Finnish Old School

Oh my. Sorry for the longer break. Went to Finland. So now it's going to be some Finnish old school music post and very awesome songs! All these people were big stars long ago, around 50's 60's in Finland. And they are still great because they have style and glamour in them!

Pirkko Mannola is a very famous Finnish iskelmälaulaja, singer that sings hit songs, also an actress and she won the title of Miss Finland in 1958. She became also the second in the competition tv format Dancing with the stars in 2009 in Finland. She can sing in many languages and sung also Finnish versions of international hits. Some of my favorites are the following songs:

Pirkko Mannola - Tytön tie (1961)

Pirkko Mannola - Oi mitkä tunteet (So soviel liebe)

And very famous cover from "Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini" - "Pikku pikku bikinissä"

original was done by Brian Hyland.

One song from Helena Siltala - "Ranskalaiset korot"

Laila Kinnunen (1939-2000) was very famous hit singer from the 50's and 60's. Here's some my faves.

Laila Kinnunen - "Kellä kulta sillä onni"(Everybody loves a lover)

Kinnunen made also a cover of "Bei mir bist du schön" but I like more the cover of Arvi Tikkala (1906-1940) from that song. He was in the 1930's the forth most records published hit singer artist in Finland. He was also an actor. His career ended because he had to go to the Winter war against The Soviet Union (30.11.1939-13.3.1940) as so many other Finns at that time. And he died in the battle field just 10 days before the war ended at the age of 33.

Arvi Tikkala - "Sä kaunehin oot"

Harmony Sisters was the first ever hit song group in Finland in the mid 1930's. It was a group of three sisters Vera, Maire and Raija Valtonen. From the "living archive" of Yleisradio you can listen some of the great songs from them: "Sataman valot", "O Josef Josef", "Kodin Kynttilät", "Sulle salaisuuden kertoa mä voisin" and "Kielon jäähyväiset"

http://yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=8&ag=94&t=212&a=2713 

And very nice video (in Finnish) where they told how they met their composer George de Godzinsky in a elevetor in Viipuri.

http://yle.fi/elavaarkisto/?s=s&g=8&ag=94&t=212&a=150

Harmony Sisters - "Lumikki" (Snow white) 1938

and cover of "Whistle while you work" - "Laulaen työtäs tee"

Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924) was a very famous and is still famous composer and musician in Finland. One of the dearest songs, at least most well known for many Finns is "Kesäillan valssi". I listened to this when I was really small when one of my relatives used to play this to me on piano.

Check also another blog with some posts (In Finnish) about old Finnish songs http://tahtipuikko.blogspot.com/2010/01/suomi-arkiston-aarteita-vol-3.html

Hyvää yötä!

Ben Frost - Haunting sound

Iceland Dance Company: Transaquania: Into Thin Air

The music for this video is done by Ben Frost and Valdimar Jóhansson.

Ben Frost is Australian musician, composer and producer. He lives in Reykjavik, Iceland. He has released: "Music for sad children" 2001, "Steel wound" 2003, "School of emotional engineering: Self titled" 2005, "Theory of Machines" 2007 and "By the throat" 2009. I found him because of this dance video clip. I just found him so I don't know yet a lot from his work, but it's awesome!

Said about his work:

"...it’s compelling, mystifying, disturbing, and beautiful... When the record ends, you’ll wonder where you are, how much time has passed, and whether you ever want to feel this way again." -The Agit Reader"

"Stomp"

"Understanding why it hurts"

"Invisibles"

Go to check and search more about him and his songs:

http://www.ethermachines.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Frost_(musician)

http://www.myspace.com/theghostofbenfrost

Some words about him at his homepage:

"Boomkat named Frost "one of the most interesting and groundbreaking producers in the world today" and even went so far as to call Theory of Machines "the future of electronic music" "

What other press has said about him: http://www.ethermachines.com/press.htm

From Valdimar Jóhansson I was only able to find this: http://www.myspace.com/vj76music

Susanne Sundfør

I found something amazingly beautiful, haunting and touching. I haven't heard anything like this for a very very long time. It's bit like, no I don't start to compare. She has some of the most amazing and captivating voice I have ever heard. After three songs I ordered two her latest albums and this has happened only with Wende Snijders before. She's from Norway, she's 25 years old, she likes a-ha and Cat Stevens, she has released three albums and she's coming to play a concert in Rotterdam - De Unie Saturday 26th November 21:00, tickets 10 euros.

