November 6th, 2011

Bartók

What a composer!
I went out to the new Music center in Helsinki to listen to this masterpiece: 'Concerto for orchestra'.
The hall was great, the orchestra played very well, but the piece is what is really just beyond qualification: such brilliant ideas of orchestration and sounds, such curious, beautiful melodies, harmonies....

Going back to my shed tomorrow to finally start completing the trombone concerto will be with a different shade of inspiration.

So much fantastic music has been composed and played. The only reason to add more to it is, that nobody, for the better or worse of it, has been me before.
This is really the only and best thing I can contribute that nobody else ever can do instead of me: being completely myself, with my set of ears, my life of experiences, my preferences.

Now, how do I put this in music?



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October 27th, 2011

Before you know it ...

... and another two months have gone by.

So much has happened. Where to start?
Well, Saara's new film in production is what comes to mind first. The score is ready. Recording in November. We got a great set of musicians.
I visited the shooting set a couple of times, which was great fun. Beautiful pictures, great story, good acting.
Look out for the premiere of 'Stars above' in March 2012.




In the meantime, I'm back in the shed...
I love that phrase!
But also the reality of it: sitting there in my little study, a couple of hours each day putting little dots on lined paper. What a job!
Finally it's the bandoneon concerto's turn; the first ten minutes are about ready, twenty more to go.

Fall has come, leaves are falling, it's getting chillier.
Life is happening, dependable as always!



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August 26th, 2011

The next step

In my latest recording ONE there is this section where I'm talking gibberish: non-existing words with no meaning attached.
Suddenly I hear myself saying 'The Next Step', and really the mood of the music is changing the same instant. As it was all improvised there was no plan to create this moment, it's a coincidence, a meaningful one as such, it seems - synchronicity. It's perfect! Don't change a thing!

This is the great thing about improvisation: with open ears and an open mind anything can happen.

In Berlin I heard a great concert, a few weeks ago. Just like that:
free, open and happening. Fantastic was also the setting in some concrete cellar, accessible only through a pitchdark backyard.
Berlin underground at its best!

This fellow here, we saw in the Berlin Zoo,



underwater for twenty minutes at a time, taking it easy, no hurry anywhere, just waiting for the next good moment to catch a breath.

What's your next step?

Mine will be, in a larger sense, the Viapori Jazz Festival tomorrow.
On a more basic level we gotta go to the shop, now.



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June 23rd, 2011

Midsummer

Time flies when you're having fun.
A lot is happening and ideas become projects, crystallizing day by day.
Even turning 50 doesn't put a dent into that.
One of the highlights recently was the first rehearsal of my new guitar-string quartet piece 'Frizzle, Sizzle, Dazzle'.
Ah, what a joy to hear great musicians play one's music!
Come and listen at the Viapori Jazz Festival!

A new film score is up next, then the bandoneon concerto.

In the meantime the Temppeliaukio Church has been renovated and I can finally return to my weekly improvisation concerts, starting on Midsummer Day next Saturday.
How I missed that Steinway!

The great small country of Finland is back on track, politically speaking, with even good perspectives for development in the cultural sector on top of it all. Who would have thought after those last elections?




Now back to the business of summer holidaying interspersed with a few nice concerts here and there.
Otherwise this is the time to lean back and let the unconsious brood over those new ideas, let it work its magic.



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May 2nd, 2011

Light

I took a walk by the sea, the other day. Rain and shine taking turns.
The sun beating winter out of the country, the rain actually helping the cause - hardly any snow left.

Buds on the trees, the reflection of sunlight on the water.




Life is waking up all around.
Everyday's a good day, as the Zen saying goes.



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April 19th, 2011

Thin Ice

I don't know; there's all of a sudden a strange sensation ...; as if walking on thin ice.
You live in a country for half your life, learned the language, contribute to society with all your creativity and strength, nobody seems to look at you with any less than respect.
And yet: as of the elections yesterday you feel as if there's an arrow above your head, pointing at you, with the inscription D.I.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show: D.I. Sid Hille!
(Roberto Benigni in Down by law says: But I hem-a good 'egg.)

I may be a good egg, but according to the poll winners (19%) I may be considered as just another 'damn immigrant'.
Am I over-sensitive?

I don't know. There's just this wobbly feeling, when the party talks of prohibiting 'post-modern fake art', and a former body-builder (13 000 votes) announces herself ready for the post of cultural minister ('...having experience in the field...').

I don't know.
They say a big ship like a country won't be turned around in a minute, but in four years you can create a lot of havock.

I don't know....



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March 27th, 2011

Winter

I feel that ice is slowly melting....





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March 4th, 2011

Return flight

Nothing beats recording, especially when one is playing with great musicians, that are old friends on top of all.
A quick two day visit in Zurich proved this to be true, again.
'We're rolling...', and the concentration sinks in. Trusting oneself as much as the others, being in the NOW completely.

