Debyyttikeikka Ambient-festareilla

Chilli meno.

Elektropol on elänyt hiljaiseloa - päätin laittaa musiikkihommat jäihin jo yli vuosi sitten siihen asti, kunnes olen kirjoittanut graduni. Ja näköjään vaihdettiin blogin kielikin tässä rytäkässä englannista suomeksi.

Porissa aivan huikeaa työtä elektronisen musiikin eteen tekevä Plugi-kaksikko (FB-sivu) oli järjestämässä kuitenkin ambient-festivaalia ("33 tuntia taukoamatonta alitajuntaan vyöryvää harmoniaa ja subliminaalisia hyvänolon viestejä ambientin muodossa" aka Nordic Ambient Music Conference) ja Elektropol sai kunnian tulla kutsutuksi mukaan - kyseessä olisi ensimmäinen keikkani ikinä (jos ex tempore DJ-keikkaa Laosin Vang Viengin Nam Song -joen rantabaarissa ei lasketa).

Tapahtuma järjestettiin Porin lyhytaaltoasemalla (kuvassa alla), jossa en ollut koskaan aikaisemmin käynyt, mutta jonka puitteita olin fiilistellyt kuvista jo pidempään.

Keikka-aika oli klo 9 - 10, jolloin festivaalikansa vielä uinui makuupusseissaan lattialla ja siksipä soitanta oli huopatossu- tai tapauksessani villasukka-ambientia:

Their only goal in life is to say it can't be done.

That it is just an impossible dream. (888th)

Jos muut eivät sano unelmien olevan mahdottomia, niin ainakin oma mieli sanoo. Niin oli myös minun tapauksessani: En ehkä koskaan uskonut soittavani tällaisella keikalla (olkoonkin, että kyseessä oli DJ-setti). Jo kymmenen vuotta sitten omistin budjettiluokan DJ-laitteita, joilla soittelin biisejä kotinurkissa. Sittemmin möin ne pois. Tähän näkökulmaan kiteytyy osa debyyttikeikkani huikeudesta.

Kun Plugin tyypit pyysivät minua keikalle oli edessä heti käytännön ongelma: The Phoenix -julkaisun mitta kokonaisuudessaan on puolisen tuntia ja minulle oli varattu tunnin mittainen palikka aikataulusta. Muokkasinkin jokunen viikko sitten The Phoenixista ambient-version, joka soi noin 50 minuuttia. Keikalla soittelin lisäksi muutamat suosikkibiisini (Main Existence Resolution, Nonbound ja Cafetherian) pariin kertaan.

Lainaus viimeksi mainitusta biisistä:

Our story begins here, with coffee.

On harvinaista, että tapahtumissa saa hyvää kahvia nautittavaksi, mutta toista oli tällä kertaa: Kuppiin tuli Kaffe Obscuran panamalaista AeroPressillä valmistettuna. Kerrassaan loistavaa. Keikkatarinan pystyi tosiaan aloittamaan kahvilla.

Kuvassa oikealla keikan biisilista, Teemana latinankielinen fraasi, joka kääntyy suomeksi muotoon toisinaan on suloista hullutella.

Jos The Phoenixin ambient-versio kiinnostaa, niin Elektropolin levypainosta (eli polttavasta CD-soittimesta) niitä lähtee maailmalle huikeat kahdeksan kappaletta (jotta tyhjät cd-aihiot saa hyötykäyttöön, kaksi jaettiin onnellisille omistajille keikkapaikalla). Huima tulovirta käytetään Elektropolin investointeihin. Laita viestiä: wahlman.jani(ät)gmail.com

Mennään loppu kuva- ja videofiilistelyllä:

Mr. Roboto tervehti salin ovella.

Ambient-kansa vasta heräili ja biitti pidettiin rauhallisena.

Tiskin takaa.

Elektropol aired at Radio Eazy

Elektropol visited program called Styrkkari at local (Pori, Finland) radio station Eazy 101 Mon 29th October. Both previous links are in Finnish.

