Categories
Interviews Music

Streching the limits

Pohjonen started his career at a very early
age: at 8 he was already playing folk music. After classical and folk music
studies at the Sibelius
Academy, he spent time in
Tanzania
and Argentina,
studying with local musicians. His musical history now spans over twenty years
and in genres as diverse as avant-garde, folk, improvisation, classical, and
dance music. Furthermore, he has collaborated with the likes of the Kronos
Quartet. He is currently touring Finland – and in March the States –
as a member of KTU: a group also comprising of Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto. As
almost any review of his performances states: Pohjonen is far from your typical
idea of an accordion player; from the most obvious of the details, his hair – a
sort of reinterpretation of the Mohawk – to his way of being on stage and
playing his instrument. He’s been named several times ‘musician of the year’ in
Finland
and won several awards: the Finnish Jussi award for best film score (for the
movie Jade Warrior) being the last.

Let’s start our talk with this Jussi award. Composing music for
movies – was it your first time with Jade Warrior?
Actually, I did have previous experience, but it was something
different: the score for a Russian movie called Majak (The Lighthouse). In the case of Jade
Warrior, when the director called in November 2005 and asked me if I was
interested in composing the score I was not so sure –  at the beginning. Then, at home, I sort of
realized that a tune was already there. And in the end, it became the main
musical theme of the movie.

Already there? Meaning you didn’t have any ‘visual prompts’ – any
image or cut from the movie when composing the score – only the director’s
words?
Yeah. In that sense I can say that composing Jade Warrior’s score was not so different for me from my other
composing experiences. I don’t rely so much on images when I compose. And
anyway I was working with Samuli Kosminen…

{mosimage}Samuli Kosminen is one of the members of the KTU project: you’ve had
a number of different collaborators – all of them quite surprising and
interesting – how do you choose the musicians you’d like to work with?
Well, with Samuli, I just asked him. He’s a sort of a kindred soul:
he’s as experimentally inclined as I am. So it was quite natural to consider a
collaboration with him. In the case of the Kronos Quartet, I should say it was
not me who approached them… but rather, they approached my manager, Phillip
Page. You know, Phillip is definitely more than a manager and he’s been
instrumental in quite a lot of my collaborations with other artists: one of my
first projects was with Arto Järvelä, together we are the Pinnin Pojat; and one
of the main features of our collaboration is the freedom to improvise. The last
time we performed together, we rehearsed for a really short time and then just
went on stage: curious to see, and listen to, what would happen. And for
instance, the level of improvisation is 100% with Eric Echampard, the French
percussionist. 

I understand that improvisation
is a keyword for you, but I’m just wondering how did it work with the Tapiola
Sinfonietta: you collaborated with them on your Kalmuk project some years ago.
I made it clear from the very beginning what I had in mind, so that
all those who were not at ease with the idea of playing without the score in
front of them or, say, having to run in circles while playing could quit before
the real thing got started. I wanted the musicians to play without the score so
that they could be more free to listen to each other: to move with the music…
of course at the beginning it was not easy: not even for those who had decided
to stay.

Freedom is another keyword for
you
My main concern is to explore – explore the sounds my instrument can
utter, with the support of sound machines, voice, etc. When I’m on stage, I
improvise and I usually go on playing without breaks – without pauses for the
clapping of hands. I definitely value the reaction of the audience, but on the
other hand I have this feeling that I need to keep myself free from an excess
of feedback: I’m on the stage to create something, an atmosphere, and I don’t
think I should be too much influenced by the reaction of the audience.

How have places influenced you?
You have spent time studying abroad…
I was in Tanzania for a
few months and in Argentina.
I guess that’s when I perceived my being a Finn. You know, my favourite time
for composing is winter: with the deep darkness, the snow. I come here to my
studio in the morning and it’s dark: I get out in the evening and it’s dark.
Then comes the spring and I just start feeling like doing something else:
spending time outside. Winter is my creative season.

One last question: in Italy there’s a
small town called Castelfidardo, which is known as the world capital of the
accordion industry. I was wondering if one of your accordions comes from there…
It might be. But by now I’ve made so many changes and modifications
that it hardly has any original part left. And look, the bellows are breaking
again.

Categories
Cinema Features

…And justice for all

Alfred
Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, Robert Altman and Cecil B.
DeMille are some of the film directors who never won the Best Director Academy
Award, and it seemed Martin Scorsese was to follow that black list after five nominations.
All of his generation mates had won the award: Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg,
but in February Scorsese finally joined the club and was rewarded for his film The Departed.

