Artist: NSI (Non Standard Institute) Title: Plays Non Standards Format: CD Cat.no: SÄHKÖ-022 Date: October 2007
Tracklist: (23 untitled piano pieces)
Press release info:
Non Standard Institute Plays Non Standards
Non Standard Institute is a piano drone project by sound engineers Max Loderbauer (Sun Electric) and Tobias Freund (Pink Elln, Sieg Üeber Die Sonne), both prominent techno producers whose careers date back the mid-1980s.
Compared to their earlier work in, Plays Non Standards is an exploration into a completely different direction. The music is based on the sounds of the grand piano played by Loderbauer and the subtle electronic "treatments" by Freund, with the help of vintage Roland DEP-5 and Roland TR-808 machines.
Very minimalistic and Spartan, yet rich in its attention to detail and sound, Plays Non Standards is a soundwork in the tradition of Brian Eno's Music For Airports. Yet, the music produced by Non Standard Institute is fully improvised, with "mistakes" being a vital part of their ambient experience.
Recorded over a two-year period in Berlin, Plays Non Standards does an outstanding job in blurring the line between modern acoustic piano music and the more philosophical end of electronic music.
Mauno Paajanen Psyko - Kaikki levytykset 1977-1980 (2-CD) Rocket Records ROK-004 24 Oct 2007
1CD: Poste Restante (Titan 1978) 01. Kasikympin lätkä 02. Yamaha ja Havanna 03. Siirry vähän James 04. Kadun väärällä puolella 05. He veivät lapset pois 06. Kaikki kulkee niin hiljaa 07. Poste restante 08. Aito suomalainen ranskatar 09. Patakuningatar 10. Bonnie & Clyde 11. Tyttö pieni (pelkäätkö mua?) 12. Haavelintu
2CD: Psyko (Silver Blue 1979) 01. Omena 02. Missä Liisa on? 03. Mrs. Brook 04. Yksin 05. Kundi meikkaa 06. Claudia Cardinale 07. Billyn lähtö 08. Nauruihminen 09. Puuttuva rengas 10. Alfa, Romeo 11. Anne 12. Vain tuskaako tein? 13. Omena 'Yläkerran psyko' 7" (JP-Musiikki 1980) 14. Yläkerran psyko 15. Hait tyttöjä syö Unreleased tracks (1980) 16. Fahrenheit 451 17. Sähköinen soturi 18. Avoin ovi
Mauno Paajanen (b. 1960), also known as Twiggy Oliver, is a Finnish artist known as the writer of the song 'Kundi meikkaa' ("A guy makes up") that was later famously covered by the synthpop act Organ (who will have their comeback gig at Avanto 2007 Festival). Now Tampere's Rocket Records has released a 30-track retrospective 2-CD of Paajanen, called Psyko - Kaikki levytykset 1977-1980, which includes in their entirety Paajanen's LPs Poste Restante (1978) and Psyko (1979), also the single 'Yläkerran Psyko' ("Upstairs psycho") and some previously unreleased tracks from 1979-80. Furthermore, Rocket Records is going to release the CD I Can't Sleep In Hell (ROK-005, late '07) of Paajanen/Twiggy Oliver's other project provocatively named The Voice of Mengele, who finished this debut LP of theirs in summer 1987, though the album was eventually shelved except for one promo single from it. Alongside Paajanen, the band's line-up featured among all Antti Reini, Jesu Hämäläinen, Måns Kullman, Ilkka Rantamäki, Frej Stenfors and Vesa Häkli. Also a Twiggy Oliver solo album is promised by Rocket Records for 2008.
