LEAP DAY

Just because it occurs only every four years. Just because it feels strange. Just because the past days, today including, were not that very cheerful...

Uuno Kailas: Contemplation

Ei seesty pääni päällä,
tuo vanhat pilvet päivä uus.
Ja joka päivä täällä
on pieni ikuisuus.

SKYWALKING TO SPRING

Past days were glittering with sun, it felt so magical after those dark winter days. Life is coming back. Happiness is awaking. It was well under zero last week, but regardless crispy cold air I have spotted some distant traces of forthcoming spring. Hope. The smell of spring, floating above deeply frozen grounds and waters.

Partly sunny Sunday offered milder weather today. As I went for a walk, I have noticed some Skywalker has forgotten her/his additional pare of trainers on an electric wire high up in the air. Perhaps she/he just dropped those, as they seemed so warn out, not considering all recycling possibilities Finland offers to inhabitants. What's more, that Skywalker might just wanted to feel the air filled with frost and blasting sunlight under bare feet… feel, enjoy and follow those distant traces of spring.

Finally, I think such things occur on electric wires high above the ground if one lives in a neighborhood full of students and constant student parties.

MAGYAR POSSE, AGAIN

Magyar Posse

Time for some post-rock sounds. Last Friday in Lutakko, Magyar Posse from Pori, Finland. With them, surprise and so impressive discovery, similar post-rock group Cold Fairyland from Sanghai, China. Atmospherical, epical, magic. Both bands highly recommended!

Cold Fairyland

It was summer in Helsinki two years ago when I saw Magyar Posse live for the first time. Next day after the gig, I went to see someone. After all the troubles/shit between us. Before all the troubles/shit between us that had yet to come.

I don't miss that troubles, but I would surely miss this music. Great gig again.

Magyar Posse

I AM RIVER, I AM FLAME

Olen joki, joka padotaan
olen metsä joka poltetaan
peto joka vangitaan rautahäkkiin suljetaan
olen tila joka aidataan
liekki joka sammutetaan
tahdon sisimpäni vapauttaa
ihmisyyteni nujertaa

Mokoma - Nujerra ihminen

After some weeks of constant dealing with studies, thus meaning writing essays, the time for some live music has come again. Finally! Going to a good gig was something I have really been missing for the past month.

On the first day of February, there was Mokoma playing in Lutakko. It seems Mokoma is among the most favorized Finnish metal bands at the moment. Their lyrics is intirely in Finnish, their music feels diverse, all the way from thrash and death to black metal, even some softer pieces included. Since the start of my studies in Jyväskylä, Mokoma has already visited the city once; the gig was sold out completely. So it was now, too; well, metal is a part of mainstream culture here afterall.

No matter atmospheres band features are melancholic, far from some kind of romantic stories, their rythms produce enough energy and power I sometimes really need to hear and feel. A bit masculine music, yet the band seems to have enough even sligthly hysterical female fans; at least so sounded those screams from the audience. However, frontman Marko Annala is supposed to be among the best lyric writers. Lyrics do not seem bad and Annala also seems skillful vocalist, featuring nice clear vocals as well as for my opinion proper growls. Overall, Mokoma made good performance, with lots of stage presence and flaming energy. In this case, I don't care if the band is becoming too mainstream - I will listen to them whenever I will feel like it.

Apart from the gig, some socializing happened as well. One thing was that I spoke in Finnish, and I was told I had not appear as a foreigner; my Fake Finn story kind of repeated. Whenever I get such compliments for my language skills, I am of course proud, and I try not to be too proud as I still do not master the language well enough, in my opinion. Yet it is true that I have started to learn Finnish only two years ago; I have noticed this fact sometimes seems surprising to native speakers.

I know where the power for liking and learning Finnish has come from. I know why I grasped the language so quickly that I had been able to chat, somehow, even after less than one year of learning. Some small events in life can redirect the way one walks, and all of a sudden one speak a new language. That time is over now, new things are going on, and I meet new people on my way. But whenever I see a good gig here in Finland, thus meaning Finnish music I have got to know in that particular period of my life, I am sort of happy. I guess one of the best outcomes of that particular time has been some amount of good music.