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!