I spoke about making electronic music and about various related topics at the program.

Tracks played were from the debut album The Phoenix. There was also a summer single called Damn Hot from Phat Operations played as well as one fresh track from up'n'coming album of Elektropol (name to be announced).

The track is named Arctopolis, which refers to City of Pori (also known as "City of Bears", Arctopolis in latin). It was also my theme track when I just recently was one of the candidates for local City Council.

As you can see, the Elektropol blog is under renovation and will be completed as soon as other projects are finished (might take some time...)

Good ambient sounds need inner peace as main ingredient and that has been hard to find recently. But stay tuned! :)

Elektropol - The Phoenix airs at YLE Radio 1

We just got information that some track from The Phoenix album by Elektropol will be aired in Finnish YLE Radio1 6th November. The program that airs the track is called Avaruusromua which translates as "space garbage". It suits fine for The Phoenix - the sounds could be described as spacious and rusty.

Elektropol - The Phoenix

Elektropol has reased its debut album, The Phoenix. Album features eight tracks. The Phoenix tells us a story about The Phoenix. One flight of this marvelous creature to observe the World, and to learn from it.

Cover image illustration by artist Jaakko Heiskanen (c) 2011, concepting Jani Wahlman (c) 2011.

You can listen full tracks with the highest quality at Soundcloud.

 Mp3 streaming through Finnish Mikseri.net.

The First Life of The Phoenix

Elektropol was caught to an interview with some explanatory questions. Check it out!

You are publishing an ambient-oriented debut album after working for many years with it. What does this album mean to you?

It means a lot. In principle the album includes stories from a trip 27 years long this far. These stories remind me about some stages of life every time I hear them.

The album is a sort of a diary or more like an yearbook about my life this far. There has been many adventures but the release of this album has been uncertain. The completion of the album is kind of a milestone for myself. When you work hard it gives results.

Mr. Elektropol, Jani Wahlman

The first track of the album was originally done over six years ago. How this is seen in the album and why it has taken this much time?

It is true that the first track of the album was formed already in 2005, but it has been kind of refurbished along the way of my evolution as an artist. I want to refine these things quite a lot before presentation. But perfection is a paradox.

There were also times I was afraid that my skills were not enough for publishing my own compositions. In addition during the studies in the Tampere University of Applied Sciences time was very scarce resource and I had to put something aside.

You were recently in a serious accident. Did this affect someway to your album?

My album project has had an unofficial name “kicked bastard” meaning that the project was kicked forwards whenever I had enough resources.

My accident made me understand that you never know what might happen to you and when the ability of executing your dreams is taken way.

The accident has affected to a lot of things and to my thoughts. For this “bastard” it certainly gave a kick.

Do you want to explain the name of the album, The Phoenix?

The Phoenix tells a lot about my personal life philosophy, about something that lies beneath all that I represent.

A man lives physically just once, but can spiritually die and be reborn many times during that physical lifetime, like a phoenix bird.

One should always dare to challenge his own beliefs and to continuously develop the vision about the world and the life.

As a whole, my album tells a story about The Phoenix to be born and to die, having one miraculous flight in between.

How would you describe the sounds that this album will include?

I don’t want to limit my style in a way or another. The idea is that in my music I just use sounds that are relevant to the story. There is a lot of clean and distorted piano sound, synths, guitars, vocoders and vocal samples.

Each composition has its own atmosphere. Those atmospheres range from dark to hopeful and from peaceful to somewhat energetic. But each composition has a touch of hope in it.

What are your influences?

I think that there are millions of them, not limited to musical acts, but couple of those musical ones include AIR, Giant Robot, Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Denki Groove, Future Sound of London, Morcheeba, Moloko and Björn Olsson.

I have to say that my brother is also one musical genius having a talent that always amazes me.

How can one listen to your album when it’s released?

