Welcome on a journey! I call it the Path of a Composer. The idea is to post key pieces of my music from along the years and hopefully put some light on how I have developed aesthetically, in my craftsmanship and of course also artistically — resulting in these days where I am finally ready to proudly launch myself as a composer of modern art music. It is time for Chapter IV.
fäänä: pathétique (EP from 2008)
Chapter III was all about me finding progressive rock. It was wonderful to be the lead singer of a band and truly get to create the kind of rock I had always wanted to. It was a thrill! Nevertheless, like I wrote, great intensity tends to come with a price. In my case it meant that I got tired of the heavy democracy and constant negotiating and communication that surrounded the music making. Great rock intensity also resulted in me wanting a musical contrast.
No, I didn´t want to stop, I wanted to move forward and create more music to put out there but Discordia wasn´t ready to start creating another recording right after Utopia Perfection. That´s completely understandable — and so I quickly understood that I needed to create a solo EP.
My starting point for the EP was for the sound to be something completely different than the Discordia sound. First decisions: no electric guitars, no synthesizers, all vocals by myself and acoustic grand piano into every track! The second decision: I would do exactly what I wanted and not think for one second what other people wanted from the album!
I was very aware of the musical duality within me — the seemingly strong contrast between western (classical) art music and rock music. When I started to compose pathétique it was a given that the work would balance between the two worlds in a way that would be completely honest to myself. I thought it would even be likely that some if not most people would be surprised about at least some aspects of the music. Yet great contrasts within the musical material and expression while remaining coherent was a core value then and it remains a core value even to this day. I want to surprise even myself.
I Prelude is classical piano music in one of my favourite keys: C# minor. It sets the mood of the pathétique suite. In the very ending there are quotes of all the other 4 movements on top of the C# minor arpeggios — which of course indicates that the pieces are very closely related.
II Mist is a somewhat crazy piece! It has multiple dimensions to it. First of all I created my own samples. I recorded drum hits played by Otto from Discordia yet together with the sound engineer Harri Kentala we isolated the samples and put them where we wanted. I also sang samples for the repetitive type of sung gestures without words, inspired by “Leave it” by Yes. The saxophones were played by Henri Haapakoski without sampling and so were of course my lines that have lyrics to them, also longer melodic lines. There is no bass guitar or electric guitar but we put a grand piano through distortion and an amplifier. There is a lot of repetition in Mist which results in creating a rather impactful and majestic whole. I am particularly proud of my a cappella vocal polyphony in the middle section.
III Balloon is a classical influenced pop song with me playing the piano and singing on top of it, without vocal harmonies. Henri plays the flute. The middle section has him doing improvisation. Balloon obviously operates as the slow movement in the middle of the suite.
IV Pathos again features the grand piano put through distortion. I also sang glissandos and we created samples of those tracks and placed them around according to my score. The lyrics were so personal (I thought at the time) in this one that I decided not to print them out and have them whispered and obscured by reverb and delay instead. Well, it suits the movement well and people will get the anxiety even without any words.
V Via Delle Quattro Fontane has a funny story. We were in Rome in 2007. There were ambulances driving around and they had this crazy siren. I took the melody and rhythm of the siren sound and created a piece based on it! After all it was part of the soundtrack of Rome for us. The finale of pathétique is a peculiar piece in many ways: there is a 5 part rock canon in the middle, for example. 😉 It is a combination of classical music and progressive rock. It is indeed the only movement that actually features a drummer, a bass player and an acoustic guitar player (all from Discordia). Yet by discarding the piano distortion I aimed at getting rid of the “mist” that was put on top of everything earlier on. Henri plays the Bass Clarinet he bought from me after I decided I didn´t have enough time or energy to play it myself. The combination of acoustic guitar, bass clarinet and vocal harmonies is radiant just like the Roman sun.
I have composed only 2 love songs in my life — as far as I remember. Via Delle Quattro Fontane is the first one! It was our first trip abroad together. The lyrics of pathétique are more personal than those on my other albums and the finale, Via Delle Quattro Fontane, still manages to fill me with cathartic joy when the mist (echoed or distorted piano) finally vanishes and the sun begins to shine. Yes, we are still together — next year it will be 20 years! I let the lyrics and the music speak for themselves.
To be honest, despite the fact that I tend to be very critical of my own music, I was positively surprised when visiting pathétique again. There is something very honest and genuine about the 20+ minutes. Also, if I may say so, my vocals have never sounded better, as I did not have the pressure of doing it ROCK in this one. When I started this blog series I thought all of it would kind of lead to the symphony where I would be at my most authentic and finally freed myself. But I must say I seem to be artistically just as free in pathétique as I am in the symphony.
The questions I am asking now: why couldn´t a composer of art music be a singer-songwriter? Pathétique reminded me that I should not forget about my own musicianship. It is also pushing me to the direction of preferring acoustic instruments in the studio in the future.
My first solo album was liked by most who got to know it yet I do remember that it alienated many friends of Discordia music. I have considered myself an underground indie art musician ever since. Due to fäänä: pathétique many people in Finland still call me “fäänä”!
The next chapter (V) will feature a piece that was my first step into truly symphonic music — a piece I am still immensely proud of, one of my best ever. Yet it will also tell a story of a failure — biting more than I could chew while producing my next solo album, all 50+ minutes (too much!) of it. It is my only recording I have withdrawn and refuse to sell. Luckily a few tracks are amongst the best I have ever created.