She's Susanne Sundfør.

This is what the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet said about her: "Så bra at andre norske artister kommer til å begynne å grine." So good that the other Norwegian artists are going to start crying.

Her released albums are: The debut album "Susanne Sundfør" 2007, "Take One" 2008 and "The Brothel" 2010. The first song I listened was by accident the "Mitt Lille Land" in the memorial concert for the victims of the massacre in Oslo.

And then I listened "Black Widow"

And third "Father Father"

After these three songs I knew enough. When I hear something this beautiful I'm just mesmerized by the strenght of the voice and sound.

"The Brothel"

Check more of here songs: Especially "O Master", "Interlude", "I Resign", "The Dance", "Knight of Noir", "Lullaby", "It's all gone tomorrow" and "As I walked out one"

To listen more from Susanne Sundfoer check these links:

http://www.myspace.com/susannesundfoer

http://www.susannesundfor.com

http://soundcloud.com/susannesundfor

And buy your tickets to her concert in Rotterdam here:

http://www.deunie.nu/agenda/26112011_SusanneSondfor.php

Headphones, players..Jump in the line! Small word about calypso.

I just ordered my new mp4 player! It will arrive in five days, jes! An this time I'll have enough space, 8 gigabytes! I think this will be like my fourth mp3 player, all others I have crashed while training or well washing in the washing machine! Headphones I have also crashed at least 4 times, should still get good headphones, if somebody knows good ones that are light please tell me. I had Koss Portapro, and maybe will buy the same again.

I first came across with calypso when I bought a calypso LP full of names like Lord Melody, King Rudolph, The Lion and Lord Kitchener. Calypso comes from Trinidad and Tobago. And as the dear wikipedia tells us the first official calypso song was recorded 1912 by Lovey's String Band. Calypso came from the earlier kaiso -music.

The calypso lyrics were very often very political and talking about the corruption. There were people also dumping the censored calypso plates to the sea. Some of the most known calypso singers were: Attila the Hun, Roaring Lion, Lord Invader and Lord Kitchener. A song "Rum and coca-cola" from Lord Invader came well known because it's cover by The Andrew Sisters in 1944.

And a remix version of the Andrew Sisters version with a great video:

Later on Harry Belafonte made calypso more known, but with more commercial style.

"Jump in the line"

About vinyls, 80's and Burial vs Massive attack

80's was the time for stadion rock, long strange hair, colorful clothes and hair, weird sunglasses, spandex, just google picture Cyndi Lauper or The Scorpions and you get the picture!

When I was small, my father always played lps in the weekend, this is how I got to know lot of classics like; Bruce Springsteen: "Streets of Philadelphia", Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams: "Heaven", Cher, Eric Clapton: "Tears in heaven", "Layla". I listened a lot one Clapton collection cd when I was a kid. Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics: "Sweet dreams", Maxi Priest: "Wild World". Almost all the music videos from the 80's full of synths and some quite strange music videos as also Men at work: 

"Down under".

Stevie Wonder, Jackson Five, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Santana, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, has some cool songs, one is "Voodoo child" and "All along the watchtower", The Police, Queen, Roxette, Simple Minds: "Dont you (forget about me)" Phil Collins: "Another day in paradise" that's very beautiful song. Most of the songs I only know by the tune, they are these songs that you have heard million times, but don't remember the names.

"Don't you (forget about me)"

One very great musician was John Lennon. I listened a lot the  "The very best of John Lennon" when I was around 14 something. "Power to the people", "Stand by me", "Happy Xmas (War is over)", "Beautiful Boy", "Nobody told me" are some of the songs that struck to me, but up to this day the next song is some of the most beautiful songs ever written.

"Imagine" 

Kool and the Gang, Foreigner, Toto: "Africa", Madonna: "Like a prayer", U2: "With or without you", "One", "Sweetest thing" that has a quite great music video worth of checking, "Where the streets have no name" also worth checking the music video. But here:

"Pride"

And I heard also lot of classical. I got to listen lot of music when I was small and I'm grateful to have had all that music in the breakfast, Saturdays and when vacuum hoovering. Lately I have also started to buy some old lp's and have found some great ones like Kraftwerk, Stevie Wonder, Ennie Morricone and an awesome Calypso song collection! Check Lord Kitchener.

