It certainly took a while. “Aerials” was released in January 2022. Rest of ’22 was spent on other stuff ie. work etc. Around 10 songs were composed and arranged in ’23. We were keen to have a release out sooner rather than later so it was decided to split the material into two parts, two ep’s.
More info here
The third installment of SStB is out and about! Read more here.
Some links:
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0BGJL1mcfxsFYq4oyjmpsk?si=nH3Vq4sITKS_pnA0z-u0yQ
Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/fi/album/little-things/1701598992
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lUxK8nxZfdqkbVujJVaxUTjsrhUQ_sIv0
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/sstb_samsara/
The single from upcoming album “Little Things” is out. Spotify – Apple Music.
Withering is, according to my focus group 😁, the most accessible of the 10 songs from the album. It’s also the only one where I had a writing partner, Jani Rämö. Jani kindly handed me a bunch of his lyrics quite a few years back and I’ve used them copiously all over my projects, namely Liquid Wolf‘s Second Wind parts 1 and 2 plus Flipside’s second ep Dead Light. The crew in the song is the same as most of the album: Sami Kuoppamäki on drums, me on lead vocals, guitars, bass and keys and Ella Eriksson (ellaella) and Valtteri Tuominen on backing vocals.
an active time, at least for me. I don’t have the nerve to just sit around for more than few days. So I’ve managed to finalise the SStB’s “Little Things”, it will be released late August. First serving will be single “Withering”, due 4th of August. Here’s the cover:
I’m mighty pleased with the album. It feels new and fresh compared to the earlier SStB releases, not to belittle them in any way. Aki Sihvonen, my co-producer lent an invaluable hand in weeding out the right material from my demos and giving sound advice when ever needed. More on this closer to the release, basic SStB info can of course be found here.
Lighthouse Sparrows new EP or some such is moving along nicely as well. We have 8 songs in pretty good shape. We’ve managed to hack the arrangements and most of melodies/lyrics into good shape and Miri has this time around played demo drums for most of the songs which of course helps a lot. During these last weeks we’ve gone thru the songs a second time and should be ready to start recording (as much as is needed) properly during July. We’re planning to release one EP of probably 4 songs late spring/early winter and either compose/arrange etc more songs for a full lenght album or keep releasing EP’s, we’ll see.
It’s over a year from my previous post. My apologies. Let’s see what has happened after “Two” was released…
Liquid Wolf:
We (as in my son Jarno and myself) came upon an idea to make a sort of a scifi-story of travelers thrown to the mercy of rogue AI (way before ChatGPT ;-)) during their travel to their new home planet somewhere in the cosmos. The story starts like this:
“Saso Kitanoski adjusted the sharpened slab of metal strapped to his thigh, tightening the harness that kept the cable spool on his back, and made his way forward in the quiet rumble and bioluminescent glow through the corridors of the engine block. .
The route that he took every month came to a larger crossroads, where two arching hallways intersected. With the quiet whir of the spool behind him whispering to a stop, he listened intently to the quiet hum, focusing his ears to their limit, trying to find something out of place. “
This story inspired me and Teijo to dream up a multidimensional LW project that would encompass the short story, music and visuals. While visiting Teijo @ Nurmes in October 2021 I made lyrics based on the story and we made some progress re music. This has been an ongoing project ever since. There’s over 60 minutes of music at various stages of readiness. None is finalised so this will take a while still.
SSTB:
While waiting for The Ark’s story to develop further, I noticed once again that a healthy pile of rock/pop oriented songs were waiting their completion. This time around Teijo was engaged in his funk project so I approached Aki SIhvonen (who mixed misplaced) with the demos and we weeded out and refined the selection to 16 songs. I prepared more polished versions of those during the spring/early summer 2022. Of those demos 12 songs were selected to be made with a plan to drop 2 songs after completion. So I would have 10 strong songs and a nice lenght for an album. Aki helped along the way and Teijo played quite a bit of keyboards. I took care of guitars, basses and basic keys plus of course lead and background vocals. Drums are handled by two very capable musicians, Sami Kuoppamäki and Miri Miettinen. Sami, who has been my go-to drummer for Liquid Wolf and some other projects, plays on 8 songs and Miri, our Lighthouse Sparrows stickman, plays on 4. My very capable assistant, Valtteri Tuominen, helped with recording and editing plus he also sang backing vocals. Ella Eriksson aka ellaella 🙂 put a cherry on top with her lovely voice on backing vocals. The album “Little Things” will be released in August 2023 ( I still don’t know which 2 songs I have to drop…).
