Finnish Shell TV Commercials from the 60s and 70s

60s


Shell: Lentävä maailma ("Shell: The Flying World", early 70s)


Early 70s(?)

"Shellistä!" Finnish Shell TV commercials of the 1960s and 70s featured the immemorable voiceovers by Kaj Gahnström, in his ultra-masculine growling bass, which used to scare the TV-watching children all over the country. Also the top model Seija Tyni appeared as the "Shell Super Girl" in these stylish clips (created by the advertising agency SEK with Crea-Filmi), which can these days seen as a sort of pop art typical of its era: pre-energy crisis and less "politically correct" (using women as sexist props in commercials, the subsequent boycotts against Shell).

Seija Tyni, as the "Supergirl", soon became associated with Shell as a product personalization, being presented as a modern action character influenced by James Bond and Modesty Blaise, and was seen in different roles in each spot: being a boxer, a soldier, a rally driver, a karate player, etc. In the 1967 Shell sunglasses campaign Tyni's Supergirl appeared as

"a teacher, sitting behind the teacher's desk and looking down at the watch she wears on a chain around her neck. The loud tick-tock of an old grandfather's clock is heard in the background. Then suddenly the school bell rings. The unmistakable, very low bass voice of the narrator [Gahnström] (voice-over was an organic element in Shell Finland's commercials until the 1990s and was imitated in numerous contemporary commercials): 'Suddenly it is 3 p.m. Polarized sunglasses. Now for 12:80. They change your whole world. For a special price. At Shell.' [This sort of "clipped" telegram style was typical of Shell's advertisement lingo. -pH] During the speak, the Supergirl removes her spectacles and puts the sunglasses on. At that same instant her hair falls down and the topknot hairdo changes into a glamorous coiffure. The last scene shows a race car curving away on an icy road."

(Visa Heinonen, Jukka Kortti & Mika Pantzar: "How Lifestyle Products Became Rooted in the Finnish Consumer Market - Domestication of Jeans, Chewing Gum, Sunglasses and Cigarettes", 2003, PDF)

Paying tribute, Ilppo Pohjola used Gahnström's growling voice (and also some female models fashioned after these old TV commercials) in his experimental short film Asphalto (1998).

Shell: mainoskirja (PDF)

More old Finnish TV commercials:

Tuttu TV:stä

Tätä ei voi olla

Finnish TV Commercials Nostalgia (Februry 2007)

Risto Jarva 75 Years

A short excerpt off Onnenpeli by Risto Jarva (1965)


Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki: 'Bensaa suonissa' (off Bensaa suonissa by Risto Jarva, 1970)


Timo Tervo: 'Katseen kosketus' (off Mies, joka ei osannut sanoa ei by Risto Jarva, 1975)


An excerpt off Jäniksen vuosi by Risto Jarva (1977)

Today is the 75th birthday of Finnish film director Risto Jarva (15 July 1934 - 16 December 1977). You can read more about him here. In many ways Jarva was a product of his own time, whose works reflected the political ideas, social trends, fashions and general Zeitgeist of what was Finland in the 1960s and 1970s, and watching his often-topical films today, they might feel dated and even flawed in many ways, but for me Risto Jarva remains one of the most interesting directors this country has ever spawned, nevertheless.

Blindpassasjer (1978)

Blindpassasjer opening credits (1978)


Novamen: 'Lies' (track from 2008; with excerpts from Blindpassasjer) [Novamen @ Discogs]

Blindpassasjer ("Stowaway") was a Norwegian science fiction TV miniseries of three episodes, made in 1978. It was written by Jon Bing and Tor Åge Bringsværd and directed by Stein Roger Bull for NRK, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Egil Monn-Iversen was responsible for the eerie film score. The series, which many consider the finest piece of filmed science fiction in Norway, was also shown in Sweden and Finland (with the title Salamatkustaja). It's interesting how some scenes reminisce Ridley Scott's Alien, which had its film premiere only a year later.