Finnish Wikipedia tells that Paajanen's recording career was started in 1976 when as a member of a band called Claudie three of their tracks were released on a various artists compilation Fireball. In 1977 Paajanen released his first solo single, '80 lätkä'/'Poste Restante', and his debut album Poste Restante was to follow on the Fonovox sublabel Titan in 1978. Paajanen's second album, the 1979 Psyko for Silver Blue label, gained a cult reputation, having 'Kundi meikkaa' as one of its tracks. 1980 saw the single 'Yläkerran psyko'/'Hait tyttöjä syö' ("Sharks eat girls") which received little attention, so it took years before Mauno Paajanen would record under his own name again. In 1986 Kaktus label released a compilation record Aito suomalainen ranskatar ("A genuine Finnish Frenchwoman") featuring tracks from his two albums and the 7" track 'Hait tyttöjä syö'. There were also some promo singles in 2003 and 2005, respectively called 'Musta kuu'("Black moon") and 'Sokea mies ruusun toi' ("A blind man brought a rose"). Paajanen has penned songs for such Finnish artists as Tulip, Maria Hänninen, Tarja Merivirta, Esa Saarinen (better known as a philosopher and celebrity), Frederik, Outi Popp and Tin Janine.
Mauno Paajanen's other incarnation as Twiggy Oliver represented Finnish new wave/New Romantic synth pop of the early 80s, releasing on Q label the singles 'Play With Fire' ('81) and 'Pick Up Girls' ('82), and being featured on the 1983 compilation The Art of Breeding (tracklist at pHinnWeb Early Years: Synthpop).
Update: I just purchased this 2-CD, and musically it's Suomirock-style guitar pop with some occasional electronic flavour (Moog synth) on Psyko; Poste Restante also features some well-known studio musicians and even occasional string arrangements. Paajanen's vocals and lyrical approach (with tragicomic, bittersweet and even morbid song subjects combining dark romance and everyday kitchen sink realism, often described with a certain charming naivistic style) make me think of such names as the late Gösta Sundqvist of Leevi and the Leevings, Kari Peitsamo (and Peitsamo's "son"/musical heir apparent, Risto) or even Kauko Röyhkä. David Bowie influences are apparent all the way through, though Paajanen clearly developed an original style, which came into fruition on Psyko. Perhaps Finnish audiences of the day weren't exactly ready for Paajanen's twisted vision, so here's hoping this release will find the artist vindicated.
"It is now obvious that only neurotics will survive the future. Only fragmented personalities will be able to withstand the fragmented world produced by our over-sophisticated technology. What we consider today as pathological thoughts and behaviours are actually evolutionary advances that allow people to cope with urban alienation and its barrage of movie/video icons, computerised surveillance systems and nuclear threats. In place of raw emotion and instinct, we are increasingly compelled to cultivate a repertoire of artificial responses, amending the noble savage with a neurasthenic itinerary that consists of obsession, introversion and paranoia."
I checked out the theme night of Fonal Records at the Lost In Music festival of Yo-Talo on Friday. I haven't heard the latest releases of Islaja (a.k.a. Merja Kokkonen) but even some Stooges-like moments and some machine rhythms were heard now. This time the set of Kemialliset Ystävät [about whose manSEDANse set and the rest of the festival some weeks ago I would still like to get something together for this blog before too long - the procrastinating pH.] consisted of some sort of tribal blues sound, and on the black & white background video the boys were seen running around in the woods, looking like it was part of some sort of live role-playing ritual? Eleanoora Rosenholm (who will release their album on Fonal soon) I had never heard before. Their live sound paradoxically made me describe it as "lounge meets 70s Eurovision pop with some progrock flavour", so it will be interesting to hear what this will sound like on record. One song surprisingly made me think of Regina and their chanteuse Iisa Pajula. I think Eleanoora Rosenholm does hold some potential, and the audience seemed eventually to warm up to the songs, even though being unfamiliar with them. Some extra delights for a friend of old analogue electronics like me were spared to the end of the night when after around 2:30 am Shogun Kunitoki entered the stage with their arsenal of vintage keyboards. Playing an intense set, perhaps in the style of the late 60s proto-electronic veterans like Silver Apples and Lothar and the Hand People, I just had to watch it to the end, even though I was already starting to feel extremely drowsy at this late hour. A nice night, all in all.
[Other episodes -- #10: Kiire ("A Hurry"), #11: Apua ("Help!"), #12: Ystävyys ("Friendship"), #13: Persoonallisuus ("Personality").]