The award
now feels more like an honorary Oscar before it is too late. Even though the
film is an outstanding effort, it pales into insignificance when compared to Scorsese’s
masterpieces, such as Raging Bull,
which is now being rerun in selected theatres across Finland.

Raging Bull (or Kuin
Raivo Härkä in Finnish) is a tragic biopic based on the life of the harsh
obsessive middle-weight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. The film is popular for Robert
De Niro’s extreme interpretation. He gained more than 25 kilos to play LaMotta
in his declining days in the '60s and he trained as a boxer entering three
matches in Brooklyn, winning two of them. It was actually De Niro who convinced
Scorsese to make the movie.

In spite of
his initial lack of interest, Scorsese took the movie to his own style. He
portrayed life in the Italian ghetto in New York, adding many elements of first
generation Italian-American subculture.

The drama
and the real punishment of LaMotta were outside the ring and his alienation
from his family and brother. Nevertheless, Scorsese put great effort into the
fighting scenes. The sequences were rigorously choreographed beforehand and
planned frame by frame in the storyboard.

The black
and white cinematography by Michael Chapman gives the film a tone that resembles
the boxing films from the 1940s and '50s, and it seems timeless. With the passage
of time, the praise for Raging Bull
has grown and it is now seen as a great American movie, plus one of Scorsese’s
best. In 1986, Aki Kaurismäki paid homage in his hilarious short film Rocky VI.

Raging Bull was the first Best Director nomination for
Martin Scorsese, which was one of eight nominations including Best Picture, and
won Robert De Niro a Best Actor award and Thelma Schoonmaker an award for Best
Film Editing. More than 25 years later, thanks to The Departed, Martin Scorsese is awarded with his well deserved
Academy Award.

Categories
Cinema Features

The camera keeps on rolling

Born in
Lithuania, but exiled to America in 1949 after spending some time in a
displaced persons camp, the life of Jonas Mekas is all about films. He is
considered the godfather of avant-garde and experimental filmmaking and he was
one of the founders of Film Culture
magazine, the American response to Cahiers
Du Cinema. In the 60s and 70s, he was one of the top names of the art world
as he worked and filmed with artists such
Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí Allen Ginsberg and John Lennon.

Jonas Mekas
remembers that he decided to film his own movies after watching The Search (Fred Zinnemann, 1948), a
film about displaced persons made after the war. “I saw it with my brother and
we got very angry how little understanding of the real situation there was in
this film, about what it means to be displaced”. After that, Mekas bought a
camera and has been filming ever since.

Some of his
most representative films were showed in Tampere, where he was the guest of
honour. In his short films, he portrays people and places or he shows bits of
life, like a diary. He enjoys presenting the happy moments of life. He often
films himself and others dancing and celebrating: “I leave the depressed
moments for the modern artist”, he said during his visit to Finland.

There is no
better expression of this diary form than his current project: 365. Every day during 2007, Jonas Mekas
will release one short film that will be available to download from his
website. These are short films that include old and new material. He takes his
camera everywhere: “Some footage from Tampere might appear in 365 this month or the next one”.

Preserving
film was another duty for Jonas Mekas: in 1970, he was one of the co-founders
of the Anthology Film Archives in New York, a non-profit organization devoted
to the preservation and exhibition of experimental film. However, prefers to
look ahead than look back: “With the new technologies, the language of cinema
gets richer. Different forms are developed. Everything is changing and that is
beautiful!” he claims. The Lithuanian filmmaker understands cinema as a
constant evolution, in which current films cannot be understood without the
previous ones.

As 365 shows, Jonas Mekas is neither afraid
of that evolution nor of new technologies. Indeed, he welcomes the new forms of
expression without fear and does not plan to stop filming. As he says, “perhaps
after 365, the next project will be the 1001 nights”.

The 365 project and other films by Jonas
Mekas can be downloaded from www.jonasmekas.com

Categories
Cinema DVD

Casino Royale

Casino
Royale is based on
the  novel of the same name by the father
of Bond, Ian Fleming, and presents the first adventure of Bond just
after getting the status of 007: an agent with a license to kill. It combines
the best of the old Bond films with the use of the new technologies.

Daniel Craig
is convincing as the new Bond: virile, seductive, ironic and with a powerful
gaze not seen since Sean Connery himself. The “Bond girls”, Eva Green
and Caterina Murino, are sensual and wild; the action is brilliant; the
fights are vibrant; the baddies are perfect in their roles; Judi Dench
is superb as “M”; and the locations are astonishing.