A plot summary from IMBD entry: "The spaceship Marco Polo is returning from a mission at the newly discovered planet Rossum. While the five members of the crew are in deep sleep a mysterious shape is captured on one of the surveillance monitors. Awakened the crew soon discover that one of their number has been killed, and something is living among them in the shape of a crewmate. But who is it?"




Blindpassasjer has been released on DVD in Norway.

Links in Norwegian:

Blindpassasjer @ Norwegian Wikipedia

Blindpassasjer @ Bergen Filmklubb

Elonkorjaajat Exhibition in Tammisaari

Olli Lyytikäinen: Flygande Hamlet ("Flying Hamlet", 1976)


Elonkorjaajat ("Harvesters") was an artist group who started in Helsinki in 1971. Inspired by the underground movement of the day, the members of Elonkorjaajat featured such people as Pekka Airaksinen, J.O. Mallander and Peter Widén who were also part of The Sperm, a controversial music and performance group. Elonkorjaajat -- whose artistic range encompassed conceptual art, earth art, installations, performance and media art -- ran in Helsinki a gallery called Cheap Thrills (the name inspired by a Frank Zappa record of the same name). Finnish Green movement had its origins in the activities of the vegetarian restaurant Kasvis, run by some Elokorjaajat members who, alongside conceptual art and underground music & culture, embraced such interests as Zen Buddhism and macrobiotic diet.

The works of Elonkorjaajat can now been seen at the summer exhibition (29 May - 13 September 2009) taking place in the Elverket gallery of Tammisaari; featuring Airaksinen, Carolus Enckell, Antero Kare, Philip von Knorring, Mallander, Carl-Erik Ström, Ilkka Juhani Takalo-Eskola, Erik Uddström, Widén and Stuart Wrede. Also Olli Lyytikäinen who died in 1987 is featured with one piece.

Exhibition reviews in Finnish:

Helsingin Sanomat

Turun Sanomat

Uusi Suomi

Elonkorjaajat info in Finnish:

Kisko-Seura

Mustekala.Info

Skenet

Video clips:

Olli Lyytikäinen @ Yle Elävä Arkisto

J.O. Mallander @ Yle Elävä Arkisto

See also:

FinnScene: The Early Years @ pHinnWeb

McCloud: 'Ain't That Just The Way' (1975)

McCloud: 'Park Avenue Pirates' opening credits (1975)


Barbi Benton: 'Ain't That Just The Way' (1976)

McCloud was an American TV show that lasted from 1970 to 1977, starring Dennis Weaver (who many remember from Steven Spielberg's 1971 debut, Duel) as a country marshal transferred to the crime-infested New York City; the basic premises of the series taken from Clint Eastwood's 1968 Coogan's Bluff. 'Ain't That Just The Way' by Barbi Benton (Hugh Hefner's former girlfriend) was heard in the 1975 episode 'Park Avenue Pirates'. Sheriffi McCloud being a popular show in Finland too, Benton's performance in the episode caught the attention of some local music biz people; with the subsequent translation version 'Näinkö meille täällä aina käy' by Virve Rosti becoming a big domestic hit in 1976.

Big Jim Sullivan and Coral Sitar on Space: 1999 - "The Troubled Spirit"

Teaser scene from Space: 1999 episode "The Troubled Spirit" (1974)

Big Jim Sullivan (b. 1941) is a British guitarist and session musician, who also learned to play the sitar under the guidance of Vilayat Khan and released two albums of sitar music. Sullivan provided the eerie improvisation with the Coral sitar for the Space: 1999 episode "The Troubled Spirit" (1974).