Käytöskukka ("Behaviour Blossom") was a Finnish 13-part series of didactic short animations made with cutout technique; created by Heikki Partanen (1942-1990) in 1966 and 1967, intending to teach good manners to children. The series, which was like "Seven Deadly Sins for Infants", had every episode starring a domestic piglet called Hinku and a wild piglet called Vinku, encountering such surreal creatures as the angry Suursyömäri (might be translated as "Gargantuan Eater") who devours everything coming its way, and other characters behaving, for example, in a lazy or vain way but learning some valuable lesson in each episode's end. South Park this was not. And the theme music is a classic, too!
Philip Best's (Whitehouse) solo project Consumer Electronics will replace Whitehouse because William Bennett is recovering from an injury, as announced on Bennett's blog.
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Tavastialla 28.10. tapahtuvan Äänen Lumon konsertin ohjelmassa on tapahtunut muutos. Whitehousen esiintyminen on peruuntunut yhtyeen William Bennettin loukkaantumisen vuoksi. Pan Sonicista tutun Mika Vainion lisäksi tapahtumassa esiintyy Whitehousen toisen osapuolen, Philip Bestin pitkäaikainen sooloprojekti Consumer Electronics.
Philip Bestin 80-luvun alussa teini-ikäisenä perustama Consumer Electronics on toisen sukupolven brittiläisen industrialin keskeisiä ja rujoimpia alullepanijoita. Samoista vuosista lähtien Whitehousessa vaikuttanut Best on musiikkihankkeidensa ohella toiminut myös keskeisenä ideologina legendaaristen ja uraauurtavien Iphar- ja Broken Flag-kasettimerkkien taustalla. Sittemmin kirjallisuuden tohtoriksi itsensä lukenut Best on viime vuosina vienyt ilmaisuaan hienovaraisempaan suuntaan menettämättä terävää intensiteettiään ja vinoa huumoriaan.
Mika Vainio on tunnetuimpia ja arvostetuimpia suomalaisia elektronisen musiikin tekijöitä maailmalla. Erityisesti Pan Sonic -yhtyeestä tuttu Vainio on vaikuttanut ja esiintynyt käytännössä koko aktiiviuransa pääasiassa Suomen rajojen ulkopuolella. Ensimmäiset julkaisunsa 90-luvun alussa tehneen Vainion soolotuontanto on laaja ja ulottuu tyylillisesti vähäeleisistä, kuulaan sähköisistä tunnelmista karuun houseen ja puhtaaseen noiseen, ja hänen musiikilliset linjauksensa vaikuttivat keskeisesti lengendaarisen Sähkö Recordingsin alkutaipaleen suuntaan. Harvoin Suomessa esiintymässä nähty Vainio on tehnyt yhteistyötä lukuisten alan huippunimien kanssa, muun muassa remiksannut Björkin tuotantoa.
Tavastia 28.10. klo 20:00, liput 15 e
Consumer Electronics (UK) Mika Vainio
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Tavastian konsertin kanssa samana viikonloppuna Äänen Lumo järjestää Helsingin Vanhalla ylioppilastalolla 27.10. islantilaisen Adapter-yhtyeen konsertin, missä kuullaan Morton Feldmanin musiikkia. Konsertti alkaa kello 15:00 ja liput maksavat 15 euroa.
Äänen Lumon syksyyn kuuluu myös pohjoismaiden suurimman kokeellisen elokuvan ja musiikin festivaalin Avannon perjatai-illan klubin tuottaminen. Kuudennassa linjassa 16.11. pidettävässä tilaisuudessa todistetaan Organin, suomalaisen futupopin legendan, comeback-keikka, japanilaisen noisen huippunimen Pain Jerkin värikästä sähkömyrskyä, Tapen syksyisen orgaanista instrumentaalimusiikkia ja Petri Kuljuntaustan avaruusäänisinfoniaa.
NOTE: Whitehouse has cancelled, the solo project Consumer Electronics of the other Whitehouse member, Philip Best, replacing Whitehouse. Mika Vainio will perform as announced earlier on. More info here.
Yksi kokeellisen elektronimusiikin keskeisimmistä pioneeriyhtyeistä, englantilainen Whitehouse saapuu ensimmäistä kertaa Suomeen. Tavastialla 28.10. pidettävässä konsertissa esiintyy myös Pan Sonic-yhtyeestä tuttu, harvakseltaan Suomessa esiintymässä nähty Mika Vainio.
