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Jori Hulkkonen: Different
F communications (France) 2002
- We Are Rising Sun
- You're My Excuse For Being Me
- Four Seasons, Four Loves
- Strangefaith
- All I See Is Shadows
- Miniaturized (6:26)
- Man From Solaris
- Abstract Living
- Latin Taiga
- Blue & White
"Regarding the title of my new album, "Different" was the very first idea I had for the record when I started to work on it in August 2001. I wanted a short, simple name, as opposed to the monster that I had on my previous effort. Also, I wanted it to reflect the record itself, firstly on a very simple and naivistic level; the tracks are different tracks than the ones on the previous album, but also something that would hopefully give an idea that my musical approach really is different compared to many other house/techno/electronic producers, and hence the album is a different kind of a "club record" -if it is such at all."
"The album itself was recorded during a period of eight months -a rather long period especially when compared to my previous work, but during this time my schedule was very hectic due to busy DJing. I made around 25 new tracks for the album before coming up with the right tracklisting. During the recording of the abum I was also actively working on the artwork, having my camera with me on my travels, from Hong Kong to New York."
"I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with giving a desciption of the tracks, as the music should be self-explanatory. However, if reading these comments makes the music more approachable or even better, makes someone interested in my music, I see no harm in briefly giving the story behind each track"
-We Are Rising Sun
"The last track to be finished on the album. I've always had the idea that the first track should define the atmosphere of an album, act as a kind of a moodsetter. I had already done one track to be the opener but in the end I realized it just didn't do justice for the rest of the record (the track was called "Styrkkarit Laukee", and it will be available on the F communications Megasoft Office series. Note the street noise which is the same on these two tracks) ."
"Basically the first 60 seconds of an album should convince the listener that the record WILL be worth listening, every single second of it. The idea behind the track was to do something a bit psychedelic in feel, give the listener the idea that he's stepping to a world that is different from the previous album."
"The street noise is just from outside my window. The idea came from the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" intro, which also gave me the idea of using a trumpet later on in the song, and the vocal treatment (hardcore ptchshifting) was inspired by the Pet Shop Boys' track Violence."
"This is one of the three tracks on the album to feature Jerry Valuri on vocals. These tracks are his debut appearences as a vocalist. I've known him for around six years now, and we're good friends. And I like working with friends. He also has a deep understanding of what kind of music I want to do so what he might lack in his vocal technique, he can compensate with pure style and emotion. He's also my mailman."
-Man From Solaris
"Originally recorded for "We Are Being Watched", a remix EP of some of the tracks from my previous album. It was only after popular demand that I decided to include it here. It was the first work I did with Jerry Valuri. I like the atmosphere of the track and they way it builds up musically."
-You're My Excuse For Being Me
"This was the first track I made after I had made the conscious choice to start working on a new album, in August 2001. I've always loved using strings, and I was obsessed in doing a song with a very strong stringbased melody. It also defined the direction of the album. Originally it featured an extra part, a chorus if you will, with a vocal intended for it. Also, later I recorded some vocals for this version with Paul Oxley (with whom I worked on "Contaminated" on my previous album). For some reason they just made the track unbalanced in a way, and I decided to leave it as an instrumental. It also features a few spoken bits in Finnish, narrated by Yours Truly."
-Abstract Living
"Initially intended for my previous album, but it just didn't fit the mood, and I also couldn't finish it. So, as I went thru some old files and unfinished tracks -as always when I work on new stuff and bump into a writer's block -I found this to have the potential to make it to this album, and I also found the right way to finish it."
-All I See Is Shadows
"The idea for this track came from a conversation I had with some friends about the movie Highlander, and its star, actor Christopher Lambert. Someone just commented that his acting is so bad because he's nearly blind, that all he sees is shadows. I don't know if it's true but I thought it would make a great title for a song. So I took the line and wrote a very simple, sad lovesong around it. It's quite personal as well. I recorded a vocal version with myself singing on it, and tried to figure out who could do it properly. For one reason or another I happened to bump into Nick Triani, an Engishman living in Helsinki. He's done some singing, but he's more known (in Finland anyways) as a record producer, mostly garage rock, and more guitar oriented things. The end result of his performance was simply magical. Personally I think this is the best piece of music I've ever done."
-Four Seasons, Four Loves
"I had done this instrumental track very late at night, while watching the Winter Olympics on TV. The following day my friend Jerry came by and he really liked what I'd done. Also, he wanted to show me some website where he had seen a record of mine for sale which he had never heard of. It turned out that some recordshop had messed up their catalogue and under my name they had a 12" called "Four Seasons, Four Loves". I thought it was great title and decided to make a track out of it, since in a way the track was already being promoted. So I wrote a few lyrics and we recorded the track the same day. Later I did some post production and gave the track a solid structure. It also started my latest obsession, making housetracks that are under 120 bpm."
-Strangefaith
"The title of the track is a mix of the Mode's Strangelove, and Order's True Faith, two of my favourite songs. The track started as a guitar riff, cos for some reason I had this idea that when I play keyboards I start repeating myself too much. So I bought a guitar to give me a fresh aproach to writing stuff. I made three distinctly different versions of this, but as always, the first one was the best one."
-Latin Taiga
"This is the oldest track on the album. It was recorded around February 1998 and it was the height of my Ibadan records boom. So me and my good friend Tuomas Salmela (20:20 vision, Guidance...) decided to do something in that style. We were really happy with the result but for some reason the track remained unreleased until now. This version also features a fake ending, inspired by The Smiths' "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"."
-Miniaturized
"After finishing my previous album I felt I needed to do something more dancefloor oriented stuff, and came up with a new pseudo Hösh, and the EP "Sounds like Trouble". The EP featured a track called Miniatures which this track is based on. At the time I was obsessed with FM synthesized bell sounds, and hadn't heard a track for a while that made a good use of them."
"This version is a more housey interpretation of the original, and the production is quite next level compared to that."
-Blue & White
"After the success of Sunglasses At Night that I did with my Montreal based friend Tiga, I decided it could be interesting to have him as a vocalist on the album. I wrote him an instrumental and sent him an MP3 to work on. He thought it would be a cool idea to capture a moment of ice hockey history on the song and wrote what basically is a tribute to Team Finland who were defeated by the Canadians in the Olympic hockey tournament."
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