Space: 1999 - Year 1 CD @ Discogs

Space: 1999 Theme by Geoff Love and His Orchestra

Geoff Love and His Orchestra: 'Space 1999 Theme'

Space: 1999 @ pHinnWeb

Jorma Elovaara Interview @ Ylioppilaslehti

Namechecking also pHinnWeb's Jorma Elovaara tribute page, Ylioppilaslehti of 15 May 2009 features a brand new Elovaara interview by Perttu Häkkinen (a.k.a. Randy Barracuda of Imatran Voima):

http://www.ylioppilaslehti.fi/2009/05/15/saapasjalkamies/

1990 & The Omega Factor

1990 (1977)

1990 @ Wikipedia


The Omega Factor (1979)

The Omega Factor @ Wikipedia

Continuing with our irregular series of TV and movie opening credits. If it has trippy/psychedelic/spooky imagery and/or old analogue electronic music, it is definitely going to be pHinnWeb's thing. These ones are courtesy of MaverickMediaUpload, who also features other mindblowing sci-fi/horror/mystery TV intros from the 1960s and 70s worth checking out. What were these people on?

J.G. Ballard (1930 - 2009)

British writer J.G. Ballard died on Sunday 19 April 2009. Ballard, who had been diagnosed with prostrate cancer in June 2006, was 78 years old. Among his best-known novels are such as Crash, High-Rise, Empire of the Sun, and Super-Cannes.

Though usually cited as a science fiction writer (he was one of the vanguards of the "New Wave" of sci-fi coming into prominence in the 1960s with such celebrated magazines as New Worlds, which he also contributed), Ballard's main theme was the psychopathology of contemporary society. The writer inspired by French Surrealists of the early 20th century, Ballard's works usually were about the civilisation crumbling but also mutating into something else, creating its own beauty and serenity. His psycho-geographical landscapes were inhabitated by alienated but inquisitive characters obsessed by a combination of technology, celebrity cult, sex and violence; all of which they worshipped with a religious fervour and even some sort of strange dignity.

Crash (1973) is about a small cult of people sexually obsessed with becoming injured or even dying in car accidents, preferably featuring some celebrity figures such as Elizabeth Taylor. Concrete Island (1974) describes a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, who finds himself helplessly stranded on a traffic island in the abyss of a spaghetti junction, his pleas for help ignored by passing cars. As with film director Luis Buñuel, Ballard's works could often be seen as surreal satires of the "discreet charm of bourgeoisie", and High-Rise (1975) shows a group of people consisting of highly-paid professionals and inhabiting an ultra-modern tower block degenerate into a constant life of violent orgy. In The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) an aviator crashes his plane in a suburb town of the Thames Valley, becoming a sort of Messiah with supernatural powers in a tale which might be or not only a final fantasy of a dying man. Ballard's late quadrology Cocaine Nights (1996), Super-Cannes (2000) (these two being actually companion pieces, so similar they are in their themes), Millennium People (2003) and Kingdom Come (2006) also show these same upper-middle class people instigating absurd violence to alleviate the boredom and social friction in their tightly guarded resort communities, business parks and shopping malls.

In a perfect world, the Nobel Award for Literature would have been Ballard's, but science/speculative fiction has never really fitted the appetites of that venerable election committee, not to speak about the controversial nature of his works. It would perhaps be preposterous to call Ballard's works prophetical, but I'm quite sure in the years to come more and more resonance will be found with his works and how the world around us turns out to be. No, as it already is: Ballard's dystopias took place not in some far future or a faraway country, but here and now.

In popular culture, J.G. Ballard has been for years a hip name to throw around and his works have inspired countless other writers, film-makers, artists and musicians. Empire of The Sun, an autobiographical book on Ballard's childhood years in the Japanese-occupied Shanghai, was filmed by Steven Spielberg in 1987. The Crash film version by David Cronenberg (whose earlier works such as Videodrome had a definite Ballardian tone) stirred some controversy in 1996.

Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records, recorded in 1978 under the alias of The Normal 'Warm Leatherette', a song based on Ballard's Crash. The Normal's electronic contemporaries such as Gary Numan ('Down In The Park') and John Foxx (Metamatic) have read their Ballard, too. Joy Division's late frontman Ian Curtis took the name for one of their songs, 'The Atrocity Exhibition', from a short story collection of Ballard.


