MELUN MAA / LAND OF NOISE
Melun Maa aka Land of Noise is a documentary about finnish noise scene. Documentary takes a look of current noise artists in Finland.
What was the starting point of their noise career? What pushes people to work with extreme sounds and play underground shows? What about their gear or influences?
Land of Noise documentary focuses on new noise boom in Finland and its artists.
Documentary includes interviews from:
Veikko (Mogao, Fricsvel, The New Boyfriends)
Vilho (Aprapat, The New Boyfriends)
Janne (Augmented Atrocity, Kovana)
Santeri (Circle of Shit, Junta)
Mika (Unclean, Stinkfinger)
Hannu (Amek-Maj, YANA)
Janne (Atrophist)
Ahola & Silander
Kenneth (Bryskt)
Jukka (Näsiä)
Documentary will be released 19.7. on youtube.
Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiamtqoDmGM
I'm stoked by this! Can't wait til friday.
Interview with documentary director Olli Tanskanen and some other talk about current Finnish noise:
https://special-interests.net/main/melun-maa-land-of-noise/
Now in youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiamtqoDmGM
Great! Thank you so much for doing this, Mr. Tanskanen!
And of course thanks to everyone, who was part of it!
Would love to see more like this!
Quote from: cr on July 20, 2024, 12:07:39 AMGreat! Thank you so much for doing this, Mr. Tanskanen!
And of course thanks to everyone, who was part of it!
Would love to see more like this!
This was definitely good, the hour's length passed very fast. Good pacing too, with related still photos, artworks and live footage as well as sound samples spliced amidst the talking heads.
Great work. As someone who does not live in Finland, I can say that this was a welcome view into the mindset of many artists whose work I appreciate.
Good selection of artists of the new wave of Finnish noise, comprehensive choice of topics and overall really well put together. Good job Mr. Tanskanen, kiitos.
(roughly translated from Finnish feedback I wrote) :
The just-released documentary Melun Maa - Land of Noise maps active Finnish noise makers at the moment. There are so many creators in Finland these days that an hour's documentary is in a way a narrow sample in relation to the number of creators that are out there. Even if counting just the new ones! Surely many will be left wondering what about the one and theother that would definitely be needed to be there. But no. The topics are covered in an exemplary manner with guys who are in it.
Documentary is balanced on the border of being suitable for a wide variety of audiences. It's sufficiently basic and comprehensible that even remotely interested music fan can get some idea of ��what it's all about. The sound creators characterize the typical features of the expression or ways of working the sound, at the level of physical doing, and do not go into too weird philosophical discussions. On top of that, we delve into stories that often deal with time and place, i.e. Finland at this moment. This is not a history of the genre, and it does not deal with noise as a historical phenomenon. Not the history of the genre in general, nor the history of Finnish noise.
Noise as an own experience, filtered through our own interests and our own personality, happening in the time and place where we are now. This could be essential so the material retains that fresh life force and even in some way a unique perspective when the authors are not prisoners of the genre's history, repeating other people's approaches. If something is repeated in noise, it's not a problem if it happens honestly within the framework of one's own personality.
In documentary, it becomes very clear how noisecians that look or sound "the same" on the surface change when looking more closely. Although certain ideas about making of noise and the details of the equipment to be used are repeated over and over again, in the end it becomes clear how little of of strictly "genre noise" is made in Finland. There is precisely that kind of expression that is, perhaps, suitably removed from the burdens of history. Meaning, there might not be "need of belonging" to it.
Documentary approach was very DIY. "Let's do what we can and share it online for free". A documentary made with exactly zero budget can easily be criticized for, for example, the somewhat unfinished soundtrack or the dullness of the some of the shooting locations, etc.. Guy sitting in chair at dull blank wall etc. Thing that I personally appreciate, can always be summed up in the fact: It will get done!
Some beauty flaws or imperfection are also built-in features within noise itself, so I feel same type of "lets make things happening" is way more crucial than does the documentary technical side live up to expectations of TV or movie theatre level productions. I actually watched this already twice, hah, so this would indicates that more of these should be done, perhaps with slightly different approaches. And further more, I guess folks around the world could see example what could be done with almost zero technical & financial possibilities.