It is released through the internet for free. Probably we will use services such as Mikseri.net (in Finnish) and MySpace. Videos become available to Vimeo. You can already watch some Arcade Goodies from there.

Is there coming out music also in the future?

At the moment I have probably eleven albums in three separate projects planned. So I think The Phoenix won’t be the first and the last album of the Elektropol at the same time.

At the end of the interview, would you like to thank someone about this project?

First and foremost I want to give thanks to the Life and of course all the friends that have contributed to it. Friends are the one of the most important things in life.

Text and photo: Isabell Vanhatalo
Translation: Electric Manor

Arcade Goodies, part 2

Before Elektropol releases its debut album, we will give you some Arcade Goodies - Never-finished tracks that were born during the album composing process.

The second Arcade Goodie will be Flipd. It is one of the most twisted tracks Elektropol has composed this far. 

Kill the Sandman:

Untitled from Electric Manor on Vimeo.

Elektropol - Arcade Goodies

Before Elektropol releases its debut album, we will give you some Arcade Goodies - Never-finished tracks that were born during the album composing process.

The first Arcade Goodie will be "Ambiente". Quite a minimalistic track that features (surprisingly) analogue ambient pads with some other sound details.

Take a look:

Elektropol Arcade Goodies - Ambiente from Electric Manor on Vimeo.

Inspiration: Björn Olsson and Flying Steps

I came up with a trailer of Johannes Nyholm's Las Palmas movie which is brilliant! I'm waiting to see the whole movie. Another brilliant thing in it is Björn Olsson's track called Låt i H-moll. After hearing that I had to listen to other tracks of this seemingly talented guitar dude. See the Las Palmas trailer here:

Another superb thingie that's not actually new to me is Flying Steps. This b-boy crew started to release their own music around 2007 and after that urban dance music world hasn't been the same. It is incredible how they are able to capture so much energy into a single track. Blankly the best inspiration at the moment especially for Fat Operations tracks! Check out their "We are electric" (even the name for the track is something so so cool!):

Influence of Surroundings

I guess it is hard to even to try to think that how much your surroundings affect to art you make. I'd guess that art is the construction that is surroundings absorbed plus the filtration effect of one's thoughts and views. So it's something like:

Surroundings Absorbed + Artist's Thoughts & Views = Construction of Art.

There are two fundamental views on surroundings. One is the physical aspect, all that you see and all that you can touch. I guess that these surroundings don't have the most prominent effect on artist. Another point of view, that is far more prominent, is kind of feeling of the surroundings in one's head. Kind of state of mind. This feeling is constructed through perceived surroundings but it is strongly affected by all the connections in artist's mind.

Pori State of Mind

As I live in Pori (picture is taken from Bridge of Pori) it certainly has a strong influence on the music I construct. Old industrial milieu and multiple islets that dominate the landscape, most prominently beautiful Kirjurinluoto (something like Islet of Courier if translated directly) put their marks on my works. Those works capture the before lived me perceiving something new in a Pori surroundings. They capture the new connections and highlights of mind that come up.

It could be said that those musical constructions are then very deeply Pori influenced as this rendezvous with surroundings cannot be eluded. Then again can you in any way state that your music is global? It is always local, born and cultivated from local incredients, local surroundings, local state of mind.

Inspiration: Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

First I hated it, then I loved it! Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand makes your feet move on dancefloor. I prefer the original video over the plain sound versions as it has some extra sounds that make the track even more interesting. Also the video is magnificent not least because of there are many living legends of modern music appearing in it. I was especially thrilled to see my all time favorite Chromeo there. Check it out:

Electrocrafting - The Flight of The Electric Phoenix

The completion of The Electric Phoenix album has been postponed due to my studies and other projects. But I've still managed to make both the actual production work and planning for the ensemble a bit.

I started to browse through my old track drafts and found many of those that I'd like to get completed and that fit into the theme and the story of TEP. This will allow me to put aside some of the tracks I've been trying to compose for TEP that I consider not so succesfull at the moment.