Vuonna 1980 perustettu brittiläinen Whitehouse on kokeellisen elektronisen musiikin keskeisiä pioneereja. Alunperin ensimmäisen aallon industrialista (kuten Throbbing Gristle) ja punk-nihilismistä vaikutteensa ammentanut Whitehouse halusi viedä musiikkinsa lisäksi myös kappaleidensa teemat edeltäjiään pidemmälle. Yhtyeen varhaisvuosien alkukantainen ja -voimainen halpissyntetisaattorien ruudittama musiikki on kehittynyt hienovaraisemmaksi ja monipuolisemmaksi menettämättä piiruakaan intensiteetistään. Kesällä 2007 julkaistu tuorein albumi Racket on kerännyt laajalti innostunutta huomiota erityisesti primitiivisten lyömäsoitinten käytön ansiosta. Osoituksena kulttisuosiota laajemmasta huomiosta on yhtyeelle vuonna 2003 myönnetty elektronisen musiikin yksi tärkeimmistä palkinnoista, Ars Electronica -kunniamaininta albumille Bird Seed. Vuosien mittaan yleisöään (ja muitakin) provosoinutta ja hämmentänyttä yhtyettä on syytetty mm. sarjamurhaajien, kidutuksen, fasismin, misogynian ja seksuaalisen väkivallan kritiikittömästä ihannoinnista, mutta yhtye itse on sanoutunut jyrkästi irti poliittisuudesta ja käsitellyt aiheitaan huomattavasti pintaraapaisua hienovaraisemmin.
Mika Vainio on tunnetuimpia ja arvostetuimpia suomalaisia elektronisen musiikin tekijöitä maailmalla. Erityisesti Pan Sonic -yhtyeestä tuttu Vainio on vaikuttanut ja esiintynyt käytännössä koko aktiiviuransa pääasiassa Suomen rajojen ulkopuolella. Ensimmäiset julkaisunsa 90-luvun alussa tehneen Vainion soolotuontanto on laaja ja ulottuu tyylillisesti vähäeleisistä, kuulaan sähköisistä tunnelmista karuun houseen ja puhtaaseen noiseen, ja hänen musiikilliset linjauksensa vaikuttivat keskeisesti lengendaarisen Sähkö Recordingsin alkutaipaleen suuntaan. Harvoin Suomessa esiintymässä nähty Vainio on tehnyt yhteistyötä lukuisten alan huippunimien kanssa, muun muassa remiksannut Björkin tuotantoa.
- Comprehensive Electronic Atmosphere - Big Beat / Disco / Techno / Downbeat / Chill Out - Like "Moby / Prodigy / Depeche Mode / Air" - Finnish Music For International Taste & International Music For Finnish Taste
A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THE ALBUM AND SIRIUS STUFF RECORDS:
Moody Electronic Stuff album includes 12 different kind of electronic songs and artists. The album's atmosphere is based on somewhere between melancholy longing and powerful angst and it offers experiences almost for everybody... Just as much for a few electronic underground music-lovers as for millions of mainstream radio and music chart listeners.
Moody Electronic Stuff album's national releasing time in Finland is the 9th of November 2007 but you may order the album even now if you like. Just send a message to siriusstuffrecords@gmail.com. Introductory discount is only 15€ (including taxes and posting). Sirius Stuff Records is waiting for your call. Thank you.
01 - Winter Morning by Planeth 02 - Allright by Trilobiitti 03 - Never Come Down by Deep Impulse 04 - Hongkongking by Deadmanshand 05 - Music In U by Dj Tempo 06 - Wild Ocean by Chillkix 07 - New Breed by Machine Dominatrix 08 - Froggy Weather by Zerone 09 - Sixshooter by Moosefrog 10 - Enlightenment of Gaia by Ayahuasca 11 - Something Revolving by Universum Nationalist 12 - See You by Sirius Stuff
Some time ago I received a mail from a friend who wanted to have me as his Facebook friend. As one proof Finland still remains a monoculture, local media also tends to have a sort of monomania as to what they write about and consider newsworthy at a given time. Whenever a new trend arises, Fenno-Ugric media lemmings immediately hop on the bandwagon, and for a month or two one rarely hears about anything else, when every journo worth their salt wants to give their in-depth analysis (or less than that) on what this shiny new and (supposedly) revolutionary whatchamacallit is all about! Of course, this is how media works all over the globe, but the small population of Finland (5 millions) also means the sandbox is somehow far more limited and it's harder to escape if one does not want that sand to one's eyes.