The Normal: 'Warm Leatherette' with film clips from Crash adaptation by David Cronenberg

Ballardian.com - a Website dedicated to all things J.G. Ballard

Obituaries & tributes:

BBC News

Feuilleton

Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish)

Michael Moorcock @ Ballardian

Salon (by Simon Reynolds)

Pekka Streng: Unen maa (CD)

Artist: Pekka Streng & Olympia-Orkesteri
Title: Unen maa
Format: CD
Publication code: 50999 694030 2 6
ICPN number: 50999 694030 2 6
Date: 21 January 2009
Record label: EMI Finland

Tracklist:

1. Noidat ("The witches")
2. Sinua ikävöin ("I miss you")
3. Olen rakastunut ("I'm in love")
4. Olet onnellinen ("You're happy")
5. Aapeli ("Abel")
6. Metsästäjä ("The hunter")
7. Sammakko Sim ("Sim the frog")
8. Topi Jäppisen koti ("The home of Topi Jäppinen")
9. Itsemurhatalon luona ("By the suicide house")
10. Suruperhonen ("The butterfly of sorrow")
11. Keijut ("The elves")
12. Sinä aamuna ("That morning")
13. Kohtalo ("Fate")
14. Muumipeikon tassuttelu ("The treading of Moomintroll")
15. Luumupuupoika ("The plum tree boy")

Pekka Streng (26 April 1948 - 11 April 1975) was a Finnish artist whose recorded music was a combination of folk and psychedelia with some jazzy flavour and occasional electronic experimentation. He died of cancer only two weeks before his 27th birthday, but his two albums, Magneettimiehen kuolema ("The Death of Magnet Man", 1970) and Kesämaa ("Summerland", 1972), have assured him a huge posthumous cult following and influential position even among those fans who hadn't been born at the time of his death. Pekka Streng's mystique is increased by the fact that he avoided publicity all his life, giving only one interview, which was published after his death in 1978.

Many artists of the current Finnish psychedelic folk/"New Weird of Finland" scene, such as Sami Sänpäkkilä of Es and Fonal Records, have openly admitted their debt to Pekka Streng. Also Sähkö Recordings' sublabel Jazzpuu re-released in 2001 as a 12" the original and extended versions of Streng's posthumous "cult hit" 'Puutarhassa' ("In the garden"), a jazzy and bossanova-like song out of Kesämaa. (Though the biggest fan favourite by Pekka Streng still remains 'Sisältäni portin löysin', "I found a gate inside me", an esoteric-psychedelic inner journey folk excursion out of Magneettimiehen kuolema).

In the late 1960s Pekka Streng was an active member of Ylioppilasteatteri, Helsinki's Student Theatre, appearing among all as one of the extras of Risto Jarva's science fiction film Ruusujen aika (1969). 1969 was generally a busy year for Pekka Streng: his ten-part radio play adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan premiered for YLE in January-February, the same year his two other radio plays were aired: Papiljonttinainen ("The curler woman"), which was meant for children, and the psychedelic collage Kreivi von Krolockin hymyn variaatiot ("The variations of Count von Krolock's smile"), both based on Streng's own texts and featuring also his songs. Furthermore, 1969 saw the release of Streng's first single, 'Pieni juhlija' ("A small partygoer"; out of Tove Jansson's poem), recorded with the band called Ellipsi for Love Records, which were also to publish Pekka Streng's two legendary albums.

The subjects of Pekka Streng's music, with its tender folk leanings, concentrate on fairy tales, Eastern mysticism and spiritualism, social criticism and so on, with a strong humanist emphasis. On his first album, Streng was backed by the musicians of the Finnish prog-rock band Tasavallan Presidentti, and the second -- more lavish in its jazzy orchestration -- had on it some of the best jazz and rock musicians in Finland.