These findings of old drafts also make it possible to raise the number of the tracks from eight to even 15. I've been thinking that the online release would include the originally thought amount of eight tracks and only the actual CD release would include all 15 tracks.

New project draft adds to TEP

As I am an enthusiastic music project starter and planner (but usually not so succeeding to complete or upkeep those projects) I started yet again a new ambient music project called MER which is an acronym for Main Existence Resolution.

After enthusing for some weeks it was time to slap myself into reality and state that if there is not enough time to get even one project moving on two of them would be impossible to get on with. I even made the album cover for the first release of MER, see it below.

The album cover draft for Main Existence Resolution.

I then decided to add the first track of MER I made during that enthusing period as a part of TEP. I used the project name as a name of that track. So you'll hear Main Existence Resolution as a part of TEP album.

I registered a Vimeo account in order to give you some tasters of tracks in progress. This time you'll get a taster draft of, what else, Main Existence Resolution. I even ended up fiddling some kind of a video for it, using the previously drafted album cover. Just some 15 min. tweaking, but better than using plain cover pic. Hope you enjoy!

Elektropol - Main Existence Resolution from Elektro Pol on Vimeo.

Inspirative pics, volume 1

 Colorful chain, as sounds are at their best.

 Stimulus maximus.

"Coffee time - Days happy moment".

 Fairlight.

 Patrol 88.

 Sip.

Frame constuct.

Inspiration: Imperial State Electric

What a name! What a sound (beware that crappy / noisy sound of video below, though)! Imperial State Electric!

The Official Elektropol Logo

I was fiddling with The Electric Phoenix Elektropol Mark (fig. 1) as I needed to upload it to one online music sharing page.

Fig. 1: The Elektropol Mark

Image width was limited to 200 pixels on that page and I had to test how that mark above would work when rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

It was ok and I decided to reverse the colors so that text would be white and background black. I changed the background color and there it was! The Elektropol text and the Elektromoon (as I call the blue round graphic behind the text) formed a perfect logo (fig. 2) for the project! The Elektropol logo was born.

Fig. 2: Behold...The Elektopol Logo!

Inspiration: Róisín Murphy

With preprogrammed meanings like a little more pep, alien feelings we have to accept...

This is what Róisín Murphy is signing at one of her superior tracks, Overpowered from album with the same name.

Róisín and her former band, fantastic Moloko are one of the finest reference sound creators that can be found. Elektropol admires their combination of electrish sounds, bubbly basses, minimalistic yet intriguing beats and especially soulful sound of Róisín Murphy. All topped with creative ways to arrange sounds and create effects.

Syndrome of Unfinished Creations

As I was exporting some TEP track billets out of my preferred program into MP3's I noticed that each of them had length of about two minutes. This is not a new finding, but this time I really started to think why it was this way.

Chau número tres by photographer padawan *(xava du)

It is very common that all the tracks I've made during my "career" and that are not completed have length of approximately two minutes. It seems that this two minutes is a critical track length in which I start to lose interest in a track I'm working with and start to have some new ideas for another one.

It is not indeed very handy personal feature as tracks should have length around four to eight minutes when completed (I think that tracks shorter than this cannot create atmospheres that would reflect my original intentions and ideas).

As I today thought about this feature of mine I came up with a proper name for it: Syndrome of Unfinished Creations. And I am pretty sure that it is the reason why only about 2 % of music I've ever composed is released into public (I've made around 500 tracks or track billets during my active years).

So Syndrome of Unfinished Creations means:

A condition in which a lot of effort is put to create something new (music in this case), but only minority of that work realises into releasable forms. 

I think that this kind of a reason is one of those why it sometimes feels like you don't achieve anything. You do so much work but it doesn't realise any way. I guess it is a common problem in life overall, but I try to look at it from artists point of view.