As you have gathered by now, the inescapable trend Finnish wheelers and dealers of media have been obsessing about has been this Facebook thing, one of these "social networks", founded in 2004 by an American college student called Mark Zuckerberg, where one can share with the rest of the world all sorts of important and essential facts such as what one watches on the telly and whether one is a pathetic, miserable loser with no friends, no spouse, no job, no education and no money or a super-social and sexually successful mega-networker with a formidable CV, nice annual income and naturally tons of cool friends (however a "friend" is defined), especially those with a heavy name-dropping value.
Now, I already have registered myself to Yahoo, Blogspot, MySpace, YouTube, Last.FM and Flickr (not to talk about countless mailing lists and forums I may or may not follow actively), so after all this (and having to consider also the fact I still have limited daily hours for my Net activities) I'm wondering how can I have time and energy for all this networking. Not to talk about maintaining and updating the pHinnWeb site, blog and mailing list, and keeping up my daily e-mail correspondence and constantly answering people's inquiries from all over the world about this thing or that. All these newspaper and magazine articles have been prone to emphasize the fact that people have been known to spend (or waste, however you see it) hours and hours daily at Facebook so, really, that's the last thing I need now! And as said, do I really want the rest of the world to know about my humble person anything more than is necessary; always wishing people to rather judge me by my, erm, work (or whatever you can call all this dabbling with music & culcha) than whether my face is pretty or if I have a great ability to whisper sweet nothings to their ears at a cocktail party or not.
So, I kind of had already sworn I wouldn't add any more of these "social networks" to my already considerable burden of obligations (hah!), but what do you know. Though I didn't want to be a nasty asocial curmudgeon (any more) and do a disservice to this mentioned friend of mine, so as a courtesy (and always being a curious cat and a sucker), I registered at Facebook and accepted his request. So, all you pHinn fans (and haters) can now find me there as "Phinn Kompleksi" (this Facebook member system apparently doesn't allow one to spell "pHinn" correctly). On hearing about my registration, one friend suggested I might next like to join Irc-Galleria, too (a popular Finnish social network favoured by teenagers) -- uhh, touché!
About the myriad ways Facebook has enrichened my life so far: already I have been turned into a vampire and been sent all sorts of invitations, e.g. to join some TV trivia quiz or to compare movie tastes, or to clubs in other towns that I can't possibly attend. And now people also can add all my known nicknames to my profile. Though I haven't sent or been sent any "gifts" (obviously a virtual counterpart to that little tinsel you can find from chocolate Easter eggs) or haven't been "poking" anyone, either, to avoid any possible embarrassing misunderstandings and accusations of sexual harassment. How long will it take before the ecstasy of communication will turn to panic? Well, I adopted a policy of not taking anything here too seriously, as long as there's an "Ignore" button available to any of these offerings. It would be interesting to know how much of the "New Communality" of this much-touted Web 2.0" actually consists of just new technology-enabled ways to talk crap with your friends and waste time (and precious working hours) on trivial activities that were not possible before.
Talking of the related issues of privacy and Facebook, Juri sent me the YouTube link above. Well, I guess I have to take the risk, then. Besides, if CIA and all these intelligence [sic] organisations want to gather indiscriminating information on someone, aren't there already a million and one other places where to get the dirt if they really need it? Living in the age of information, we have already lost the game of retaining a total control over the life-long data that's in distribution about us, and potentially accessible to anyone with necessary means who just wants to grab it. Perhaps I see fatalism as a better option than paranoia, but we become vulnerable as soon as we are born, become members of society's networks, both formal and informal, and all sorts of personal files (health, education, work, financial) on us are beginning unavoidably to find their way to the system. Not to talk about our own involvement in all sorts of social activities leaving a record somewhere. And as for spreading personal info about oneself to these networks, I suppose it's always a conscious choice. After all, we are all social animals aware of our own self-worth, being unique and with the urge of being recognised by others (there's both narcissism healthy and unhealthy, and in some cases just a fine line separating both).