The critics
loved the film and the audience loved Craig (especially the women), so why did
I not feel totally satisfied after watching the movie? Maybe I have become too
conservative or maybe I have started to get a bit tired of this continuous race
to show in the movies how the latest technologies are always available for
saving the world. Maybe since the last Mission:
Impossible trilogy, I have started to feel bored of so many games with
mobile phones, and so many satellites locating the “seed of the devil” in some
remote island in the middle of Pacific. I feel annoyed with this
“ultra-technological saturation” every time I try to watch a spy movie.

Nevertheless,
I liked the movie a lot. It is sometimes very explicit, even raw (like in James
Bond’s torture scene, which you can feel directly in your own testicles) but
you cannot deny that the film’s rhythm absorbs you for its 144 minutes.

Categories
Cover story Misc

Porn is in the air

Maybe names such as Laura, Mr Lothar, Eve
X, Rakel Leikki, Mariah or Henry Saari do not ring a bell to you… or maybe
they do. Undoubtedly, porn and sex industry are not a marginal side of society
anymore. As an example, there are 3 big sex festivals, called Sexhibition, all
around Finland:
In Oulu, Turku
and Helsinki,
being the latest the most important one, with a number of visitors that oscillates
between 25,000 and 35,000. We are talking about the same number of visitors
that could go to the biggest Book Fair of the country, so … do you still
believe that sex business is not mainstream here?

An industry not
much openly discussed, but massively used

Go to any of the most popular chat rooms in Finland, such
as Suomi 24 website. Sex rooms are overwhelmed by visitors; meanwhile the others
are almost empty. Not exactly that people overcrowd the gardening chat rooms…
Young people want it fast and want it wild, so why to waste time and money
going to a club, when you can hit on somebody from your computer? Or take a
walk around Kallio neighborhood, and you will see the huge amount of sex shops
every few meters offering all kind of films and products. It could be that sex
industry is not still a subject of massive study at serious academicals circles
but… maybe the trend should start to change soon.

Vesa Riihinen,
who is the responsible for the biggest porn magazines publishing company in Finland, Press
Masters, with approximately. 40 % of market share, explains to us “There are
approximately 20 000 different readers/month on our for magazines Kalle,
Jallu, Lollo and Ratto, and in our on line service there are about
2000 visitors per day”.

{mosimage}Different ways
of making porn.

As most of the people involved in Finnish
porn film industry assures, this is a small country with a small market, so
everybody knows everybody at the end. There is not much space for launching
dozens of films a year as in USA market, so apart from the mainstream and more
classic porn movies, where the biggest and most demanded names by the audience belong
to Rakel Liekki and Henry Saari (better known as “Henry the
King”), there is a big trend towards the home-made and amateur porn.

Basically, the new genre consists on
recording sexual encounters with an amateur video camera, and with no other
effects or crew collaborating during the shooting. As Mr Lothar,
stripper and porn actor, who has filmed dozens of encounters during his
wanderings all over Finland,
explains to us, “It is a fast way for many girls to get some extra money. Some
of them appear only once, and some others become part of the business. With
some of them I just spend few minutes and some others have fun and stay with me
for the whole week”.

Most of the actors contacted in Finland are
quite proud and happy of what they do, out of the image one could have of
“sexual and manipulated objects”. But hey, being in the business can have also
many others unexpected risks. As Mika Erkillä, organizer of Helsinki
Sexhibition, remembers: “Once a Czech stripper fell from the stage during a
performance. It was a 2 meters fall and we were quite worried he could have got
inured. Fortunately, no serious damage happened”

And well, if you feel like testing your wild
side, and are not shy of performing some hot games in front of the crowd, in
next Sexhibition they prepare a lot of interactive games with the visitors in
their “Corridor of Activities”, such as “New Twister” and “New Poker”…

Radical Production, settled in Tampere, is another
company that has gained reputation very fast for their amateur videos, even
exporting outside Finland.
As lead actor, they feature Jeppe, a guy who looks more like the fellow
sitting close to you at University classrooms than a “sex machine”.

For many of you, these names were already
well known, and for many others who will go directly after reading this article
to Google and Internet pages, we can just say: Enjoy yourselves with the
national product!

Categories
Interviews Misc

Like Alice in Wonderland wearing a new pair of shoes

Is success coming
too fast, Minna?

All kind of
attention is good and it is nice. I enjoy it and it is good for my business,
but my goal has been to move forward very quickly. It is exactly what I wanted.
I did not want to start with a small thing, I wanted to start with a big thing
and move fast because also financially, it is my company and I founded it
myself

Is it hard to
take full responsibility of the company?

