Faemi Mini

Faemi Mini, another russian instrument I had back in the day.

I found this unit at a flea market in Lahti sometime in late 90's. It came in a brown shoulder-strapped vinyl carrying bag. It was really easy to imagine how a little prodigy would be carrying her / his instrument in it on the way to the virtuoso monophonic playing class.

These imaginations are not totally unjustified, since  -despite the looks  -  there is something strangely professional about Faemi mini.

The price was 20 Finnish marks, little over 3 euros. I had it customized with power supply and audio connector which set me back about six times what I paid for the instrument itself, but it was well worth it.

Faemi mini is a curious little beast. The sounds it makes are RAW: powerful, unstable and fascinating. The organ style rocking switches give a surprisingly large variation of timbres for such a small instrument, way more than you'd think for something that looks like it is intended for children. I have never seen the mythical "Telstar" keyboard Clavioline in flesh, but it seems that these two keyboards share some tonal qualities.

Interestingly, if you open the machine you find that each key has a screw for tuning them independently. Not that this helped me in any way, I never  got Faemi to play in proper tune. I later passed this keyboard to Jari Suominen (of Shogun Kunitoki fame) who already had one and had also been using it in his band.

Here is what the very same Faemi looks like nowadays as part of Mr. Suominen's gig setup:

Faemi mini at Ruskeys.net

Elekronika EM 26

Going down the memory lane: Elektronika EM26, a russian string machine / vocoder I used to have.

It is solidly built in metal case and it's looks are clearly influenced by Roland SH-101, the dimensions are also about the same. The switches and sliders are not of very good quality, but functional.

It is sometimes called a synthesizer, but with full polyphony and the kind of sound it makes I would rather call it an organ with sort of string machine-y sound.

The vocoder section is more like a basic EQ, and the machine is not capable of generating decipherable words, for example.

The overall sound is somewhat spartan, sort of cold with no proper bottom. I didn't find too much use for it, but the instrument has certain industrial air to it, which someone undoubtedly might find appealing.

Elektronika EM26 at Ruskeys.net

New album release from Harmoniüm!

ARTIST: Harmoniüm

RELEASE: Optikon

FORMAT: Digital

Cat.#: PAR-008

LABEL: Pacific-Atlantic Records

RELEASE DATE: 4th March 2012

FILE UNDER: Ambient, Noise, Abstract 

HARMONIÜM – OPTIKON

Theoretically, a sonic vessel travelling to other celestial bodies such as the 55 Cancri b, could carry with them waves or other auditive artefacts ubiquitous on Earth, thus raising the possibility that we can seed music on other planetary bodies.

This is a concern among researchers who try to prevent Earth contamination from distorting data, especially in regards to finding possible extraterrestrial music.

Even the best sterilization techniques cannot guarantee that potentially invasive rhythmic or tonal materials will not be unintentionally carried along. The harsh environments encountered throughout the rest of the solar system so far do not seem to support complex terrestrial sound design.

However, material exchange in form of meteor impacts has existed and will exist in the solar system even without human intervention.

Track listing:

Earthrise 05:00

Portrait - Landscape 10:00

Difference Engine 05:00

Panspermia 09:59

Total running time 29:59

This album is composed of both purely synthesized elements and field recordings. Recording locations: Parainen, Helsinki and Hanko. 

Composed and mixed at Pacific-Atlantic Studios by Twisted Krister, July 2011 – March 2012. 

Instruments: Doepfer + Din Sync modular synthesizer, Korg Monotribe, EHX Freeze, Boss SYB-3 and DSD-2 FX pedals, PC audio edit suite.

Released 4th March 2012

Cat. # PAR-008

LISTEN and DOWNLOAD at BANDCAMP