May 2005
- Features:
* Finns @ Sónar Festival, June 16th-18th
* Finnish Music Days In Tokyo, May 12th-14th
- Business
- Live News
- Behind the Numbers / Behind the Scenes
FONAL LABEL SHOWCASE AND A SQUAD OF FINNISH COMPANIES CALL ON AT SÓNAR FESTIVAL
This year’s Sónar Festival June 16th-18th will experience the new generation of Finnish musicians combining a DIY aesthetic with traditional folk forms, liberating theologies of noise and improvisation. FONAL RECORDS showcases sonic-soundscape creators Es, Kemialliset Ystävät and Islaja. Performing on Saturday 18th at SónarComplex, these artists have already attracted interest and amazement in electronic music circles world-wide:
“Their childlike avoidance of musical conventions often makes their music resemble the bold, iconoclastic and sometimes psychotic products of outsider art - The Wire, Dec 2004.
The Finnish brigade at Sonar includes cutting-edge electronic and nu-jazz labels, plus the organizers of the much-admired Koneisto Festival.
More info on the showcases and Finnish delegates here>>>
FINNISH MUSIC DAYS IN TOKYO DRAW NEAR
The invasion of Japan by Finnish professionals is drawing near, with Finnish Music Days In Tokyo launching on Thursday, May 12th with a metal showcase at Liquid Room. The following day, May 13th, over 20 top Finnish music companies will introduce their stables of talent in pop, rock, electronic music, world music and metal at a music trade event held at JETRO. On Saturday, May 14th Finnish rock will take centre stage at Shibuya’s Astro Hall.
Finnish Music Days in Tokyo will also pilot the new Hewlett-Packard implementation of Movial Push-to-Video. This combines mobile presence with instant video & text messaging; if we can work this out, you can bug your friends with skype/messenger-type messages wherever and whenever on video!
More info on the Finnish Music Days In Tokyo here>>>
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BUSINESS
The post-grunge renegades Flylow (PAROLE RECORDS) have finished their debut album Bridges at the Alien Studios in Brooklyn. After successful performances in the clubs of New York, the group ended up recording their album there. Together with producers Vincent Cimino and Steve Krucher they have created some moody tracks, with guest appearances by Mark Pender (Max Weinberg 7) and Manny Focarazzo (Alan Parsons Project). Their upcoming tour will take them from Finland to Poland, and then back to USA and UK for the summer. Bridges (out May 11th) will be distributed in Italy, Australia, Greece, Russia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The pioneers of Finnish electronic music have composed a “fictional movie score” born out of an existing film. The Tone of Finland (CRYSTAL EYE) collection is inspired by the soundtrack of Ilppo Pohjola’s gay classic Tom of Finland - Daddy and the Muscle Academy, and features artists like Jimi Tenor, DJ Slow, DJ Bunuel, Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, RinneRadio and Giant Robot. The double CD will be released May 18th and will also be available in a Limited Leatherbound Edition.
The internationally acclaimed video director Antti Jokinen is to direct the new Anastacia video. Everything Burns will be shot in Los Angeles and is to be included in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Antti Jokinen has hammered out an impressive career as a blacksmith of music videos, working with the likes of Eminem, Celine Dion, Nightwish, Apocalyptica and Korn.
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LIVE
The soft and sweet Husky Rescue (CATSKILLS RECORDS) are in the middle of their UK tour stretching from May 1st to June 26th. Warm-up dates for Morcheeba aside, the band will play headlining gigs in England and Ireland, including an appearance at the gigantic Glastonbury Festival. Tour info>>>
With nearly fifty winter and spring gigs in Europe and North America behind them, cello metal trio Apocalyptica (UNIVERSAL GERMANY) continue touring with no signs of slowing the pace. Their current schedule, starting May 16th, includes dates in 17 countries, some in less likely locations such as Latvia, Lithuania and Serbia and Montenegro. Tour info>>>
Finnish groups will form one-third of the programme at the Rabarock Festival, to be staged in Järvakandi, Estonia, June 10th11th. At a convenient 80 km from the capital Tallinn, Rabarock aims to attract the largest festival audience in Estonia, by featuring 22-Pistepirkko (BONE VOYAGE), Eläkeläiset (STUPIDO RECORDS), Boomhauer (STUPIDO RECORDS), Kometa (BV2 PRODUKTIONS) and Extra Virgin.
RinneRadio (ROCKADILLO RECORDS), one of the earliest Finnish fusion bands to mix electronic underground beats with progressive jazz, will make a special guest appearance at the Electronic Herbie concert at the Barbican Centre, London, May 28th. RinneRadio are to share the stage with Herbie Hancock and the Reel People collective, plus Norwegian nujazz outfit Krøyt.
If RinneRadio is in the vanguard of Finnish nujazz, then the Ilmiliekki Quartet (TUM Records) is their counterpart on the acoustic front. This open-minded group of young musicians will be concertizing near London at the Bath International Jazz Festival on May 29th, having just returned from Bergen Nattjazz two days earlier.
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Behind The Scenes: Pop Idol seems to have taught a few tricks to former BMG Finland managing director Niko Nordström and A&R manager Asko Kallonen. The dynamic duo’s new business, Helsinki Music Company, will tour Finland in May looking for new talent in various genres. They have arranged auditions in six cities around Finland. The company hasn’t announced any new signings yet, but Nordström and Kallonen will continue to work with HIM and Samuli Edelmann as they did at BMG Finland. 
Behind The Numbers: Finnish Don Johnson Big Band will play its jazzy hiphop in Beijing, China in May. The group is a strong contender for the most misleading name in music, since there is nothing Miami Vice about it, and the “big band” has only four members. But if the size of a big band matched the population of its home country, that would mean that if Finland, a nation of 5.1 million, has a four-man big band, then China, with a population of about 1.2 billion, should have a big band of 941 musicians.