Yeah, because I
studied design, and I suddenly had to be “business woman”. I learnt a lot in
1.5 years. I am kind of very proud myself that I have managed to do as well as
I have, without any kind of selling or business experience before, so it’s just
matter of finding out, and asking questions, and learning through mistakes.
Luckily there have not been huge mistakes so far…

You have said
that you wanted to be a designer since you were 15. Were you the typical
teenager burning time and money at the clothing shops?

Yeah, I have
been traveling with my family on holidays since I was tiny, all over Europe, Japan,
Australia,
all kind of places, and I got used to be in all kind of shops and seeing all
kind of designs, things that we did not have in Finland. In the 90´s we still did
not have so many great shops here.
 

 

Getting experience in England

When you were 19
you moved to Leicester, England, to study Footwear Design
in Demontfort University. Why?

I wanted to go
somewhere else than staying in Finland,
I wanted to go and try out a new place and experience a new culture, and learn
the language perfectly. There were only 2 design schools in England, the other
one in London and the other one in Leicester, and when I was 19, London sounded
quite of quite scary…too big… and I just decided to go to Leicester, even when
I had never visited the place.

Tell me a bit
more about this prize you got: Young British Glove Designer?

Well, it is given
by the British Glove Association , the main glove thing in the U.K. there were
400 people taking part in that competition, so in that way it was quite a big
thing to win it.  I got the title of  Young British Glove Designer, even if
I am not British, which it was quite funny, and they had this way of doing it
in the center of London, in this mansion house , so they were quite “proper
English”, old men and old women with their hats and their gloves exclaiming “oh
yeah marvelous!”, “well done!”

After 6 years
abroad, why to settle again in Helsinki
and not somewhere else?

Well, it had been
easier to have started abroad, like in England, Italy or Spain, it is much bigger, you get
the producers there, and in England
you get the British Footwear Association that does support the designers. They
apply for big fairs where I cannot get in because I have a small company and I
am from Finland.
But I miss home. I miss my friends, after being out for such a long time it is
good to return. It is peaceful and calm here and there is a lot of space to do
new things. The environment allows new things and people here are very excited
about new things as well, so I thought that this would be a very good base to
create my own things in peace, and then travel a lot around the world.

 

{mosimage}{mosimage}

 
 

Girlie designs
and summer fantasies

What makes Minna
Parikka´s designs different from others?

They are very
girlie, girlie shoes with girlie details, very feminine, like high curvy heels,
lots of inspiration from the 30s, 40s, 50s, when the woman was true woman and
they dressed up head to toe perfectly, with fun and quality. I always try to
offer something that is amusing, wearable and still doesn’t go over the top.
The shoes have a lot of details but people can still imagine that they can wear
them. Color is very important, colors suitable for the season, I m not a big
fan of browns and blacks. The buyers always say like “Hum, lovely colors, but I
will take the browns and the blacks instead”

Do people take
care of their style in Finland?

In general people
still do not spend much money on clothes. But I think that Helsinki is great, you get all kind of styles
here, people like to be quite individual, and not everybody is from “the same
mall”.

Can you explain a
bit more about your new Spring/Summer collection?

It is a very candy
collection. It has candy colors, pastels, bright reds and it has very cake
shapes, hearts…very romantic. The collection is called holiday romance, so it s
everything that you could expect from a holiday romance to be like:
lighthearted and  fun and playful.

How many pairs of
shoes have u bought lately?

Nowadays I do not
have to buy shoes since I get them for myself. I got 50 pairs of shoes just for
this summer just for myself. For Finnish summer, 50 days, one for every day…
Maybe I have 150 pairs in total, I always go to fly market to sell my stuff
later, I don’t keep things, I do not have the space to keep things.

What are the
future plans for Minna Parikka?

Sell a lot and
design a new collection!!!

 

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

And with the spring…the 3rd issue of FREE!

I still have the feeling that many people don´t know about the existance of FREE! Well, for those who are missing the fun, now it is about to know about us. And with the new cover in our 3rd issue, I am sure that loving it or hating it, it is going to create some impact, because it is definitely a catchy illustration (…and a catchy cover story, although I must say that I think we have treated the topic of sex with a lot of respect, although as well with sense of humour).

By the way, if you see any day a dark haired guy refilling one of the stands-teline of FREE! Magazine with newspapers, salutate me. We are not all day long sitting in front of our computers, quite the opposite. We, the editors, do a bit of everything.