Unen maa ("The land of dream") consists of the demo material meant for Streng's planned third album, which never materialized during the artist's lifetime. The earliest songs originate from the late 60s, the latest apparently from 1973 and 1974. These demo recordings have been the Streng family's property since Pekka Streng's demise in 1975. It took over three decades and an enormous amount of background work and lobbying from the admirers of the late artist (such as the journalist Suonna Kononen and documentary film director Arto Halonen) until Pekka Streng's son Joonia Streng, now working as a lawyer, gave green light to the publication of the material and EMI of Finland took interest.

Unen maa has 15 previously unreleased Pekka Streng songs; two of them in their original form, the rest as versions arranged by producer Jukka Hakoköngäs and Olympia-Orkesteri out of the original monophonic reel-to-reel demos by Pekka Streng. The demo recordings featured only Streng's vocals and guitar to which Olympia-orkesteri added other instrumentation, after environmental noise had been removed from the tapes.

The sleeve art of Unen maa is by Sonja Lehto, Pekka Streng's sister, who also designed the covers for his Magneettimiehen kuolema and Kesämaa albums.

Arto Halonen is working on a documentary film on Pekka Streng, due autumn 2009.

Personnel on Unen maa:

Pekka Streng: vocals, guitar

Jukka Hakoköngäs: grand piano, "Aunt Bertha" B3, Nord Wave, Nord 2X, Prophet '08, Moog Voyager, Mopho, percussion, guitar, bass

Anssi Nykänen: drums, percussion

Jarno T. Karjalainen: bass

Timo Kämäräinen: guitars, vocals

Jukka Perko: soprano saxophone

Unen maa info in Finnish @ EMI Finland



Pekka Streng with son Joonia

Pekka Streng - a tribute site in Finnish

Pekka Streng discography @ Discogs

Articles in Finnish:

Lauluja haudan takaa @ Karjalainen

Pekka Streng audio & video links:

Memories of Pekka Streng: one audio clip and one video clip @ YLE Elävä Arkisto

Audio excerpts of Pekka Streng's radio plays @ YLE Elävä Arkisto

Pekka Streng search results @ YouTube

Additional material @ pHinnWeb:

Psychedelic music (and garage rock) in Finland

The Early Years of Finnish Electronic Music & Avantgarde

Jumalauta, kakarat, kohta paukkuu pakarat!

M.A. Numminen: 'Joulupukki puree ja lyö'

This classic Christmas song by M.A. Numminen in his "neo-vulgar" style from the 1970s, "Santa Claus bites and beats people up", tells the tale of a somewhat anarchic Santa wreaking havoc during a family Christmas Eve, threatening to beat up both father and mother, spank the children, demanding various Xmas foods and naturally a large bottle of booze, and finally ransacking the place.


Juice Leskinen: 'Sika'

Also the late Juice Leskinen offered his take on the favourite Finnish Christmas dish in 'Sika' ("Pig").

Urgh! A Music War (1981)

Klaus Nomi: 'Total Eclipse' off Urgh! A Music War, 1981

Urgh! A Music War (1981), shown by YLE Teema yesterday, is a film that, instead of having a plot in a traditional sense, consists just of a series of live performances from some extremely diverse US and UK acts, with "post-punk" moniker as their common (and in many cases, the only) denominator. So many goodies: most acts were familiar to me, at least by name, but I have to admit I had never before heard of such as Skafish (quite brilliant, actually), Splodgenessabounds or Invisible Sex (whose bizarre performance made me roll with laughter).

Another proof why this is among my favourite musical eras: the original punk of 1976-77 was in many ways a purist putsch kicking out those musical styles and artists that had become outdated ("classic rock" millionaires WhoZeppelinStones with their Learjets and cocaine), choking under their colossal weight (prog-rock), thoroughly commercialized and -- to use the favourite expression of the era -- boring, but personally, bar some exceptions (Ramones, Pistols, Buzzcocks), most of those first wave's three-chord wonders with buzzsaw guitars and their simplistic slogans leave me cold, and more interesting things started only happen in the second, "post-" (or "new wave") phase of punk when artists widened their musical palettes to include, e.g., such things as keyboards and synths (in the most purist Year Zero punk phase only Satan's, Prog-Rock's and Big Commerce's despicable tool nothing to do with Pure, True, Authentic and Genuine Street Expression), more complicated song structures with that fourth chord (and more), more thought-out lyrics, even dance music and (terror, terror!) disco (reggae was a big influence to it all), and so on, but still retaining punk's original DIY ethos.