How all this comes to Massive Attack and Burial? They have made collaboration "Four Walls/Paradise circus" and it will be released on LP on 17th October with a great lp-cover that is designed by Robert Del Naja from Massive attack.

There are some big talks over which one is better in music quality, cd's or lp's, but what I think LP:s are cool to play at home, but cds are just simply handier to have around, or then in mp3's. What I find great with LPs is the artwork that comes with it, and also that you can just buy something because it looks interesting, what you wouldn't do with cds. The LP of Burial and Massive attack will be done at Vinyl Factory in England. Here you can also see how they manufacture the LPs:

Check also their homepage: http://thevinylfactory.com/
And here you can listen the song:

"Four Walls"

I think I'll order the LP.

Moments to stop

Sometimes there's a moment to stop. There are lot of different kind of stops, stopping before the traffic, bus stop, stop by somebody, stopping the school, stopping the climate change, stopping the video, police stopping you, stopped by a stranger and stopping the time. List is endless, you stop because of something that is coming from the outside. You stop to wait for something. You stop to feel something. There are small and big stops, stops that you have to make yourself or being stopped by others. I think people should stop more often. This video and song stopped me today.

Tropics: "Soft vision"

http://soundcloud.com/tropics

Austra and A beautiful cover

Austra is great Canadian band, the front woman of the band is Katie Stelmanis and the other bandmates Maya Postepski and Dorian Wolf . Austra released it's debut album "Feel it break" May 2011 on Domino Records. Feel it break is great album. Check it out! Some songs that caught my attention are: "Lose it", "Beat and the pulse", "The noise" and "The Beast". They have also made a beautiful cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying". You can read a nice interview of Stelmanis here http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/austra/

You can find more about Austra here: http://www.austramusic.com/

And listen here: http://www.myspace.com/austra

"Lose it"

"Beat and the pulse"

Roy Orbison: "Crying"

and Austra version "Crying"

And the best Austra is coming to Netherlands 6th Amsterdam and 7th December Rotterdam!

Be there! Get your tickets here: http://www.rotown.nl/07-12-2011/austra It's only 11 euros!

Light and sound and some thinkwork

In a city there's light everywhere. Sometimes it's dim, in a dark street corner, yellow light from the light pole. A broken fluorescent light that flickers before it goes totally dark. The way too bright light in the city trains, that shows how tired all the people are in the evening when coming from work. The light in the stores, that leaves no shadow behind.

For this post I want to talk about sound and light. Because the artists that I'm going to talk about use light or sound in an exceptional way. But before that we have to go down to the very basics of sound and what it is.
This is taken from Wikipedia: ( ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, archived from the original on June 25, 2008, retrieved May 20, 2010 )  Shortly, but clear;

"Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations."

Copyright: Roosa Hämäläinen

And what is light? Some scientists have found now also that some neutrinos have possibly moved even faster than the speed of light! That is something and if it's true it will turn everything in to a new order. Here's a link to the news: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/110923-neutrinos-speed-of-light-particles-cern-physics-einstein-science/ Also from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light ):

"Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz. Inphysics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.

Primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarisation, while its speed in a vacuum, 299,792,458 meters per second (about 300,000 kilometers per second), is one of the fundamental constants of nature.

Light, which is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics."

Copyright: Roosa Hämäläinen

So light can move in a vacuum, so not needing any substance to move in.

Sound needs something to move in.

So now, when we know bit more I want to present you Finnbogi Petursson, he's Icelandic sound/installation artist. He has created many pieces with interesting search what kind of patterns different sound wavelengths give and how the sound can feel in space. Listen these with headphones on.

"Deep 2010"

"Pendulum 1993"

"Circular Cubes 2002"

You can check more of his work here: http://www.finnbogi.com

Finnbogi Petursson will be performing in Rewire festival in Den Haag 4-5.11

Optical Machines creates soundscapes with amazing visuals. They are a Dutch duo: Rikkert Brok and Maarten Halmans. They create the sound and the visuals on the spot so you can actually see how it all works. They have amazing video online that you have to listen with headphones on and from a big screen!

