1st February

February 1, 2004

Saturday saw Centrozoon performing as a part of a festival of electronic music which also included UK band, Radio Massacre International (genuinely nice people making a fine noise in the style of the early-mid 1970s work of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze) and an intriguing Finnish band, Cartes Art Machine, featuring legendary local Jazz musician Juhani Aatlonen (Wigwam, Pekka Pohjola, Edward Vesala, Arild Anderson, Tasavalan Presidentte etc…).

The CAM created an impressive and original music that blended late-1960s Jazz and Rock experiment and European Classical chord voicings with a contemporary Ambient and electronic sonic awareness. Using several laptops and two bizarre self-made instruments, the end result justified the time they took in getting their complex sound right.

The ideal contrast between the three bands combined with the lovely venue, helpful people and excellent sound inspires Centrozoon to possibly its best trio performance ever.

Markus experiments with his new sampler and I integrate my voiceloops into the fabric of the group approach to good effect. An epic ‘Bigger Space’, intimate ‘The Me I Knew’ and a couple of good improvisations leave us, as well as the audience, wanting more. Visually accompanied by a large screen projecting the evocative black and white film ‘Landed, 20x’ by Telemach Wiesinger, the show looks as good as it sounds.

Interviewed and recorded by YLE (the Finnish equivalent to the BBC), a one hour Centrozoon special will be broadcast over the next fortnight.

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It’s Sunday afternoon in Espoo, and after a record overnight snowfall of 30cm, along with Markus, Bernhard and Ola, I’m in a bare living room surrounded by wires and abandoned coffee cups. We’re improvising textures with well-known Finnish avant-garde composer and author Petri Kuljuntausta (who enjoyed the Centrozoon performance of the previous night and suggested we meet up for a ‘cosmic jam’).

Outside, snow and icicles hang heavy on endless pine trees.

Inside, the music acts as a perfect mirror of the beautiful desolation around us.