Of course, it was all very art-school (as had prog been its very beginnings) and artsy-fartsy, and not without certain pretentiousness (though a lot of it was interesting pretension) and by the 1980s corporate rock era it had all died away (some of these acts like Police and Sting solo eventually became corporate rock themselves), but just by witnessing the amazing variety of music in Urgh!, at least for a couple of years, extremely lively things were happening. To see and hear yourself, check Urgh! A Music War search results @ YouTube.

The complete list of all acts heard in Urgh! A Music War:

The Police – "Driven to Tears"
Wall of Voodoo – "Back in Flesh"
Toyah Willcox – "Dance"
John Cooper Clarke – "Health Fanatic"
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – "Enola Gay"
Chelsea – "I’m on Fire"
Oingo Boingo – "Ain’t This the Life"
Echo & the Bunnymen – "The Puppet"
Jools Holland – "Foolish I Know"
XTC – "Respectable Street"
Klaus Nomi – "Total Eclipse"
Athletico Spizz 80 – "Where’s Captain Kirk?"
The Go-Go's – "We Got the Beat"
Dead Kennedys – "Bleed for Me"
Steel Pulse – "Ku Klux Klan"
Gary Numan – "Down in the Park"
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – "Bad Reputation"
Magazine – "Model Worker"
Surf Punks – "My Beach"
The Members – "Offshore Banking Business"
Au Pairs – "Come Again"
The Cramps – "Tear It Up"
Invisible Sex – "Valium"
Pere Ubu – "Birdies"
Devo – "Uncontrollable Urge"
The Alley Cats – "Nothing Means Nothing Anymore"
John Otway – "Cheryl’s Going Home"
Gang of Four – "He’d Send in the Army"
999 – "Homicide"
The Fleshtones – "Shadowline"
X – "Beyond and Back"
Skafish – "Sign of the Cross"
Splodgenessabounds – "Two Little Boys"
UB40 – "Madame Medusa"
The Police – "Roxanne"
The Police – "So Lonely"

Another Vesimiehen Aika Radio Show @ YLE Areena

YLE Areena offers another episode of Jorma Elovaara's legendary psychedelic counterculture radio show Vesimiehen aika ("Age of Aquarius"), available online until 21 December 2008 (it can be listened only in Finland). The sound quality is low, only 32 kbps:

http://areena.yle.fi/toista?id=1720688

(Thanks for the info: J.H.)

More Vesimiehen Aika audioclips @ YLE Elävä Arkisto

Pekka Pohjola (1952 - 2008)

Pekka Pohjola Group: 'Ensimmäinen aamu'

Finnish bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Pekka Pohjola has died at the age of 56. Pohjola came first into prominence as a bass player for Finnish progressive rock/"deep pop" band Wigwam, where he played from 1970 to 1974. After that he concentrated on his solo career, even though his solo debut Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva came out already in 1972 when he was still in Wigwam. Pohjola also played with Mike Oldfield, The Group and Made In Sweden.

For the main bass line in his song 'Midnight in a Perfect World' on the 1996 Entroducing... LP, American trip-hop artist DJ Shadow sampled Pekka Pohjola's 'Sekoilu seestyy' ("The Madness Subsides"; off Pohjola's 1974 album Harakka Bialoipokku, which was published in England as B the Magpie).

Pekka Pohjola @ YLE Elävä Arkisto

Pekka Pohjola obituary in English @ Helsingin Sanomat

The Sperm: Shh! Re-Release on De Stijl

(A scan taken from a copy belonging or having belonged to Heikki Harma a.k.a. Hector...?)

