Bugs are really cool. I own a bunch of bugs encased in glass and you can look at them and go “Wow, that’s cool.” My favorite is a flower mantis that sits atop one of my shelves. I like how it looks. I wanted to make songs about bugs, so I did. In my opinion, you wouldn’t call a crab, a spider, or a shrimp an insect, but I’m perfectly comfortable calling them bugs. I even think I am a bug sometimes too. We’re all bugs if you really think about it.
Since the 1960s, Finland has had a rich tradition of instrumental rock, jazz, and fusion led by world-class musicians and groups. This tradition possesses unique stillness and melancholy, characteristic of the Finnish mindscape. Influences from folk music can often be heard, where the most delicately composed minor chords tell stories of beauty and joy rather than sadness.
Luova Records continues this tradition by releasing the second album of my band, Maa ilmasta. The title of the album is Kaunis kesäkaupunki, ’beautiful summer city’. The name is humoristic in a very Finnish, ironic way. More than a genuine description of a specific city, the statement can be used as a cheap compliment for essentially any Finnish city—even the less outstanding ones.
Music has always been an integral part of my life. I have been writing it since I can remember. Nevertheless, I feel I am only beginning to understand it now in my more mature years.
I’ve tried my hand at all different styles and genres. That’s important to do if you want to grow as a writer. I’ve been in and out of bands through the years but writing and recording is it for me.
Greetings! My name is Tim Oestmann, from Adelaide, Australia.
Music is such a gift. It is a community event. Many of us are influenced by others’ gifts of a song or a tune, and hopefully, we can provide a tune in return. None of us makes music in a vacuum.
My background is as a guitarist and bass player in a number of local bands. I was fortunate enough to perform for a few years in front of live audiences, which was often a privilege. I also learned a lot from playing to an audience that gave instant feedback if you were hot, or not, they would let you know. I also did some roadie work for other performers, and so heard a lot of live music.
We are Aurora Falls, a post-rock band from Poland. We are a mixture of musical souls 🙂
We gathered at the beginning of 2021 to play some music, and we stayed longer. From the very beginning, we loved to seek space in our musical improvisation, somewhere between shoegaze, post-rock, blackgaze, or dreampop.
After a year of playing together, this concept finally took the shape that we call Aurora Falls. At the end of 2022, we decided to record some of our songs to share it with the world. That’s how it started.
Music is something very intimate and personal, so it’s not easy for me to write about it. On the other hand, it is essential to me; it is something I want to share and what I want to talk about.
To describe this experience, the language of poetry would be more appropriate. On the other hand, such a language would be too hermetic and, as a result, incomprehensible. Besides, I can’t write poetry. Music is my poetry.
Music has always been said to be a universal language, but I don’t agree. Music has as many meanings as people who listen to it. What for us can be a sad melody, for someone from the other side of the world, it can be the happiest of songs, that’s why I refuse to believe that music is universal. However, I don’t think this is a problem, but an advantage to be able to communicate with ourselves. Art shows us the reality that we need to see.
Life during the lockdown and one finds oneself turning to the online world for community, support, and solace. The pandemic is a global phenomenon after all, and it would seem by the swell of blogs and posts on social media that millions of people the world over are doing the same. Social media explodes with information, disinformation, misinformation, distraction, and instruction.
One of the most shared posts by the online artistic community tells me ‘use the pandemic and the new reality to write that song, that novel, that screenplay you’ve always wanted to’ but this merely serves to impose a feeling of guilt -after all learning to adapt to the restrictions is difficult enough without the added pressure of trying to summon the muse and create new music.
What if I have no new ideas at my immediate disposal to inspire new tunes or fresh ideas to share with other musicians, let alone an audience?
A departure from the last 15 years of my music, “Wolffsburgh” takes a new direction. Many of the guitars are gone and loops and drum machines take their place.
My name is Marcelo Badari, and I am a musician from the southeast region of Brazil. Looming Flames is my instrumental solo project since 2011.
The idea behind Looming Flames is to create music with an electric guitar, a loop pedal, and some effects pedals in a minimalistic way. I also use a Boss SP 202 sampler in my guitar chain. With it, I can have sampled acoustic drum beats, played by me, in my compositions. I have some electronic beats and some noises sampled in the SP 202 as well.