The attic is a mysterious place. Should you hear a slight crackle from upstairs in the middle of the night you can never be completely sure what it was or wasn't. A mouse? Perhaps.
The attic can also be a place of creation. A sanctuary. At least if you ask Finnish woodwinds multi-instrumentalist Hepa Halme. For a couple of years, his trusty mini-studio in the attic of a summer cottage in Pornainen has been a getaway and office at the same time. An artist's office, that is.
Complete with a heavily-slanting ceiling, a window small enough too keep the dim in and even your average beehive featuring real live buzzing residents, Hepa's attic has witnessed many a late night turned early morning solitary jam session. When you come to think of the distinct smell and feel of a good attic, a bright summer's night, perhaps a sparrow in the sky somewhere, it almost seems that creation is a compulsory course of events in these tranquil surroundings.
And indeed, created Hepa has. Much has changed in the business of making music since the first notes that ended up on this record saw the light of day. In fact, one of the main instigators for this album has been the fruitful employment of handy technology. Starting from scratch and applying layer after layer, summer after summer, Hepa Halme has built an audio mosaic minimalistic in many ways, yet so delicate in detail that it's only fair it has taken him some years to complete. Some of the ideas on this record even date back to the dawn of the 1980's when Hepa entered the local music scene.
There's freedom of improvisation within Hepa's framework of, yes indeed, "attic jazz". But there's also form. These are songs. And this is where Mr.Halme is when you're missing him in the sweaty streets of Helsinki on a scorching midsummer's afternoon.
So there you go; a retrospect of sounds arranged into new compositions spanning a man's entire career thus far. Not bad, eh?
Perhaps this fine occasion even calls for a Shakespeare misquote: "If attic be the food of jazz, stay on".
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"Halme's three decades of musical experience is well showcased on [Prospektor's] seven tracks".
Risto Nevanlinna, Finnish Music Quarterly 3/08
check the new 7 inch vinyl only release by Gagle'Funky Instrumentals' (production by DJ Mitsu the Beats) on Mukatsuku records (MUKAT 007)which is out now !!!
Gilles Peterson played both tracks on National radio 'love both sides !' -Mr Scruff 'Dope !' Simbad 'Very Effective'-Mad Mats -Raw Fusion 'Played on BBC Radio 1 Xtra filling in for Benji B'-Domu
Cut & paste this link to see and hear Mukatsuku releases
www. juno. co. uk/labels/Mukatsuku/
and click the Gagle link on my page to go straight to the release to listen to both sides of the record.