I was a couple of hours ago in Bar Loose, one of my favourite places in Helsinki. Not only for the rock music, that is good, but also because it gives me a good vibe, it reminds me to a typical rock bar in Spain, and there are not many bars in Finland that can remind me to my homeland bars. The clients there go often, so at the end everybody knows everybody, and hours seem to pass by without noticing it. Today there was a concert by a band called Ceesar, where one of the waiters play, and actually they were quite good, I enjoyed the concert pretty much.

Some of you must have realized that FREE! is moving around, trying to spread our name. This month, we  appear with and ad in Clubland leaflet, and we will have a stand-teline in the Sexhibition, for all those who apart from "sexy time", would feel like having something to read in English. We were also last month in Tampere Film Festival, delivering copies and making some promotion. It was nice to assist, the quality of the projections is very high, and apart from that, I personally got impressed with the energy of Jonas Mekas, the 84 years old Lithuanian director. The man conserves all his lucidity and a great joy of life. It was 11:30 at night and he could appear in a club ordering some drinks  and chatting with audience, instead of being sleeping at his hotel room. Frankly impressive!

And some recomendations before ending up today. Last films I saw recently and enjoyed pretty much: Little Miss Sunshine and Capote (Seymour Hoffman is great in whatever role he plays. And if you still have not read In Cold Blood, I don´t know what you are waiting for…). In music, pay attention to the new Finnish band The Jade, I was positively delighted with the discovery. And please, be FREE! with us! Send us your pictures or your questions without answers in Tell me Why section for the next paper edition, sign our guestbook, or just simply write a couple of lines to feedback@freemagazine.fi but always remember (remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot…)  that this magazine is overall planned for your joy.

Categories
Albums Music

Peer Günt – Guts and Glory

In spite of
the changes, Guts and Glory should not disappoint the fans. It’s the same old Peer
Günt. Indeed, this hard rocking machine is at full speed. “No guts, no glory…
Nobody is gonna stop me now” sings Nikki in the first song and the boogie
oriented trio goes non-stop down a road of aggressive riffs and great guitar solos.
One can imagine raising fists and headbanging when Demolition Child is played live

There is
only one gear for Peer Günt. They hardly slowdown in any of the eleven songs of
the 11 songs. They played with the same strong attitude of Motörhead or AC/DC,
although Guts and Glory might suffer
in the end of including one type of song. Nevertheless, the bluesy guitar
licks, the very good guitar solos and the smell of gasoline are there. Fans can
expect good times for the new era of Peer Günt. Nikki is in top and Pete and
Sakke pass the test with a very good grade.

Categories
Interviews Music

New York City’s rock radio saviour

Eddie Trunk is host of Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk, a hard rock/metal radio show from New York City that can be heard across the U.S. and on the internet. He was kind enough to spend a few minutes with FREE! Magazine to discuss his show and the radio business.

Eddie Trunk

I know your favorite all time band is KISS. So how did you go from a kid in the late 70’s with KISS posters on your bedroom wall to having a nationally syndicated radio show?

It’s been a long road but I started out writing the music column of my high school paper. I was always just a big music fan and chased down everything I wanted to do in the business. Did College radio while in high school, worked at a music store, worked for a record label (Megaforce), management company and more. I always did radio though regardless of what else I had going, it was always what I loved most. In 1994 I got a break when I broke into the NYC market and that’s when I made it my main focus. Everything else fell into place because of the audience I served and how loyal they are. I specialized in something and did more then just play records, which is what set me apart. NYC and Boston are the two biggest markets the show is heard and I also do a national XM show [satellite radio] on Mondays on channel 41.

Now thanks to your show, you’re able to have personal and professional relationships with many of the same musicians you idolized as a kid. In fact, you are actually good friends with original Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley.

I had a hand in signing Ace to his solo deal in the 80’s and we have remained close friends ever since. Ace is working on new music now and I’m going to pay him a visit soon and see what he’s up to. I’ve been fortunate to have many of the legends of music become friends after doing this for 25 years. It’s really all about how you treat them and behave around them. The key is to make them feel comfortable and avoid being a super fan, then you can establish a true connection.

Kiss Live!

Your show is a mixture of music and live interviews. What can a listener who has never heard your show expect?

Not just music. Anyone can be a jukebox and play CDs, and with iPods people can get any songs they want. I bring all my experience, stories, interviews, contests and more. The show is a mix of music and talk about music, and you will never hear the “hit” song you’re sick of from the classic artists. You will also hear plenty of classic artists that don’t ever get played from the 70s and 80s mostly.

