Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been sort of busy - with music! I've just had four days of wonderful music in a row, namely the Flow festival which is held every August at the location of the old power plant in Suvilahti, in one of the districts of the heart of the city of Helsinki, just next to the city center. Usually the festival lasts three days but this time music began on thursday already, with the concert of the legendary electro pioneers Kraftwerk. From friday to sunday there were dozens of indie rock, folk, electro, soul, jazz etc etc artists; lots of very fresh talent and some old talent too. There were some I missed due to the performances being so late and due to my running out of energy; such as the grand old lady of disco, Grace Jones, or Lily Allen. But a huge amount of fantastic music I did hear.
I don't know if anyone reading my blog is familiar with afrobeat, in particular afrobeat as it was created by Fela Kuti. His youngest son Seun Kuti - now 27 I believe - has now taken up his father's band Egypt 80, and they gave a concert at Flow. I've never listened to Fela Kuti, but seems the word is Seun Kuti is more than up to taking up his position. And I can very well believe that after witnessing the show. This band OWNS rhythm. It's as if they hadn't only got the outer form of rhythm right but actually got under its skin and inhabited it. So powerful, heady, tight, feverish. And Seun Kuti has quite a presence on stage. "Young lion" is a completely ridiculous expression but I'm going to use it of him anyway. If Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 are performing in your town, DO NOT MISS IT.
So many other, absolutely fantastic performances (note, the links are to myspace). I was surprised how much I liked Kraftwerk on thursday. I haven't listened to them much, and only can recognize a few songs like Autobahn, The Robots or Tour de France. They didn't move me the way best rock concerts do (i.e. catharsis) but it was quite an audio-visual feat.
Then I might mention Tuuli Inari, mysterious, fascinating experimental electro (or actually the live set had a bass player and a guitarist too).
Or Le Corps Mince de Francoise, a group of three Finnish girls, whose music really got into the brain and the body and the dancing feet and put the entire audience in a feverish state.
Then again there was Röyhkä and Rättö and Lehtisalo. Kauko Röyhkä is a legend in Finnish rock, and he recently hooked up with two other major Finnish musicians and released a record. They were just brilliant and they ROCKED. The show ended in a tremendous, magnificent fall of feedback/noise. One thing about that is that when you really listen, you notice it's not just noise - there's a huge amount of modulations and levels and tones there.
One act I was really surprised of liking: Eero Johannes, one man electro/dance. It's the sort of music I wouldn't necessarily listen to on a CD, but live I really dug it - hard to say why, sometimes the music just clicks.
The best day was saturday. Sunday was a bit of a disappointment, the performers being more the sort that is good to listen to on a summer day but that doesn't necessarily touch in any deep level. Still, I did enjoy tremendously the jazz of the artists of a Finnish jazz label Ricky-Tic Records, with Five Corners Quintet. Immensely talented, tight playing by the band, and of the solo artists especially trumpetist Jukka Eskola was fantastic.
I'm afraid I presently only have the pictures on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/maria.niku).
One of the absolute highlights was this:
I don't know if anyone reading my blog is familiar with afrobeat, in particular afrobeat as it was created by Fela Kuti. His youngest son Seun Kuti - now 27 I believe - has now taken up his father's band Egypt 80, and they gave a concert at Flow. I've never listened to Fela Kuti, but seems the word is Seun Kuti is more than up to taking up his position. And I can very well believe that after witnessing the show. This band OWNS rhythm. It's as if they hadn't only got the outer form of rhythm right but actually got under its skin and inhabited it. So powerful, heady, tight, feverish. And Seun Kuti has quite a presence on stage. "Young lion" is a completely ridiculous expression but I'm going to use it of him anyway. If Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 are performing in your town, DO NOT MISS IT.
So many other, absolutely fantastic performances (note, the links are to myspace). I was surprised how much I liked Kraftwerk on thursday. I haven't listened to them much, and only can recognize a few songs like Autobahn, The Robots or Tour de France. They didn't move me the way best rock concerts do (i.e. catharsis) but it was quite an audio-visual feat.
Then I might mention Tuuli Inari, mysterious, fascinating experimental electro (or actually the live set had a bass player and a guitarist too).
Or Le Corps Mince de Francoise, a group of three Finnish girls, whose music really got into the brain and the body and the dancing feet and put the entire audience in a feverish state.
Then again there was Röyhkä and Rättö and Lehtisalo. Kauko Röyhkä is a legend in Finnish rock, and he recently hooked up with two other major Finnish musicians and released a record. They were just brilliant and they ROCKED. The show ended in a tremendous, magnificent fall of feedback/noise. One thing about that is that when you really listen, you notice it's not just noise - there's a huge amount of modulations and levels and tones there.
One act I was really surprised of liking: Eero Johannes, one man electro/dance. It's the sort of music I wouldn't necessarily listen to on a CD, but live I really dug it - hard to say why, sometimes the music just clicks.
The best day was saturday. Sunday was a bit of a disappointment, the performers being more the sort that is good to listen to on a summer day but that doesn't necessarily touch in any deep level. Still, I did enjoy tremendously the jazz of the artists of a Finnish jazz label Ricky-Tic Records, with Five Corners Quintet. Immensely talented, tight playing by the band, and of the solo artists especially trumpetist Jukka Eskola was fantastic.
I'm afraid I presently only have the pictures on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/maria.niku).
2 comments:
I have been following your posts over at FB. It sounds like a huge amount of fun, with all the different types of music going on.
I also noticed your sort of 'live' feeds on FB, Maria, but have enjoyed reading your blog about the festival. Sounds like a great gig, and it's often true that live, you will enjoy music more than on CD when there's no visual input and atmosphere to add to the sound. Still, I think I'll watc out for Mr Kuti. I love African music and yes, their sense of rhythm is something raw, and elemental.
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