#pHinnWeb

[phinnweb]

I've been asked for a showreel of my short films and other video works, so here's at least the first version. Full credits can be found from the video link.

[randomvarious]

Pansonic - “Koilinen” Clicks_+_Cuts 2000 Ambient / Avant Garde / Minimalism

From a quote found on pHinnWeb, an online compendium devoted to Finnish electronic music:

Stewart Home interviewed by Max Mumskill in Bizarre magazine, September 1999:

"You've just had a baby boy. What will it be like growing up in the Home household?"

"I'm playing him a lot of Pan Sonic. An American guy called Dr Al Ackerman has been doing a lot of research into music and how it effects a child's development. The traditional view is that Mozart increases a baby's intelligence but, from what I understand of Dr Ackerman's research, although it may take them forward a bit it makes them conformist. Minimal techno like Pan Sonic and Nocturnal Emissions would appear to make children non-conformist."

Turku, Finland’s Pan Sonic (formerly known as Panasonic until a 1998 cease & desist order) were a minimalist electronic group who, from 1993 until their disbandment in 2009, were known for taking in bits and pieces from a wide range of disparate influences and spitting out combinations of sound that had never been tried before. They drew from the musique concrète of the 50s, industrial titans like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Suicide, and other genres like reggae, dub, hip hop, techno, and noise. And although you could point out all of these influences individually, you couldn’t say that Pan Sonic were fusionists or practitioners of any of the genres that inspired them. They took all these small pieces from the music they loved to create their own highly unique works.

They were also famously electronic music Luddites who fully rejected the idea of using computers to create music. Pan Sonic were analogue through and through and even used custom-built equipment to craft their distinctive sound. From their bio on pHinnWeb:

...Pan sonic have increasingly delved into modern sampler technology as of late. The group also has an "extra member" called Jari Lehtinen who's responsible for building Pan sonic's instruments with which their extraordinary humming sounds have been created. Mika describes their custom equipment: "We have a synthesizer which is one big box that has twelve oscillators on it; you can connect them to each other and modulate them together. We also have this small synthesizer which is built to an old typewriter -- we call it 'Typewriter'. We have several drum modules to make rhythmic sounds which we are using with an 808. Jari Lehtinen is also building us this large synthesizer that will have eight oscillators and a cross connection board, like the early 70s, late 60s synthesizers." Alongside Typewriter, also known as "Complex Sound Generator" there is also a self-built, approximately six metre-long infrasonic tube, called "John Holmes".

Pan Sonic had started as a duo, then grew to a trio, and then reduced themselves back down to a duo in 1996. They released two albums in 2000, one with American minimalist composer, Charlemagne Palestine, and the other with German author and journalist, Andreas Ammer, Einstürzende Neubauten’s F.M. Einheit, German/Danish electronic band Gry (of which Einheit was a member), and German actor and director Günter Rüger. In addition to those two albums, Pan Sonic also had an exclusive song called “Koilinen” appear on the German experimental, minimal techno, and glitch label, Mille Plateaux’s double-disc, Clicks_+_Cuts. 

“Koilinen” represents the concept of how reverb can manifest naturally when only large swathes of emptiness surround it. This idea is best displayed with the growing domino effect that Pan Sonic create with the song’s crisp, snapping and clicking sound, which can only be assumed to have been produced with ‘Typewriter.’ Originally, they start with singular snapping clicks, but these quickly progress into clicks that cause pattering chain reactions of more clicks, which, if you listen to with headphones, you can hear simultaneously travel in both left and right directions. Pan Sonic also do their best to replicate the sound of a hooting owl, which also produces reverb as it replaces every third bong of the kick drum. In the background, a sinister synthesizer buzz begins to materialize and slowly grow. When this buzz hits its peak level of resonance, the owl hooting disappears, and after a few more bars, the buzz is replaced by a low, oscillating hum, which is a sound that was probably generated by one of the band’s custom instruments. As this occurs, the snapping clicks briefly morph into a chorus of cricket-like chirps. Pan Sonic then do a reset, rearranging the same elements around a new kick-and-owl-hoot rhythm, yielding a different, but similar combination of sounds.

Innovative avant garde stuff from this long-lasting Finnish duo. Some years following their break-up, member Mika Vainio would pass in 2017 after tragically falling from a cliff into the sea. Rest in peace.

[phinnweb]

[phinnweb]

The situation now is that, based on the audience feedback from my “Marokon Kauhu” documentary’s July premiere in Kokkola, it was decided to make a new edit that will be about half the length of the original 100 minutes version that was shown at the premiere. The removed sections will possibly become extra materials for the release or even freely available as YouTube videos, depending on what will be agreed between us who contributed to the documentary.