It seems that hard rock & metal is enjoying a bit of a resurgence these days. Do you think there’s still that stigma that’s associated with those “hair bands” from the 80s?

Yes, unfortunately I do. Outside of Bon Jovi there really have not been any artists from that era that have had big time success now. It’s sad because there is so much great music that is not given a shot or written off by the mainstream. I do my best to cater to that crowd with the little time I have each week.

It’s great that in a way, you’re building a community of fans around your radio show.

I’m nothing without my audience and their support. I do my best to connect with them as much as I can in as many ways as I can. It’s so cool to meet people that get the show every week somehow, someway. It’s what metal has always been built on, loyalty and passion for the music and people that love it.

As many people probably don’t realize, most DJs in the U.S. don’t get to choose the songs they play on the radio anymore. You’re very fortunate to still retain complete control over what you play. What do you think of the state of radio these days?

Radio is big business and big money owned by big companies. I am fortunate I have what I have. I only wish I had more hours/days in the week. There is a reason why radio in the mainstream is the way it is. The ownership feels that’s the way they can make the most money, and that’s what business is about. I get that. I think there are more people out there that want to hear the type of radio I do then many think, but I’m grateful for what I have. I’m also on XM satellite radio and have a live weekly show there, so that is another great outlet that is live nationwide and through Canada, uncensored with no commercials. Lot’s of fun and another way to reach people.

It seems that radio used to play a big role in breaking new bands. I can think of a lot of bands that became famous thanks to some lone DJ playing an unknown band’s song which led to that band getting national exposure. With most radio station playlists being dictated by some focus group, how does a new band get that lucky break anymore?

They have to be creative. The entire music business has changed, labels, everything. Thanks to Myspace, YouTube, etc, bands have other outlets to reach people and even sell music. Top 40 can still break an act in a major market, radio still has lot’s of power and influence, it’s just the approach to the business is very different now.

Since this magazine is for people living in Finland, what do you think of the current crop of Finnish rock bands that have enjoyed some international success recently?

I saw HIM a couple years ago in LA with Monster Magnet. Wanted to like it but it didn’t really click for me that night. I lean more to the classic stuff but I know there is a big scene emerging in the clubs here with the Euro metal. I think it’s great that people support new music, very important. I would play more of it if I had time.

You are a person who is passionate about the music and it shows. How does it feel to be able to make a living doing what you love?

I’m very lucky and do not take it for granted. I have a great following and connection with the audience and artists. There have been some truly magical things take place on my show over the past 25 years and I’m proud it’s become such a big destination for rock fans and bands.

Listen online to Eddie Trunk’s show at: www.eddietrunk.com

Categories
Interviews Music

Electro + Pop + Sweetness = Regina

What was
the evolution of Regina? How/where did the three of you meet and how/when did
the band form?

It all
started when we (Iisa & Mikko P.) did a couple of demo tracks in our living
room a few years ago. To our surprise, our music found friends really quickly –
with the help of the Internet – and soon we were asked to play live. We wanted
to try it even though we had no plans to become a real band. It was the
beginning of 2005 when Mikko R. and his drums joined us, and in March we played
the very first gig at Club Limousine in Helsinki.

 

Regina most
distinguishes itself from other bands with its vocals. Many bands choose to
sing in English in order to reach a wider audience (I assume), but you sing in
Finnish. As it turns out, this in no way hinders your appeal. So, was singing
in Finnish a conscious decision?

I love our
language and choosing Finnish was the only solution for me. It's nice to be
able to use a language as funny and beautiful as Finnish and it's even more fun
when people tell you that they enjoy the language – even though they don't
understand it. We have heard stories of people who have started to learn
Finnish with our music.

{mosimage}Your music
is best described as electro-pop, but there's clearly a different sound coming
through on your new album. Less electronic, more organic, lighter but with more
layering. Can you talk about the differences between the way you approached
your first and second albums?

The new
Regina is definitely more organic and lighter but still electronic. We simply
wanted to get a totally new approach to our music with this album. We put a lot
effort into it. The vocals were also something we wanted to concentrate on more
this time.

What other
bands have an influence on Regina's sound? Any bands you can't get enough of?

This is
always really hard… We love electronic and guitar pop: many amazing solo
artists like Prince, Björk, Stina Nordenstam, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush;
bands like !!!, Final Fantasy and Hey Willpower; Finnish indie music such as
Cats On Fire and some Fonal's bands for example; 60s and 70s pop, etc. All the
music that we love and enjoy listening to probably has some kind of an
influence on our music; but for us it is quite hard to recognize.