Syndrome of Unfinished Creations might have various reasons:

• Losing Interest in a track - Solution: Try to find new viewpoints, aspects and layers for a track. Add something to it, or rather subtract something from it. Try to imagine how it feels when you get your track complete. Remember that when you focus on one thing at time you'll probably get more done in a longer run.
• Perfectionism - Solution: If you have or create a habit of listening previous versions or mixes of the same track, you'll hear that usually those previous versions are the better ones. Usually perfectionism leads the track away from the original idea. For me perfectionism is usually technology related; I want to use some world class mixing methods or such and it ruins my track down. Perfectionism is one vicious circle. In its worst form you'll never get your tracks complete.
• Overwhelming Tech (that is you have so much of pieces of hardware and software that all your time goes to technical tweaking and solving problems) - Solution:  Reduce your hardware and software arsenals. Concentrate on music, creation. Try to understand that those pieces of hardware and software are just your tools and they should not dictate or prevent your creative process.
• Disbelief in Completion (that is you just believe that your track is never going to get complete and that's why you stop composing it) - Solution: Have a clear vision what you want to achieve with your track. If you'll have this kind of a vision, you'll know that there is just certain amount of steps that can be taken towards it. As you take these steps, every time you are closer to a complete track. It should break your disbelief.
• Too High Vision (that is, related to the previous one, that you set your expectations about your music too high) - Solution: Neither Brian Eno nor Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air were musical geniuses when they were born or started to compose music. Don't set too high expectations to your own creations but instead be gentle towards them. You'll come better every time you spent time creating more.
• Disbelief in Releasing (that is you don't have courage to put release your music for everyone) - Solution: I know that there are people out there who want to do music just for themselves. But I believe that any music that is made can be more valuable when shared. If others get something, even a little bit, out of it, then it's worth sharing. There is also another great point in releasing your music: you might get comments about how to improve your composition (though not all of this is worth listening to) and proposals for co-operation. But rememeber that nothing of this can happen if no-one knows about you and your music.

I guess there are many more reasons for this kind of a syndrome, but you'll certainly got the point. If I should pack up some of the most valuable tips about this, it would be something like this:

• Concentrate on creative process
• Believe in yourself
• Experiment and grow

Now go, experiment, create and grow!

Electrocrafting - September

Welcome to Electrocrafting-series of Elektopol, title under which I'll put my studio diaries and such.

Moon over Moogerah by Matthew Stewart

No specific deadline is set for the release of The Electric Phoenix, but it would be rather nice to get it complete until the end of year 2010. New album, track and story ideas emerge all the time and there are already some ideas considering the possible following album.

Three of eight tracks for TEP are complete at some degree (slight mixing and variations are needed) and five are under construction. There are total of ten different tracks or track billets waiting to get complete. Some of those are surely material for the next album as their point of view is somewhat different from TEP tracks.

I've been struggling with my timetables as there are some university studies, running and parties to get over with. Hopefully I will have more time for composing after I end my running season for this year 4th October.

Vast sample libraries and available VST-instruments have made it easy for me to concentrate on essentials and just create sounds that auralize (is that a word?) my thoughts and ideas. At the moment I am very happy that I have managed to get out sounds that I've wanted. These almost complete tracks present quite presicely what I wanted them to present. I'll put some samples online before the actual release.

In addition to get those three tracks complete and five under more active construction I must also take care of some supportive tasks considering the release (checked 12/12/10):

• Set up a MySpace account for sharing the tracks (www.myspace.com/elektropolmusic, some French person had taken /elektropol :<)
• Set up a project to Finnish Mikseri.net service (the biggest Finnish online community for free music)
• Finish the album design (cover, in-cover text, tracklisting and so on)
• Design some relevant graphics for online use
• Gather some more ideas and tips to share the album online
• Possibly tweak up some kind of a music video (enables sharing on YouTube, Vimeo and such)
• Burn x amount of actual CD releases and print covers for them (future collectable item ;))

The Electric Phoenix

The Electric Phoenix is up-and-coming 8-track release from Elektropol. Tracks are filled with elektropolish soundscapes, beats, vocals and such - each having it's own story but being also a part of the ensemble.

