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14.04.2009: Acoustic adventures

Acoustic adventures

Before Easter we finally carried out our long-planned idea of acoustic concerts in Finnish concert halls. For this purpose we chose four smaller-sized halls (400-600 seats) which we had found suitable for acoustic singing on our previous visits: Kuusankoski Hall, Sello Hall, Raahe Hall, and Vaasa City Hall. They all proved to have just as good acoustic qualities as we had recalled. Especially the largest of the four, the Kuusankoski Hall, impressed us with its beautiful reverb and yet extremely distinguishable sound all the way to the back row. As musicians we’re pretty lucky to live in a country where there are wonderful concert halls in almost every community, unlike some other countries we’ve toured over the years.

Acoustic singing, especially without the forgiveness provided by church acoustics, is a good thing for a group to do every now and then; somehow you just try and sing even more precisely than the usual when you're well aware that ABSOLUTELY EVERY LITTLE THING can be heard and discerned by the audience, and besides, you can’t expect the sound guy to help you out… By the way, our sound wizard Ilu was there with us on this tour as well, this time only backstage recording the concerts for possible future use – maybe even publication in some parts. We haven’t yet had the time to listen through the recordings, but I’m positive it’s gonna be very interesting and educational, no matter if there’s something fit to be published or not.

Our adaptability was put to the test when we had one amplified concert in the middle of the acoustic tour – funny enough, in a hall called Akustiikka (“Acoustics”) in Ylivieska. This didn’t seem to cause any particular musical difficulties, but for some reason in the middle of La Dolce Vita there was a hysterical fit of laughter within the group, which gradually assumed such vast dimensions that we had severe difficulties finishing the song. That’s the magic of a live situation; sometimes you don’t realize what’s happening until it has already happened. :-)

Easter was celebrated on holidays, and next we’re heading for our first Estonian tour! The Estonian State Concert Agency is promoting four concerts in four days in major concert halls around the country. It seems like the Baltic Sea region is finally opening up for us as a market, which would of course be convenient for us, as much as we love travelling the whole wide world…

I wish you beautiful spring days!

Hannu