Optical machines: [SHIFT]

You can find more info about the duo here: http://www.opticalmachines.nl

Optical Machines will be performing in Rewire festival in Den Haag 4-5.11

And still something very awesome. I have never seen it live but this video tells a lot. Watch also headphones on and from a big screen. It is a 3D projection, put that in youtube search or "3D projection on building" and you'll find out more.

"The LightLine of Gotham"

The LightLine of Gotham from seeper on Vimeo.

Seeper is an arts and technology collective. Check also the Vimeo channel of Seeper to find out more cool stuff http://vimeo.com/seeper

And some think work for everybody. Both links from Wikipedia:

Fibonacci number. Which explains everything in the nature:

"They also appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

Golden ratio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Flower of life, found also everywhere around the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_life

One thing that explains everything? Isn't it a beautiful idea?

Shake it out

New song and the music video from Florence's new album "Ceremonials". When I see this video I get flashbacks from X-files and Dana Scully. Watched all the seasons when I was at primary school and secondary school and I am still X-files fan. It's quite a look a like or maybe it's just the red hair. Well if Gillian Anderson would be a a great musician then maybe! If you don't yet know which is which make a guess and watch the video!

 "Shake it out"

One song, one video. Finnbogi Petursson

I did a lot research this morning. Got loads of new names, interesting projects and one awesome festival.

Later more about it and more names. Now some great artist from Iceland. Listen his music with headphones or if you have good speakers in the middle of the speakers and really loud. You will feel it.

This is why I would move to Iceland.

Finnbogi Petursson: "Arnarstapi"

Later more about this guy. great.

Sencity - see, smell, taste, feel

I visited for the first time couple weeks ago in the Sencity-Rotterdam. Sencity is an amazing party organized for the deaf people, but also for the hearing. They arrange Sencity parties all around world and this time it was in Maassilo, Rotterdam. The atmopshere of the party was amazing, you had sense floor which vibrated along with the music so you could actually feel the music trough your whole body. Because when you are deaf you can feel the bassline of the songs, so the music was nice loud for the whole evening! The sense floor was changing all the colour also! After dancing on this floor you felt super light on the normal floor.

Aromajockey, what it is? It is a dj that is sending different aromas on the dance floor. They use two big fans for bringing the smells, mostly they burn the scents on a plate and then move it around the fans. So once in a while you could smell really nice eucalyptus or other nice things. Here's a picture of the Aromajockey

And if you want to know more about aroma jockeys watch a small clip about Odo7.

And there was also great visuals everywhere. There were also food jockeys! You could also get a haircut, massage, braids or make up for free until 01.00 clock! But better be early in the queue! Got a really nice make up there! Thanks guys!

And then there were sign language dancers so you had the vocalist and next to them dancing and signing the songs a singlanguage dancer! It is actually really interesting to watch when people are signing fast. Especially the Finnish Signmark and Brandon. Brandon was doing the singing and Signmark is the signlanguage rapper. He had some of the most amazing energy on the stage. Signmark: "Speakerbox"

It was amazing to see the whole hall doing the sign language at the same time with Signmark with the song "Smells like victory". You can check more info from here: http://www.signmark.biz/site/

With Sencity it was great to see how different aged people there was. The party had really great energy! In the end Daniel Haaksman from Man Recordings came spin some great plates with MC Gnucci Banana.  Check the earlier post for Gnucci Banana!

Daniel Haaksman: "Pobum Coco"

Daniel Haaksman: "Dubcheck ft. Shantel & Boban Marco Orchestra"

Daniel Haaksman: "Who's Afraid Of Rio?"

He will be playing at REWIRE festival in Den Haag with some other great artists:
http://www.rewirefestival.nl/programma/artiesten/

Would looove to go there, but will be in Finland but if someone goes, let the blog know how it was! Going to go next year definitely! But Sencity, it was some of the most amazing party I've ever been to. The next Sencity will be in London.

From their homepage you can check all the coming up Sencitys: http://www.your-sencity.com/

Two videos, one song.

Here a beautiful song from Rebekka Karijord: "Wear it like a crown"

And the trailer of Cirkus Cirkör performance: Wear it like a crown