Artist: The Sperm
Title: Shh!
Format: 12" vinyl LP
Cat.no.: IND 039 (original: ORLP 0)
Label: De Stijl Records (original: O Records)
Year: 1970 (original) / 2008 (re-release)

Tracklist:

A1. Heinäsirkat ("Locusts")
A2. Korvapoliklinikka Hesperia ("Ear Clinic Hesperia")
B1. Jazz, Jazz
B2. Dodekafoninen Talvisota ("Dodecaphonic Winter War")

De Stijl label announces a vinyl re-release of Shh!, the heavily collected 1970 album of Helsinki's controversial experimental improvisational/performance act The Sperm, originally out on the band's own O Records and featuring in its line-up such people as Pekka Airaksinen (known also for many solo albums now enjoying an international cult reputation), Jan-Olof Mallander (nowadays an art critic) and Mattijuhani Koponen (a poet/actor and the most notorious member of the band, who had a prison sentence after having a performance of a simulated sexual intercourse on a grand piano). Also guitarist Vladimir "Nikke" Nikamo, who had a brief stint in early Wigwam, participated in the compositions of this album.

Press release notes from De Stilj:

"soon forthcoming is a totally legit LP only reissue of this amazing Helsinki monsterpiece from 1970. Shh! is primarily a document of Pekka Airaksinen's experimental compostions, consisting of primitive samples, guitar loop feedback and musique concrete.

Sperm also functioned as a wildly theatrical live act ala Dionysis in '69, that would arrange underground happenings, occasionally inspiring a rallied public outcry against the derisive act of public sex atop a grand piano.

ooh la la..."

FinnScene - The Early Years of Finnish Electronic & Avantgarde Music @ pHinnWeb

Esa Kotilainen: Ajatuslapsi (1977) Now Re-Released

A treat for electronic ambient fans is provided by a long-awaited CD re-release of Esa Kotilainen's Tangerine Dream/Klaus Schulze-style solo album Ajatuslapsi ("A Thought Child") from 1977, which is now out on Love/Siboney, a company specializing in CD re-releases of the legendary Finnish label Love Records, which went bankrupt in 1979, leaving behind a large legacy in Finnnish rock, jazz, folk and also political music.

The album was originally released as an edition of 500 copies, Kotilainen playing all instruments there. Alongside Tangerine Dream, Lobsang Rampa's controversial book The Third Eye is mentioned as its inspiration, Kotilainen visualising such tracks as 'Avartuva näkemys' as a journey of Tibetan monks in a cave of stalactites.


Esa Kotilainen in 1979, introducing the electronic sounds of Moog

Esa Kotilainen (b. 1946) is known as a keyboard wizard and synth veteran, who provided his contributions to Wigwam's most popular album Nuclear Nightclub (1975), also as a member of the band's latest incarnation, which is still in business. Furthermore, Kotilainen has provided his services as a session musician for such as Tasavallan Presidentti, Jukka Tolonen, Hector, J. Karjalainen, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää and many more. He has also been a member of Neum.

Esa Kotilainen's career in electronic music started in 1974 when he expensively imported from Germany a MiniMoog, an instrument rarely seen in Finland those days. During this era Kotilainen was playing gigs on a ferry called Finnhansa, which sailed between Helsinki and Travemünde, and paid for the instrument 6.100 Finnish marks: the price of a small car those days. The first gig with Kotilainen's Minimoog was creating sound effects for the soundtrack of Spede Pasanen's film comedy Viu-hah-hah-taja (1974), and the first music recording was obviously for the solo album Robson of Frank Robson.

Kotilainen's new career as a synth wiz got him loads of offers for background music in commercials after which his career was guaranteed in progressive bands like Wigwam, who were after electronic sounds generally favoured by the prog genre. Kotilainen is also said to have in his collection a Mellotron (an analogue predecessor of samplers, using pre-recorded tape loops played with a keyboard), perhaps the only one in this country.