Tilanne on nyt, että Kokkolan heinäkuun ensi-illasta saadun katsojapalautteen perusteella ohjaamani ja käsikirjoittamani ”Marokon Kauhu” -dokkari päätettiin leikata ensi-iltaversiota noin puolta lyhyemmäksi. Leikatut osuudet tulevat mahdollisesti julkaisun lisämateriaaleiksi tai YouTube-videoiksi, aivan riippuen mitä tekijäosapuolten kesken sovitaan.

[phinnweb]

[phinnweb]

2024 in a nutshell: My first professional film project, the war documentary Marokon kauhu (The Terror of Morocco a.k.a. Aarne Juutilainen) was finally ready and got into distribution. As a personal project, being able to finish Amuri Tekno, an interview documentary of a local electronic duo, after nearly three years since its filming, was also important for me.

Of the other stuff, I was glad I got back the taste for writing, with a quite lengthy text of our local Club Telex (that took place at the turn of the millennium) finished at the end of the year (with an option for some possible future additions).

There was also a sort of artist biography/tribute to the late J Saul Kane (a.k.a. Depth Charge a.k.a. The Octagon Man), of UK, that I started to write almost as soon as the news of his passing reached me (of all the people we lost in 2024, this one personally hit me the hardest). 2025: on its way, another war documentary, JR29, where my role is as the editor. I’d like to work more on my writing, screenplays, too. As finding one's way to work as a professional film-maker in this country (and getting past the gatekeepers) seems to be extremely hard, I have kept open the prospects of being involved in all sorts of DIY/”outsider art” type of productions, as a more realistic option, perhaps.

[phinnweb]

17.10. vietetään Asunnottomien yötä. Viisi vuotta sitten tehtiin tämä dokumentti. Kivisen Timo (Pictura Films) ohjasi, minä tein käsikirjoituksen "Katrin" draamaosuuteen, joka pohjautui tositarinaan. Tämä ihminen ei halunnut esiintyä omilla kasvoillaan, joten ensin haastattelin häntä ja tein sitten haastattelun pohjalta kässärin. "Katria" esitti Sonja Häkkinen, joka oli myös Kuiskaaja-lyhärissäni sekä Sitkee sydän -minisarjassa, jota niin ikään kirjoitin. (Lisäksi muita näyttelijöitä mainituista projekteista on mukana draamaosuudessa.) Dokumentissa esiintyvät entinen asunnoton Sipa ja avustustyöntekijä Pekka Matilainen ovat molemmat nyt kuolleet.

--

17th of October is in Finland the Night of the Homeless. This documentary was made five years ago. Timo Kivinen (Pictura Films) directed, I wrote the script for the docudrama sequence about "Katri", which was based on a true story. This person didn't want to appear with her own face, so I first interviewed her and then wrote a screenplay based on the interview. The role of "Katri" was played by Sonja Häkkinen, who was also in my Kuiskaaja/The Stage Whisperer short film and in the Sitkee Sydän/The Resilient Heart miniseries, which I also wrote. (In addition, other actors from the mentioned projects are involved in the docudrama sequence.) Former homeless person Sipa and social worker Pekka Matilainen, who appear in the documentary, have both passed away now.

[phinnweb]

Amuri Tekno are Miika Salo and Miska Väänänen, hailing from Tampere, Finland. Their music is a homegrown blend of Detroit-inspired techno, tech-house, acid house, IDM, and ambient. They have released on such Finnish record labels as Kontact Records, Spin Records and Turun Levytehdas. They are both of the generation who was coming of age during the halcyon days of the early 1990s techno music and rave culture explosion which spread also to some more peripheral regions outside the obvious Detroit-London-Berlin axis, and furthermore, spawned such new musical genres as IDM and drum & bass. For some years now pHinnWeb has been a big fan of Amuri Tekno's music, so it was time to find out about their origins, ideas and views. For the interview, often accompanied by a hearty laughter, they share their insights not only about their own productions and instruments but also of being long-time music fans, discussing their favourite artists, labels and records, Tampere’s local scene and its history, and electronic music culture in general.

43 minutes. With English subtitles.

[phinnweb]

Amuri Tekno Trailer 2024 (English subtitles)

Amuri Tekno are a techno duo from Tampere, Finland. On Friday 20 September 2024 you can find their full interview, 43 minutes, at pHinnWeb's YouTube channel.