Well, gladly there's also now Arsebook as an anti-social alternative!
Walter Cardew of Walter & Sabrina and Danny Dark Records tells of the event: "We are going to have a showing of some of our films in a club in London called The Foundry on the 27th of October. It is part of a night called Disco_r.dance which is organised by a couple of guys who are very interested in all kinds of contemporary music. They will be dj-ing upstairs and in a fair size room downstairs we are going to show a couple of our films. There's normally a good crowd of people there; the club is right in the middle of the Old Street area which is very arty/groovy kind of place".
Saturday 27th October 2007: We Sing For The Future Launch event.
Downstairs at the Foundry in London as part of disco_r.dance. Danny Dark Records will present films by Sabrina (Walter & Sabrina) and Kompleksi/Spul Films. Also live music from Stefano Tedesco's SOLARIS and SKITANJA. 9-12pm; Admission Free.
The Foundry, 86 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3JL, UK.
"There are more events for experimental music in Finland than ever before. The majority of clubs are in Helsinki, but there is an active scene in other major cities too. Despite facing financial hardship, the organizers are contagiously enthusiastic."
Helsinki's Avanto Festival's schedule for this year has been published. Maybe one of the most interesting gigs there from pHinnWeb's point of view is the comeback of Organ, Finnish synthpop pioneers 25 years ago.
Organ was born when Pekka Tolonen and Seppo Parkkinen's electronic duo Argon — which had already released one of the milestones of Finnish electronic music, Kone kertoo (1981) — was joined by prog-rock bass player Tapani Lahtinen, and Mikko Saarela, previously known as the witty lyricist of popular punk/new wave band Eppu Normaali. In addition to off-the-shelf synthesisers, an important part of their instrumentation was an analogue drum machine called "Zyrgo", built by Tolonen. The year 1982 saw the release of their only album Nekrofiilis (Poko), which is, in retrospect, perhaps the best representative of the short-lived "Futu"(as synthesiser pop was called in Finland at the time) craze. The songs heard on the album were rehearsed in the electronic music studio at the University of Helsinki. The album contains a paean to Regina Linnanheimo, one the most glamorous Finnish film stars from the 1940s; in other songs, Saarela's socially committed lyrics examine topics such as vivisection and aid to developing countries as well as anti-war themes. Parkkinen was also one of the lyricists of their album. Unfortunately, the career of Organ was cut short by the waning of the Futu boom. Representatives of later generations of electronic music have, however, found Organ's music again, and their comeback performance is likely to receive the attention it deserves.
Organ @ Avanto/Äänen Lumo Club in Kuudes linja on Friday, 16 November from 9 pm to 4 am
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Avanto Festival 2007 16-18 November 2007 various venues, Helsinki
INTERNATIONAL FREE CINEMA (@ Kiasma & Orion 16.–18.11.):
MICHAEL SNOW (CA) PETER KUBELKA (AT) DOUGLAS GORDON (UK) & PHILIPPE PARRENO (FR) NÄRA ÖGAT (SE) STEKLIANNOE POLE (RU) ESKO LÖNNBERG / CIRCLE (FI) AVANTOSCOPE
ÄÄNEN LUMO (@ Kuudes linja 16.11. 21-04):
PAIN JERK (JP) TAPE (SE) ORGAN (FI) PETRI KULJUNTAUSTA (FI) ODJS HARRI & TG (FI)
POTLACH (@ Gloria 17.11. 21-03):
VOLCANO THE BEAR (UK) EDDIE PRÉVOST & ALAN WILKINSON (UK) AVARUS (FI) KUUPUU (FI)
The Wire, often called the best cop show of all time, starts its fourth season in Finland (6 October 2007, on MTV3, 1:10 am). But why the show is hidden here to a wolf's hour slot in the middle of night in between Saturday and Sunday is totally beyond me.