Lighthouse Sparrows:
Olli made music for television dramaseries “The Invincibles” so all his creative juice was spent there for quite a while. We of course had some demo bits and pieces that we made during this time but new music was on hold until around February 2023. We then started to go thru the demos and make some new stuff. As of today we have 6-7 songs in decent shape. We’re planning to have a 4-5 song EP ready to be released some time in the fall.
Work:
Quite a bit of mixing done.
• Helsinki Syndrome (TV series, 8 episodes)
• The Invincibles (TV series, 8 episodes)
• Reindeer Mafia (TV series, 8 episodes)
• Dance Brothers (Netflix series, 10 episodes)
• Siblings (Feature)
• The Twin (Feature)
• What Remains (Feature)
ETCetc
Yes, ’tis the season. This one has been in the making for a looooong time. First sessions were in 1984, the last ones 2021. So, it’s the second album of Chapter One, the important band of my youth. We were active from 1983 to 1985, did quite a few gigs and had a great time learning our skills. I decided to produce some songs of ours that didn’t get recorded back then. Hannu graciously agreed and we started in 2015. The project, after a good start, took a long pause. In 2019 it was time to continue. Besides Hannu also Jouni and Jukka participated and we managed to get four songs done. This would not have been possible without the priceless help of my “secret” ace in the hole, Teijo Tikkanen, who played drums and piano on the new songs. The last link in the chain was Riikka Muikku who designed and executed the beautiful artwork of the sleeve. We also gathered all the relevant info to a new website, aptly named chapterone.fi. So I hope You enjoy it!
Yes, the digital version was released last friday ie. 14012022. Woohoo!
The double vinyl should arrive within a month. The track listing is:
Bates
Assimilate
Moodswings
Kibitzer
No Still Moment
Elephant
Like Blood
Itinerant
Safe and Sound
Percolator
Youth
Here’s Spotify:
On the vinyl edition song order is different due to the limitations of time/side. SO:
A: Bates – Assimilate – Moodswings – Itinerant
B: Like Blood – Elephant – Youth
C: Kibitzer – Safe and Sound – No Still Moment
D: Percolator – Premonition (vinyl bonus)
The crew is the same as it has been, Olli on vocals and keys, Sami on vocals, guitar and bass plus our fixed guests Miri Miettinen on drums and Ella Eriksson on backing vocals.
We’re pretty far re our full length release titled “AERIALS”. All 11 songs have been mixed, sort of. I’ve made version 1 mixes of all and they actually sound pretty damn nice! I’m still going to go to Finnvox Studios and use the beutiful sounding (and looking!) Studio F to go thru the songs a second time. I’m convinced that they will get quite a bit better still. Of course 2 songs are already mastered (Safe and Sound & Elephant) as they were released as singles during this fall, so actually I have only 9 songs to plow through.
Pate Pesonius, our art director, has already almost finished with the cover art so as soon as I’ve gone thru the songs and Olli has approved the mixes, they will be delivered to Pauli Saastamoinen @ Finnvox Mastering. Pauli will master both vinyl and digital versions of the album. We are facing the challenge of selecting the “correct” songs for the vinyl as the space is quite limited (about 45 minutes), we have a bit over on hour of material…
The singles can be found here:
We released a new single “Elephant” last friday (28.05.2021). Basic crew, myself on guitars, basses, backing vocals etc, Olli on lead vocals and keys plus Miri on drums. As on the previous single “Safe and Sound”, Ella E. provided lovely backing vocals. Mixed by yours truly, mastered by the one and only Pauli Saastamoinen @ Finnvox. Cover as per usual by Pate Pesonius, cover image by Vincent Ledvina / Unsplash.
Yes, after a prolonged hiatus (been busy on all other fronts…) I managed to round up the guys and we did a song called “Plight”. It’s out on this friday from all mojor streaming platforms. This time around Miri Miettinen sat on the drum stool, but otherwise the line-up is the same: Me on guitars, some keys, some basses and background vocals, Teijo on lead vocals and lead keys, Samu on bass, Pepa on wind instruments and Pekka on vibes. Hope You enjoy it!
