Big Jim Sullivan and Coral Sitar on Space: 1999 - "The Troubled Spirit"

Teaser scene from Space: 1999 episode "The Troubled Spirit" (1974)

Big Jim Sullivan (b. 1941) is a British guitarist and session musician, who also learned to play the sitar under the guidance of Vilayat Khan and released two albums of sitar music. Sullivan provided the eerie improvisation with the Coral sitar for the Space: 1999 episode "The Troubled Spirit" (1974).

Space: 1999 - Year 1 CD @ Discogs

The Sperm: Shh! Re-Release on De Stijl

(A scan taken from a copy belonging or having belonged to Heikki Harma a.k.a. Hector...?)

Artist: The Sperm
Title: Shh!
Format: 12" vinyl LP
Cat.no.: IND 039 (original: ORLP 0)
Label: De Stijl Records (original: O Records)
Year: 1970 (original) / 2008 (re-release)

Tracklist:

A1. Heinäsirkat ("Locusts")
A2. Korvapoliklinikka Hesperia ("Ear Clinic Hesperia")
B1. Jazz, Jazz
B2. Dodekafoninen Talvisota ("Dodecaphonic Winter War")

De Stijl label announces a vinyl re-release of Shh!, the heavily collected 1970 album of Helsinki's controversial experimental improvisational/performance act The Sperm, originally out on the band's own O Records and featuring in its line-up such people as Pekka Airaksinen (known also for many solo albums now enjoying an international cult reputation), Jan-Olof Mallander (nowadays an art critic) and Mattijuhani Koponen (a poet/actor and the most notorious member of the band, who had a prison sentence after having a performance of a simulated sexual intercourse on a grand piano). Also guitarist Vladimir "Nikke" Nikamo, who had a brief stint in early Wigwam, participated in the compositions of this album.

Press release notes from De Stilj:

"soon forthcoming is a totally legit LP only reissue of this amazing Helsinki monsterpiece from 1970. Shh! is primarily a document of Pekka Airaksinen's experimental compostions, consisting of primitive samples, guitar loop feedback and musique concrete.

Sperm also functioned as a wildly theatrical live act ala Dionysis in '69, that would arrange underground happenings, occasionally inspiring a rallied public outcry against the derisive act of public sex atop a grand piano.

ooh la la..."

FinnScene - The Early Years of Finnish Electronic & Avantgarde Music @ pHinnWeb

Avarus September 2008 US Tour Video Clips

Avarus live @ the Beach House, Pleasant Beach, NJ, 1 Sep '08


Avarus live @ Cakeshop, NYC, 6 Sep '08, Part 1

Avarus live @ Cakeshop, NYC, 6 Sep '08, Part 2

Avarus live @ Cakeshop, NYC, 6 Sep '08, Part 3

More Avarus search results @ YouTube

And also: Avarus live @ Death by Audio, Brooklyn, 6 Sep '08.

Furthermore, Avarus recorded on 7 September a live session at WFMU, which will be out later on.

Avarus @ Wikipedia

Concert For A Nameless Island

Concert For A Nameless Island (2008)

Timo Kaukolampi, Tuomo Puranen (both of Op:l Bastards) and Mi Duncker perform in a spontaneous midsummer concert for a nameless island. Camera & edit: Gun Holmström. Filmed in the archipelago of Southern Finland (Inkoo/Ingå).

Tididii Tididii Tididiididii @ Mutant Sounds

Mutant Sounds now mentions and offers downloads of Tididii Tididii Tididiididii (LTJ-05/06), a 2003 release on Hannu Haahti's CD-R label 267 Lattajjjaa. With 160 minutes of music from psychedelic folk to improvisation to electronic noodlings, this compilation was like a Who's Who of Finnish underground music scene of the time, with some international guest stars included too.

And oh, yours truly and his mighty(?) Yamaha Portasound can be heard there also, as part of No Scene (Disc 2, track 25: '230801'): the track is an electronic-ish improvisation jam taped at No Scene club in August 2001 at Tampere's Telakka.

No Scene was another sadly short-lived electronic music club, run by American ex-pat and electronic musician Nathan Siter who lives here in Tampere (check his 12" on German label Zhark). I recall the people playing on the track were at least Nathan, Joonas of Toiminto, Perttu Piirto of Ever Had (another criminally underrated Tampere electronic musician!) also playing Syd Barrett-like electric guitar there, pHinn and some other people (including a female vocalist) whose names elude me now. This ensemble consisted of different artists and DJs playing at the club, who gathered together at the end of the night to do this jam session, on a "free-for-all" basis. Because I remember the pained expressions on some punters' faces who had to listen to our extended improvisation... To save your own nerves, the track is edited for the compilation.

Avarus Story @ Cleveland Scene

Cleveland Scene features a story on Finnish psych/improv unit Avarus:

http://www.clevescene.com/2007-07-04/music/cosmic-or-drunk/

Oh my, they have also quoted yours truly in the story:

"Scoffing at the 'Yankee critics' who perpetuate this Garden of Eden rubbish, the Finnish blogger pHinnWeb (a.k.a. Erkki Rautio) recently posted a jpg of Tampere, the city where Avarus came together in 2001. The photograph captures an industrial river cutting through aging factories and black smokestacks. It's the Flats.

pHinn believes indie types from the United States and the U.K. need a haven -- even if it exists solely in their minds -- where they can hide from the ugly, post-9/11 world their countries have created. That place is exotic Finland, and you can get there by listening to hip bands with wondrously unpronounceable names like Kemialliset Ystävät, the Anaksimandros, and Avarus."

Avarus @ Last.FM

(By the way, whatever happened to MySpace Avarus site...?)