Regina's
debut album (originally released in Finland in 2005) was released in Japan in
August 2006. Do you hope to continue reaching beyond Finland's borders with
your music? What's the next step for the band?

Our music
has some friends for example in Sweden and in Russia, probably in Japan and
some other countries too. And MySpace is spreading our music all over the world
and that's really nice. We would love to have some kind of audience in
different countries, so
that every now and then we could visit for example Stockholm or Berlin and play for the people that have
found us. But we have no serious plans about how to get big beyond Finland's
borders.

What are
your thoughts on Eurovision?

The whole
thing is pretty confusing. But fun at the same time! We enjoy watching the
weird performances. The music is the most confusing part of the show. Sometimes
you want to laugh, sometimes you feel like crying.

 

Regina’s new album, Oi miten suuria voimia!
was released on 21st March. More info
at http://www.myspace.com/reginaxxx

Categories
Interviews Music

Pop out of joint

Rooted in
eastern Finland, Rubik found its current line-up in Helsinki at the turn of the
century, when vocalist Artturi Taira
and drummer Sampsa Väätäinen, joined
by guitarist Samuli Pöyhönen and Arvi Hasu on bass, rejected any master
plans and set out to make music with an attitude of open-minded
experimentation; merging shades of anything between and beyond indie rock and
ambient. ”Our sound has evolved quite naturally. We never rejected any idea
off-hand just because it didn’t fit some preconception of how Rubik should
sound”, Samuli Pöyhönen says.

{mosimage}With years
of gigging and an EP release under their belt, last summer Rubik sought the
solitude of a remote coastal villa to record their debut, Bad Conscience Patrol. The end result is an ambitious record that
takes pop melodies as a starting point, and ventures off in any direction it
damn well pleases. The songs take turns soaring and plunging, crawling under
your skin only to gestate and emerge in another burst of raw emotion. This
certainly merits the epithet of ”progressive”, but according to Samuli, Rubik's
cerebral reputation is mostly unintentional: ”we're not trying to be difficult
or strange. Fundamentally it's pop music, just a little disjointed.”

As for the
hype, the band pays no heed to it: ”we're not the ones creating it, so why
should we fret over it”, remarks Samuli. ”Of course we're excited over the
prospect of going abroad. We're working on it, but it all depends on whether
there's real interest in us”, he says with sober minded confidence. Indeed,
Rubik has good reason to be confident. After all, they've put out a debut album
that's quite likely to be one of this year’s hardest hitters.

Categories
Cover story Misc

The line of democracy

The red
line is a symbol of democracy. On the 15th and 16th of
March of 1907, every citizen in Finland aged 24 and over was able to go to the
nearest village to put a red line in the box of their choice on a ballot paper.
It was the first time universal suffrage was enacted in the parliamentary
elections and was also the first time in Europe that women were given an
unrestricted right to vote.

In 1909, writer Ilmari Kianto dramatized these events in his social
drama Punainen Viiva (The Red Line). The novel became one of
the main stories in Finnish culture. In 1978, Aulis Sallinen premiered an opera
of two acts based upon it and became a great success in Helsinki, Savonlinna,
Stockholm, Saint Petersbourg, London and New York. It remained as one of the
greatest contemporary Finnish operas marking a period of opera renaissance in Finland.
At the time of its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, in
1983, critic Donal Henahan wrote for the New
York Times: “To
be quick about it, Aulis Sallinen's The
Red Line is the best new opera I have heard in many a year.”{mosimage}

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of those first universal elections
and the Finnish Parliament, the Finnish National Opera just premiered a new
production of The Red Line, directed
by Pekka Milonoff and conducted by Mikko Franck.

As Kianto’s novel, the libretto of The
Red Line tell about Topi, a poor crofter that lives with his wife Riika and
his children in the bleak north Finnish backwoods. They are beset by a marauding bear
and oppressed by an indifferent society. An agitator whips up support for
social democracy by telling people that if they draw a red line on a ballot
paper, they will be free from oppressed misery. But it is a promise that will
not happen and the bear will return.

Director
Pekka Milonoff describes the story as having relevance even today: “Rapid
changes, globalization, decision-making moving ever further away from the
people: all these things erode our belief in an individual being able to make a
difference.” Aulis Sallinen too does not think the opera is outdated: “Free
elections, self-evident here, are anything but self-evident in many places in
the world today. One of the main themes of the opera is the manipulating of
human minds. There are several spheres of power involved, vying for control
over the souls of men.”

