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Jori Hulkkonen – Man From Earth

Posted on 04 Novembro 2009

The world we live in, on a very fundamental level, is flawed. On the eve of my tenth album release I’m still writing my own bio and wondering if I should refer to myself in third person, analyze the past 15 years and justify bad career moves as artistic integrity, and promote myself as the unsung hero of techno and house; a mere victim of poorly timed strokes of genius (numerous!) and being born in the wrong part of the world.

Well, sarcasm never really did become me, and irony works only if unnoticed. Double fail. It’s easy enough to google up some old Jori Hulkkonen bio with real biographical info, or check out my discography from my website so I’ll spare you the boring details of my “career”. Ever since the late 80’s when my obsession with all things music started to manifest itself with an increasingly versatile record collection and eventually some synths and experiments in songwriting, it has been quite clear to me that I’m destined to create my life’s work within the business. The problem is that as an idealist cynic with tight grip on realism I’m well aware that ‘the biz’ is a sinking ship more or less, and I’m already dancerously close to the waterline. But the good news is that I stopped caring.

Here’s why:
Having released my first proper artist album in 1996 for the French label F communications (defunct now since 2008, with my album “Errare Machinale Est” as their final release -coincidence?), I’ve managed to do something I never thought would be possible, something that I’m the most proud of all things in my career: never becoming popular. After nine albums, dozens of pseudonym releases on super hot labels (like Rekids and Get Physical just to mention a couple from the past few years), close to a hundred remixes, my own radio show on national radio for more than a decade (in Finland though, so it may not count), thousands of DJ gigs all over the world under my belt (OK I never actually counted but a quick calculation tells me it must be close to 2000 now), producing and writing songs for the likes of Tiga (whom I created in the first place), and having a reputation as a producer who can make an 808 kick drum sound like a jazzy flute, you’d expect that there was a time when I was The Shit. But I never was!

Sure enough there’s a lot people who never were “big”, but are they still working? Releasing albums, singles, getting remix requests and DJing all over after 15 years? No. But I am. And this I see as my greatest achievement and there’s a lesson to be learned everyone: If you never become trendy it’s impossible for you to become untrendy. Will all this change now though with my hotter than hot new album on Turbo, or the buzz around my Acid Symphony Orchestra (a piece I wrote for ten tb-303’s and a 707, conducted by me)? Or the rumored collaboration with Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys? It remains to be seen but I’m dedicated to give my best shot to not let it happen. Man From Earth, my tenth studio album, is the first “Jori Hulkkonen” album not released on the now defunct F communications.

How will this change of label affect my sound? Is this the end of ballads, jazz and ambient? Of course not – not even for me – but the album is a deliberate (as in not forced) departure from the bedroom vibes with focus on jams for the dance crowds. Recorded at my alppIVhouz studios, most of the tracks were intended for 12″ singles so they are not album tracks as such, therefore the album is maybe not as coherent and subtle as some of my previous efforts. But what it may lack in atmospheric synthpads, “Scandinavian mooddesign” and social commentary it makes up in catchy basslines, sizzling hihats and semi-danceable tracks.

Minimaland Feedback: Massive musicality

Tracklisting
01 I Am Dead feat. Jerry Valuri