Except for another experience of the past two weeks, maybe:
Standing on a frozen lake, in silence together, in the middle of the night, 27 below zero, looking at the stars....

Or, yet another one....
Well, I guess, if you look at it closely enough, life is full of some pretty amazing stuff. You just have to notice it!





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Jan 24th, 2011

Pluckin'

Mixing ONE is finished, all set to go into pressing! Exciting, after 12 CD's, to produce a vinyl LP again.

For the friends of digital media out there, though: not all is lost!
A 5.1-surround version will be published as bonus material to a documentary film about the 'Birth of ONE'.
Video artist Pia Antikainen has followed the development of this project with her camera for the past three months and will turn it into a film by the end of 2011.

In the meantime, I'm back in the shed, writing for guitar and string quartet.





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Jan 15th, 2011

ONE

This was the third and last recording day for the new solo project.
18 microphones, some of them custom built, were pointed at the piano from various points and angles to allow for a variety of sounds and spaces, to be determined during mixing later on.



Improvisation is and remains a mystery to me, even though I've done it all my life.
Where does that stuff come from?
Ok, there is some vague sense of direction, some feel or atmosphere one is aiming at. But the thrill is to take risks, go astray, listen and follow where ever the music seems to lead to.

I call it 'following my inner ear'. I start out playing a note, and on hearing it, my musical imagination gets triggered and offers ways to continue, out of which one gets played, which in its turn again triggers the next set of possibilities.
All of these choices, decisions and actions taken within split seconds - for as long as the particular improvisation lasts, sometimes 7 minutes.
It's amazing!

Here's a little video from this session.
I can't wait to hear it mixed on vinyl and look at the record sleeve in my hands while I listen. Just like I used to...



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Dec 5th, 2010

Free

Just got back from a day in the studio recording my new solo project ONE, an all improvised multi-instrumental soundscape.
As the word 'solo' indicates I'm playing all instruments myself.

It'll be released as an LP, two sides of 20 minutes continuous stream each. Forget about commercial potential, man!

This was FUN.
I felt like a kid in a toy shop: bowls, flutes, autoharp, voice etc, and of course the piano and the Rhodes.
More recording to follow in January.




So, get your turntables down from the attic and get ready for some serious analog sound. It'll be out by May 2011.
In the meantime here's a meagre compressed mp3-sample to give you the faintest of a taste.



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Nov 21st, 2010

Out there

As a free artist, a free bird ready to be shot down at any time by the mysterious whims (so-called laws) of  the liberal market, I'm certainly not going to complain about a lot of work.
But....
Last week was taking to a stretch even my flexibility:
starting off on Monday at 9 am conducting a bigband concert, putting on my accompanist's hat for a concert on Tuesday,
playing my regular solo piano recital on Wednesday,
on Thursday rehearsals with the Proton String Quartet,
on Friday conducting a new aquaintance, Metropolia Bigband, and crowning it on Saturday with a children's concert in the afternoon and the first performance of my second string quartet in the evening.

For the last one I 'only' had to be there, I didn't even play.
But, oh, that lovely feeling when the muscles finally relax after the concert. I hadn't even realized how tense I was...

And then, today, just out there in the snow with the kids.
The best!

Trouble is - the composer in me says: I haven't done a thing all week, not a single note, man!

Try and get a grip on that!



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Oct 28th, 2010

Scores

Back in the shed, actually a nice little studio, about to finish the first movement. Sometimes this slow process of putting tiny dots on a big empty page can be rather aggravating.

But all the while, the piece-to-be already sounds in my mind's ear. At times I find myself bursting out with laughter in anticipation of the joy hearing it played for real, one day.

But, the moments of doubt are just around the bend:
is this all complete nonsense?
Does anybody want to listen to this kind of stuff?

The point is to keep writing anyway!




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Oct 17th, 2010

Underbrush

Fall, being out in the woods, it's around freezing point even though the sun is shining - life is great.
After weeks of solitary confinement in the study room working on the trombone concerto, the physical effort of pulling underbrush and tree trunks out of a forest works like medicine.

After piling it all up on the shore down by the lake,  the magical campfire awakens the old shaman inside.

Thinking about the woodsmen of the olden days and the mystics out there somewhere at any time I turn in,  in a nicely heated cabin and have a good night's sleep.


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Sept 1st, 2010

Being there

I love being in new places, especially if they happen to be in Italy:
summer, sunshine, ah: the food, and how about a dip in the
Mediterranean Sea? Climb some cliffs, go on strolls: right or left here? Aw, who cares? The fun of getting lost - as long as your back in time for soundcheck....
Man, what more can anybody ask for?!




And then you realize: I miss my family!
Frantically you start taking pictures, videos, record the sound of the crickets, wrap it all into an MMS - but it's not the same!
I wish you guys were here!


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Aug 17th, 2010