with my music again... (Juha H.)

Uusi kukka

One more flower from my backyard. Soon it's time to go to sauna. (Juha H.)

Auringon jo laskettua

After sunset, my backyard. - All evening I've just played flute and piano. Maybe I should change to mandolin or domra... (Juha H.)

Ruusun pisara

Drop of water on a rosy twig. (Juha H.)

Aamulla

In the morning - little harbour of Suolahti. (Juha H.)

Seppo Kantonen ja Tuomo Dahlblom

Seppo Kantonen (grand piano) and Tuomo Dahlblom (electric guitar) played a very nice gig in Suolahtisali, Finland. Good compositions quite marvelously executed. Very positive music. (Juha H.)

Tuli ja musiikkia

Campfire from my backyard. - Seija T was here. I recorded her singing a song written by Wojciech Toklowicz. And I mixed the whole, too. Later in the evening Wojciech wanted to hear what we had done. So I sent him an mp3-file to Poland. Very nice! (Juha H.)

Max Hastings

For some time I've been reading a book - Nemesis written by Max Hastings. It's a story of the battle of Japan, 1944-1945. Its timeline is the end of WWII around the Pacific Ocean. Hastings is a good story teller though many of the things he writes about are very horrible. He tells of men in foxholes, the misery of innocent civilians and the grandeur and/or stupidity of military operations... How would've I felt sitting duck as a rear gunner of a Superfortress and watching Tokyo burning 9000 feet below... I'm quite fortunate not to be part of any such horrors. And I can only wish that such horrors won't repeat themselves... It seems that mankind's actions every now and then are still quite awful...

Juha H.

Ja taas kukkia

One more flower from my backyard. - And only in the evening I had time for my music. So I recorded some tracks into ProTools. So nice it was. (Juha H.)

Kukkia takapihalta

Once more - flowers from my backyard. (Juha H.)

Sieni takapihalta

Mushroom from my backyard. Beautiful and poisonous. (Juha H.)

Kuu

Full moon, last night, my backyard. - Today all our children were at home! (Juha H.)

Aurinko laskee

Sunset trough the foliage in my backyard. (Juha H.)

Hoikkaset keikkailee

Ensemble Hoikkaset played a gig for the veterans of WWII. We've done this kind of performances many times before. But today we had a female singer with us - Satu Rantanen. She's quite a marvelous vocalist. Together we performed mostly music for elderly... It was nice anyways.

All evening I just blew my flute. Well, almost. Later in the evening I recorded one line of Yamaha Wx5&VL70 to go with one of my composition...

Juha H.

Ja niin taas soiteltiin

During the afternoon Pekka A was here. We had a jamsession together. Pekka played acoustic guitar and I domra and flute. More or less sort of Folk Rock. And it was very nice anyways.

All evening I just played different instruments. Now my fingertips are a bit sore after so long session with stringed instruments.

Juha H.

Patsas

Statue. - And during the evening it was once again time to record bass guitar and percussion... (Juha H.; photo: Hanna-Maaria)