Ajatuslapsi CD features as bonus tracks two versions of 'Matkaaja' ("The Traveller"), a 1978 commissioned work from Kotilainen for the Finnish National Ballet. The CD booklet also includes English liner notes by Pekka Laine, where Esa Kotilainen shares his insights on the album's origins.

Artist: Esa Kotilainen
Title: Ajatuslapsi
Cat.no.: LRCD 196 (original LP: LRLP 196)
Re-release year: 2008 (original LP: 1977)
Tracklist:

1. Unisalissa ("In a dream room")
2. Avartuva näkemys ("The mind broadens")
3. Ilmassa ("In the air")

CD bonus tracks:

4. Matkaaja (1978) ("The traveller")
5. Matkaaja (1978) Kaiutettu versio (= A version with echo, 2008)

Album credits:

Esa Kotilainen plays on the album: Mini-Moog, ARP-2600, Vox StringThing, Fender Rhodes, Kouvola Casotto, kantele, Hammond B3, Leslie 251 & 145, Binson Echo, MXR 90 Phase, MXR 100 Phase, Maestro Phase Shifter, Foxx Wah Wah pedal, Indian bells, Farfisa organ, Polymoog.

Recorded by Jukka Teittinen at Alppi-studio, mixed at Finnlevy Studios, Helsinki, summer 1976.
Cover by Kari Sipilä.

CD bonus tracks recorded at Esa Kotilainen home studio.
CD remastering by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox Studios, April 2008.
CD layout by Japa Mattila.
CD liner notes by Pekka Laine.

Release info @ Love

Esa Kotilainen @ Finnish Wikipedia

Ajatuslapsi @ Finnish Wikipedia

Ajatuslapsi @ Mutant Sounds

A review in Finnish by Jussi Niemi, Soundi 3/1977

Discography info @ FinnScene: The Early Years @ pHinnWeb

Richard "Rick" Wright of Pink Floyd (1943 - 2008)

Pink Floyd: 'The Great Gig In The Sky' - tribute to Rick Wright

Wikipedia

Kaj Chydenius

Kaj Chydenius: 'Sinua sinua rakastan' (1968, off Asfalttilampaat)

And while we are still at the topic, here is another gem from the era, 'Sinua sinua rakastan' ("You, you I love") from 1968, composed and sung by Kaj Chydenius, with lyrics by Aulikki Oksanen; from Mikko Niskanen's film Asfalttilampaat ("Asphalt lambs"), starring Eero Melasniemi and Kirsti Wallasvaara, with whom Niskanen had already worked with for Käpy selän alla.

Kaj Chydenius (b. 1939) was probably the best-known composer for the late-60s/early-to-mid-70s Finnish political song movement, whose timeless sense of melody has guaranteed the evergreen status of his works even to our own apolitical/right-wing politics days.

The lyrics in this one are nearly psychedelic, I think: "Miten huutaa minulle avaruus / Miten kirkuvat tähdet ohimoni läpi / Miten itkevät lapset maailman rannoilla / Ja merien yllä savuavat sydämet" (As a quickie translation: "How space yells to me / how the stars scream through my temples / How the children cry on the shores of the world / And over the seas smoulder the hearts").

Vesa-Matti Loiri rehearsing Lapualaisooppera with Kaj Chydenius (1966)

All Kaj Chydenius search results @ YouTube



Kaj Chydenius in the late 1960s, one of "partaradikaalit" ("bearded radicals") as Finnish leftists were called then


A scene from Asfalttilampaat, with Eero Melasniemi and Kirsti Wallasvaara

Finnhits

A Finnhits TV commercial from the 1970s

There's a new blog dedicated to Finnhits, popular Finnish iskelmä compilations in the 1970s and early 80s, today campy retro-pop nostalgia. Some Finnhits artists: Fredi, Danny & Armi (also responsible for the worst music video of all time), Freeman, Katri Helena, Frederik, Kirka, Irwin Goodman...

Music of Finland @ Wikipedia

A nice video clips collection of the 60s/70s (and earlier decades) Finnish pop -- "Finnhits" and more -- from TV and movie performances of the era