Sounding Times by the blassics

When we started talking about the possibility of celebrating the 10-year journey at our studio and rehearsal space through releasing a compilation, we faced a problem: how to select the tunes to give the listener a hint of the atmospheres and energies of our musical voyage? And as Victor said, selection is also a sort of discrimination, choosing one over another. While some tracks ended up on this compilation, the silences between the tracks are equally important, packed with openings to a multiplicity of tunes, records, places and temporalities.

There are many recording sessions we still feel in our bodies. For instance, "Block Hipat”, Mikko, Hanna and Ville-Pekka say in accord. 50 degrees Celsius and the sun shines in, sweat drops from the eyebrows, the whole orchestra swings with a joint pulse, after finishing, we hear hand clapping from the street through the open window, dogs barking, continues Ville-Pekka.

Many memories of the recording sessions are related to the feel of ”getting lost into the music together”, such as in "Wanna have some delicacies" that we used to call "11-8" due to its time signature. Jukka remembers another lengthy composition, "Hagerun Geleba", and says that in the LP version we managed to capture something great, border-crossing and deeply affecting, pieces locking together.

We like to record our music live with no overdubs. How did it feel playing it, is more important for a question than whether or not it was absolutely flawless in terms of the notes and accents each of us played. We usually play one or two takes (three maximum) per a session to keep the groove intuitive and fresh, like in "Ruff Strut", continues Juha, that is more on the funky side of The Blassics, giving a version of a groove also some funk greats have spent time with. In our live sets, we often combine this crazy live-bomb with "Horn OK Please", a piece of music that was put together after the concerts we did in Pune, India. On this album, you can hear an early demo of this tune. Another curiosity is the relaxified version of ”Afrohustler”, an airy piece from our debut LP that has been in heavy rotation on Joona’s turntable.

On this compilation we have included many tracks that have not been published before. "Yeketema Sét" is a composition we have played on the gigs quite a few times, its lyrics adapting on old Ethiopian folk song and being about falling in love, says Miki. "Special Occasion" and "West Side Glory" take us to the atmospheres at our more recent sessions with a heightened focus on jamming and experimentation (and a bit of producing). For us, jamming is a way to bring to the table, listen and hear each other’s recent nourishments, ideas, and troubles too, before they, through repetition, maybe become more stabilized narratives or ways of delivery.

It has been so cozy, easy, and relaxed to play, rehearse and record at the studio. Having been able to do so for the past 10 years is something we are most grateful for. For it having been possible to have the space for so many years, and to have each other on the ongoing musical journey, has deeply and lovingly affected us. We hope that, with this release, we can put some of these uplifting and worlding energies into circulation and that they will find places to land, connect and grow into inspiration to come.

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