 Cover draft v. 0.1 (Phoenix design by H-L Saarenmaa)

In-cover text draft

The Electric Phoenix itself is a mystical creature of Elektropol, electroborn from the oscillators of analogue synths (mainly Fatson 6000 and Urania Pattern Mk 3) that reborns after 888 years of living. It lands on the heat of the oscillators, disintegrates into square waves and is also given rebirth from the purest of them - new sound design, that is wiser than the previous in all fronts.

The Electric Phoenix reminds us about the chance of giving a rebirth for ourselves, finding new paths to travel, having an opportunity to change our direction. As The Electric Phoenix, we are not bound to selections we have made in the past. Our history should not be burden for us and it should not dictate our actions.

The Electric Phoenix, as flying through the air, isn't also guided by any outer force or environment it confronts. Phoenix is a super resolute, ferocious and filled with the sense of direction. It has wisdom to choose the best and the strength to achieve it. Wind makes no challenge for it, but merely reminds it that it is up for a challenge that it is yet again able to grow over with. Yet another small step to take towards the 888th year of rebirth into better self.

Tracklisting draft

1. Electroborn
2. Unbound
3. Vast Array
4. Zeniths
5. Scapefly
6. Harmania
7. Fairlight
8. 888th

Style draft

1. Electroborn - Rising, pure-sound soundscape, minimalist drums, orchestral sounds, choir, pads, angelic chorus, distorted arpeggio, edgy and sharp bassline, appropriate vox
2. Nonbound - More groovy and active melody, dancy yet soundscapish, ambient parts, rare and filled drum patterns, vocoder, app. vox
3. Vast Array - Varying ambiance, lots of small effect sounds at the background, different sampled vox, underlining bass and lead (yet not dominating), offbeat drum patterns
4. Zeniths - Glorious wind instruments, stabs and fx, glorious vox, strong and defined bass
5. Scapefly - Maximum ambience; pads, choirs, angelic vox, rare drums, long effect sounds, piano
6. Harmania - Darked sounds, distorted yet ambient, heavy, industrial
7. Fairlight - Final Fantastique, grand piano, electric lead, edgy bass, ambient breaks, glorifying vox, vocoder
8. 888th - Partly sad, melancholic sounds, minor keys, longer track, hints of happiness, app. vox

Notes for the whole album

• Zeniths continues from where Vast Array ends, appr. 50 % same instruments.
• Other tracks have 4 + 4 sec. silence in between.
• Same piano sound used in every track with different effects and / or setup.
• Same basic pad sound used in every track with different effects and / or setup.
• Same drumkit used in every track (2 kicks, 3 snares, 2 open hh, 2 closed hh, crash, congas, bongos, rims)? Mixing, effects etc. could be changed.
• 88-135 BPM.
• Vocal samples mainly from the Prelinger Archives.
• Same basic mixing setup used for the whole album (drum comp, bass comp, drum eq, bass eq, lead comp, lead eq, master comp/limiter/eq) - settings could be at least lightly varied.
• Same mixing channels used for the whole album: lead 1, lead 2, vox 1, vox 2, bass 1, bass 2, kick, snare, open hh, closed hh and rim, bongos and congas, pad 1, pad 2, pad 3, fx 1, fx 2...
• All the tracks (except Harmania) should be airy, sunny, pure, fresh and intriguing.
• Some references: Giant Robot, Air, YMO, Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Portishead, FSOL, Aphex Twin.
• Old sound elements: scratches, radio etc. buzz, Vintage Warmer, Prelinger vox, virtual analogue sounds, slight distortion.
• Lots of velocity variations, slight timing errors, automation (pitch, cutoffs, resonances, volumes, reverb/echo/delay variables, distortion levels...)
• Although being mostly atmospheric / ambient music, every track should have some catch; vocoder vocals, sample vocals, singing, one-line, lead or bass melody or such.