More Jimi Tenor & His Shamans + Circle + Bad Vugum Videos

Jimi Tenor & His Shamans: 'Unknown Gender' (directed by Jimi Tenor, 1992)

More Jimi Tenor & His Shamans; this video is from Fear Of A Black Jesus (Bad-28, Bad Vugum, 1992), the band's last album before the Shamans split and Jimi launched his solo career.

Courtesy of Tommi Forsström (If Society Records), who has now uploaded to YouTube the contents of rare Finnish VHS compilations Bad Vugum: From B To V (of Bad Vugum label) and Arctic Fury, featuring videos and live performances from the early 1990s by some now-legendary Finnish indie/punk/metal/avantgarde acts such as Mana Mana, Deep Turtle and Keuhkot; and alongside Jimi Tenor & His Shamans the act maybe most interesting for pHinnWeb, the early videos of postrock/post-Krautrock band Circle, especially of their Meronia era:


Circle: 'Shadow' live, 19 Feb '93, Helsinki

Circle: 'Crawatt' (directed by Jorma Mehtonen, 1993)

Circle: 'Kyberia' (directed by Mika Taanila, 1994)

Circle: 'Espirites' (directed by Petri Hagner, 1994)

Circle: 'Gravion' (directed by Petri Hagner, 1995)

Circle: 'Surrounding' (directed by Mika Taanila, 1995)

A Futuro House Sold in Paris for 140,000 Euros

Futuro video clip 1


Futuro 2

On Tuesday 27 November 2007, one of the remaining Futuro houses was sold at Christie's auction in Paris for 140,000 euros. Futuro was a flying saucer-shaped fibreglass house designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968, reflecting the era's futuristic space age dreams. Futuro was the subject of Mika Taanila's 1998 documentary film Futuro - A New Stance for Future and also appeared on Jimi Tenor's video The Year of the Apocalypse.

Related news @ YLE

Mika Taanila's Optical Sound

Talking about Mika Taanila (who also made the documentary on Erkki Kurenniemi), his latest short film, Optical Sound, will be
featured at the Tampere International Short Film Festival, 9-13 March 2005.

Optical Sound (2005) is based on the live performance of the Symphony for 12 Dot Matrix Printers by the Canadian artist duo [The User]. The film inter-cuts close-ups of the mechanical parts of the printers performing the piece, taken from surveillance cameras placed inside the machines, with images of the ASCII files' score being played, which has been photocopied straight onto clear film without the use of a camera. These live images are contrasted with time-lapse footage of large modern office blocks shot from the streets, at dawn and dusk, in Helsinki.

[The User] says of Symphony for 12 Dot Matrix Printers, "Nowadays technology defines our relationship to our surroundings. Whether it's about communication, making music, or producing food, the tools; phone, record player, genetic engineering; have a crucial role in the process and the result itself."

Taanila says of Optical Sound: "Our senses are used to the grey noise of technology that floats among us all the time. Its time, for a change, to LISTEN to that technology! Optical Sound focuses the attention of the spectator on the presence of technology. The film is critical of the `brilliance' of technology; intentional mis-use of technology becomes art. While contemporary technology is trying its best to be smooth, invisible and fast, the film makes it visible and
plays around with it."

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OPTICAL SOUND

Finland / Suomi
2005
Experimental // 6 min // 35 mm // col., b&w
Director: Mika Taanila
Script: Mika Taanila
Photography: Jussi Eerola
Sound: Olli Huhtanen
Editing: Mika Taanila
Music: Emmanuel Madan, [The User], Thomas McIntosh
Production: Kinotar Oy
Contact: Hannes Vartiainen

Office technology becomes quickly outdated. Old tools turn into
musical instruments of the future. The film is based on a composition
for twelve dot matrix printers by the Canadian [The User].

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More

A New Futuro House Site

There's a new Website at http://www.futuro-house.net/, dedicated to the plastic Futuro house designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in late 1960s, and immortalised by film director Mika Taanila in his 1998 Futuro - A New Stance For Tomorrow.

The Futuro House site includes the following statement on its Mission page:

"This site is dedicated to locating and documenting, with as much information as possible, all of the remaining Futuro Houses throughout the world. First with old information that’s out there, then with your help, updated photos and histories.

If you are a current owner, past owner, neighbour, or whatever please contact me with whatever information you have. Let's gather and record history together."

Like Eero Aarnio's Globe Chair, Futuro is truly both a Finnish design classic and a quintessential 1960s pop culture artifact. But however, as the Futuro film press release notes put it, these futuristic dreams were short-lived:

"The 1973 oil crisis shattered the optimistic illusions about continuous economic growth and the infallibility of technology. The price of plastic climbed drastically, and the production of Futuro became unprofitable. Although the innovative Futuro attracted plenty of attention around the world, and production and sales licences were sold to 24 different countries, it never fulfilled the expectations of its commercial potential.