February 2004
- Features:
1) Finns bag awards and a multitude of deals at Midem
2) Finnish beats and percussion at by:larm
- Business news
- Live news
- Behind the Scenes / Behind the Numbers
Success for Finnish companies at Midem 2004
Success emanated from the Music Export Finland stand at Midem 2004. The 50+ participants were greatly satisfied with the outcome of the event which proved to be another victory for the Finnish music industry. Finnish companies gained licences for films, signed distribution deals and negotiated new remixes among others, and the classical music hothouse ONDINE, celebrating their 20th Anniversary next year, won yet again two awards at the Midem Classical awards including Disc of the Year for their Peteris Vasks album.
Billboard magazine picked Finland as one of the two countries on the steepest rise in the international music market. And indeed, people flocked to the infamous Finnish Black Monday Party by at least a 400-strong crowd. A report and images on the Finnish Midem 2004 participation here>>>.
Finnish beats on show at by:larm in Bergen
All the beat enthusiasts should be on the lookout for Redrama - dubbed as the hottest hip-hop act to come out of Scandinavia performing at Bergens by:larm festival on
at 00:30am. This musical genius combines dazzling visuals with electronic sounds and vocals in his intense performance.
**********
BUSINESS
EXOGENIC universe expands with a new sub-label TERRA RECORDINGS. Compared to the exotic electronica of the Exogenic and Breaks labels, Terra Recordings releases - as the name implies - down to earth music whose first signing is lounge pop act LAU. On a further note, Exogenics Haltya release their second album Electronic Help Elves as a follow up to the hugely successful psy-trance classic Forest Flavour. This new album encompasses influences from jazz, folk songs and funk and is a state of the art psy-trance set to grab your attention immediately.
ROCKADILLO presented new album Pan by Finland’s leading electronica and nu-jazz act RinneRadio at Midem 2004. The album features the band that performed recently at Amsterdam Dance Event plus some surprise guests including young classical virtuoso Pekka Kuusisto on electric violin. Pan will be out in Finland on February 18th and the band will party it with a special record release show at Tavastia club in Helsinki on 21st February.
STUPIDOS garage rockin and country-punkin Boomhauer will have their Wild Human Condition album released in Germany in March by Tug Records. The label will also release STUPIDOS cult classic Eläkeläiset DVD as well as the Kumikameli CD Kinahmo. Boomhauer will support their album release with a February tour in Germany. Tour dates>>>
Update: STUPIDOS 15 year celebration at Tavastia & Semifinal (Sat 13th March) will succumb to the music of Boy Novice, Boomhauer, Hypnomen, Giant Robot, Kumikameli, Rollstons, Treeball and Duplo, the finest bands from the label.
********
LIVE
HIM tours extensively in Europe during the spring. Besides their stronghold Germany, HIM’s headlining concerts have spanned to Southern Europe and the UK where their single cut Funeral of Hearts has climbed into the Top 20. Tour dates>>>
The crew changes undergone by Stratovarius have made the metal enthusiasts’ tongues wag. Their gig in Pinos Puente, Spain at the end of February kicks off their last ten sets featuring the old line-up with lead vocalist Timo Kotipelto. Tour dates>>>
Värttinä starts touring Europe on March 2nd winged by their commission to co-score the forthcoming Lord of the Rings musical in London´s West End. The busiest tour of Värttinä‘s career contains seventeen concerts over twenty days and includes Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia and Switzerland. Tour dates>>>
*****
Behind the scenes: One of Finlands most succesful bands internationally, love metal group HIM, had barely recovered from their annual New Years Eve show at Helsinkis Tavastia club, when rock mag Kerrang voted lead singer Ville Valo as the worlds number one sex symbol. After Valo has wooed Europeans yet again on HIM’s current tour, he is likely to take his dark charms to the US with Razorblade Romance. 
Behind the numbers: We yelled “Finngalore!” last month, but its time for a repeat: Overall sales stats for 2003 are out, and it seems Finns just couldnt get enough of their local artists last year. Sales value of Finnish repertoire recordings was up by almost 11% from the previous year, which helped improve overall sales value by more than 2% after 2002’s dip - even though international recordings sales value continued to fall. Finnish musics share of overall sales went up to 56% in units and 54% in value. Sales stats>>>