{mosimage}Touching music

Without
sounding derivative, the music of Punainen
Viiva combines different styles. The orchestra during these performances
will be conducted by Mikko Franck. It will be his final production as general
music director of the Finnish National Opera after he recently resigned due to
differences of opinion within the management. Franck, who is only 27, was the
youngest conductor appointed to that position. As a matter of fact, he was not
even born when Sallinen premiered this opera for the very first time.

“The last
scene is very touching”, admits Franck about The Red Line. “When that last scene comes, one wonders how this
tough guy can conduct the orchestra without crying.

As in 1978,
the main role of Topi will be played by Jorma Hynninen. He is one of the
greatest baritone singers in Finland. During the 1980s and ‘90s he made guest
appearances at many of the world’s esteemed opera houses, including the
Metropolitan in New York. Hynninen admits that, “It feels good to be in the
same role as it brings lots of memories.” However, he sees this new production
like a different approach to the story: “Different directors have different
ways and Pekka includes more happy and relaxed moments.”

Categories
Cover story Misc

Cartes Flux vol 2

From 17th to 24th of April, Tapiola, Espoo.

{mosimage} 

 

Categories
Art Exhibitions

Sleeping beauty and other stories

There couldn’t be better words to describe
the pictures in the Sleeping Beauty
section of Jaana Partanen’s exhibition Arjen alkemiaa (Everyday Alchemy)
currently at the Finnish
Museum of Photography. A
bunch of old ladies framed in silver, against a silver background, are holding
glasses of wine or laundry baskets and leaning against a rollaattori– this very
Finnish ‘institution’ for old age – smiling and laughing or playing with a lot
of arms and a lot of hearts The silver backgrounds and frames turn the ladies
into goddesses of the third-age: but oh, so wonderfully ordinary. Looking at
these pictures you just can’t help thinking that beauty is not just a matter of
being young!

Sleeping beauty, the Real Princess and
Cinderella is the title of the trilogy Partanen had been working on since
2001 and finished just before this exhibition: now it is being shown for the
first time.

{mosimage}If Sleeping Beauty deals with old
age, then the Real Princess investigates, in a touching and unconventional
way, the relationship between mothers and teenage daughters. In the photographs
taken underwater – and the accompanying video – the dance-like quality of the
movements of the mothers and daughters graphically describes the difficulties
mothers experience in letting their daughters go; and the conflicting attitudes
of the daughters: ready to state their independence and yet still in need of
their mothers’ hugs.

Fatherhood, family life and birth are
investigated in the section of the exhibition called Cinderella. Here the
focus also seems to be on fathers and the active role they are increasingly
taking in the family. In Partanen’s works, family life is made up of close relationships
and moments so precious – even if it is just washing dishes – that they deserve
gilded backgrounds.

The trilogy also includes three video works (Once Again, Crystal City
and Bubbles) which deal with
issues of deconstruction and rebuilding. Visitors can make a contribution to
the issue: an installation, right at the entrance of the exhibition area,
allows them to move simple gilded forms, thus changing and reshaping them into
new landscapes.

Everyday
Alchemy will be on display until the 5th of May. A
visit is highly recommended.

Jaana Partanen – Arjen alkemiaa (Everyday
Alchemy)
Finnish Museum of Photography – Cable Factory, Tallberginkatu 1 G Helsinki

Categories
Features Music

Young people rap for children’s rights

The
competition is open until 23rd of April and the lyrics of the entries may be
written from young people’s personal or global perspective in Finnish, English
or Swedish. The competition entries can
be solo or group acts. The candidates must be under 18 years old. In group acts, half of the
members can be from 18 to 23 years old. The songs may include samples and loops
that can be downloaded from the competition website.

{mosimage}The
jury includes well-known Finnish artists such as Paleface and Redrama among
others. The chairman of the jury,
DJ Mobster, encourages entrants to do what comes naturally and from the heart. “The most important thing
is to do what feels right.” The winners will have the chance to record their entry and the best lyrics in the
competition will be compiled in a book.

The
competition is modelled after the Tundu Dior musical project in Senegal. The 12-year-old Aminata,
who is in the Tundu Dior competition, wants to express through music her hopes
that there will be fewer
wars and that all children will be able to go to school, because
children are the future of the land.

More
information and instruction on how to enter at the competition website: www.turpaauki.fi