[phinnweb]

[phinnweb]

Postilaatikkoon oli tullut tällainen kysymys. Koska asia voi kiinnostaa muitakin, kysyjälle on varmaankin OK, että julkaisen sen tässä. ”Moi, oletko päivittämässä Phinnwebia? Olisi hienoa jos siellä olisi kaikki suomalaiset julkaisut, onko sinulla muuten kaikki suomalaiset mixtapet, nekin voisi sinne lisätä. Entä miten olisi flyerigalleria, Klubituksessa on jonkinlainen galleria mutta en pidä siitä sivusta erityisemmin. Niiltäkin ne voisi varmaan saada kaikki mitä niillä on. Entä oletko päivittämässä sivujen layouttia? Kiitos hyvästä sivusta!” Vastauksena siis muillekin kiinnostuneille voisin sanoa, että ”Kyllä, mutta…”, eli tässä on lähinnä kyse siitä, että aikaa, energiaa eikä oikein resurssejakaan ole nyt. Olen tällä hetkellä sitoutunut ensi kevääksi tarkoitetun dokumenttielokuvaprojektin tekemiseen, joka vie mainittuja. Ja periaatteessa sama tilanne on ollut jo viimeiset seitsemän – kymmenisen vuotta, kun olen elokuvan tekemistä opiskellut ja siihen liittyviä töitä (ohjaaminen, esi- ja jälkityöt/leikkaaminen, mukaan lukien grafiikat, käsikirjoittaminen, lähdemateriaalin ja arkistojen tutkimus, ym.) tehnyt. Samalla, kun koetan myös oikeasti työllistyä alalla (ja lisäksi työkkäri ohjailee jonkin verran sitä, mitä voin tehdä ja mitä en). Sivusto on ollut koko ajan käytännössä yhden ihmisen projekti, jonka ylläpitoon (satunnaisia auttajia lukuunottamatta, eli he jotka ovat auttaneet grafiikassa, layoutissa, ym., ja tietysti kaikki he, jotka ovat julkaisuista tai muusta tietoa lähettäneet) eikä kustannuksiin ei ole muita osallistunut. Eli tässä esittäisin saman toivomuksen kuin aikaisemminkin: jos sinulla on tarvittavat dataresurssit omasta takaa ja haluat tulla tekemään talkootyötä, etsimään ja kokoamaan tietoja kotimaisista julkaisuista, miksausnauhoista ja tapahtumien flyereista, ym., olet lämpimästi tervetullut mukaan. Ja jos olet paikallisia (Tampereen alue), se on suuri etu, koska parhaiten yhteistyö sujuu, kun voidaan tavata ja suunnitella face-to-face. Toistaiseksi kuitenkin päivitän vain jonkin verran pHinnWebin somea, mutta mitään kaiken kattavaa palvelua en nyt mainituista syistä pysty ylläpitämään.

[phinnweb]

Pullojen Kerääjä – The Bottle Collector (English Subtitles) The 2018 short upscaled to 4K. At pHinnWeb's YouTube.

[phinnweb]

Ohjaamani Marokon Kauhu -draamadokumentin arvio Kokkolassa ilmestyvässä Keskipohjanmaa-lehdessä. Kokkolan ohella dokumenttia pakerrettiin hyvän matkaa myös Tampereella, ja itse dokkari sijoittuu paljolti Laatokan Karjalaan, toki piipahdetaan myös Marokossa ja Pariisissakin. (Kuva: Markku Riipi)

A review of the Marokon Kauhu docufiction that I directed, Keskipohjanmaa paper, Kokkola, Finland.

[phinnweb]

Sitkee Sydän / The Resilient Heart (Pictura Films/Voionmaa Institute 2019). A drama comedy about Finland today.

Playlist

Episodes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

[phinnweb]

[phinnweb]

This is the project I’m currently working on. Premiere 18 July 2023 at Ykspihlaja Festival, Kokkola, Finland. VOD later on (details TBC).

Info:

Captain Aarne Juutilainen (1904-1976), nicknamed "the Terror of Morocco" after his stint in the French Foreign Legion, became the symbol of the Battle of Kollaa in Finnish Winter War of 1939-40. The sniper Simo Häyhä, “the White Death”, was one of Juutilainen’s men. A forthcoming documentary will be an account of Aarne Juutilainen life.

Tuotanto / Produced by: 

Pauli Poranen Production (Kokkola), The Kiljava Institute/Voionmaa Institute (Tampere), The Federation of Education in Central Ostrobothnia & Media Centre LIME (Kokkola) & pHinnWeb/Pispala Noir (Tampere).

Teasers available on YouTube (click “CC” for English subtitles):

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

Teaser 3