Great stuff, well done to all involved.
One little niggle that isn't necessarily about this docko but about Noise dockos in general. Invariably, almost inevitably, the question "what is Noise?" is brought up. And I think it's worth noting that here we are today, over a century after the "Art of Noise" manifesto, the whole musique concrete movement, "Metal Machine Music", and the use of noise in more popular musics like rock, just to mention a few obvious examples; not to mention just how widespread Noise as a whole is world-wide now, if we just take the 1970's/'80's as a starting point.
Not saying it shouldn't be asked, and for a lot of people it's important. I just think it's kind of like asking someone these days "what is jazz?" or "what is hip-hop?" or something. Are people really that ignorant of Noise as a genre?
After a few spins I agree everything
Great documentary, really appreciate it.
Makes me think about "scenes" though; why dont every country with a noise scene come together as you finns do? What is the difference? Something in the water?
From a Swedish perspective I think there is a lot going on here as well, but it is more scattered, separated, not as intense (or maybe I am just missing it?).
I talked about this with some other people. Mentioning that for example Canada... there are: gigs, fests, zine(s), distro, label activity, old globally known artists, new artists coming, at least seemingly very vibrant scene going on, but is there this... sort of idea of "canadian noise" as a thing? But would it become, if it would be done in a way of compilation series of Canadian noise, documentary of it, and so on?
It could be very hard to put on words what is required to become "globally interesting" phenomena. We can see it in music too. Lets say Finnish hardcore, Finnish Black Metal, Finnish funeral doom, all that sort of things are globally acknowledged things just like Swedish death metal or Swedish D-beat crust or Norwegian Black Metal have been. A lot of countries have good bands, but you don't see books about Bulgarian BM or Greek punkrock? Could be out there, but haven't seen.
(Sub)cultures exists in unpredictable ways that may be impossible to explain. Some countries may have more happening, but there is no notion of it. Sometimes it is recognized as something unique. Lets say like Brazilian noisecore of the 90's. There is no phenomena like that elsewhere.
I would have merely hypothesis why these things happen over here, and not sure if it is very important either. Over here, a lot on underground music flourishes in quite unusual ways.
As great as this documentary is, it also made so many people say "there should be this, that..." and indeed, there would be more to cover. Hopefully people do! If one felt more women needs to be represented, by all means, go find them and made documentary. Same for dark side of noise etc.
When I think of "Finnish noise", what comes to mind are the originality and skill of each artist, rather than a specific sound. Same thing with Finnish metal. "Swedish death metal" reminds me of a certain sound: usually something like early Entombed.
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on July 22, 2024, 10:23:42 PMIt could be very hard to put on words what is required to become "globally interesting" phenomena. We can see it in music too. Lets say Finnish hardcore, Finnish Black Metal, Finnish funeral doom, all that sort of things are globally acknowledged things just like Swedish death metal or Swedish D-beat crust or Norwegian Black Metal have been. A lot of countries have good bands, but you don't see books about Bulgarian BM or Greek punkrock? Could be out there, but haven't seen.
I think that the relative physical and cultural "isolation" of Finland might have some impact on the UG expression that has been made here. When the scene operates away from the cultural hotspots like i.e. Berlin or London, it might produce stuff that sounds and feels unique and isn't uniform in expression that might be the case when you are under the constant exposure to the social interactions and influences.
There has been at least two studies that deal with the "Oulu rock" phenomenon and the birth of the local scene. It suggested that the participants of that study felt that the physical and spiritual distance between the city of Oulu and southern cities in Finland have created this kind of stubborn DIY spirit within UG and rock scenes in Oulu. That spirit combined with the relatively small sized scene have created positive feedback loop kind of situation where the actors are supporting each others with their individual expressions and even the obscure influences can have crossover potential and impact. Maybe there is something like this happening when we are discussing "Finnish noise" phenomenon?
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on July 22, 2024, 10:23:42 PMAs great as this documentary is, it also made so many people say "there should be this, that..." and indeed, there would be more to cover. Hopefully people do! If one felt more women needs to be represented, by all means, go find them and made documentary. Same for dark side of noise etc.
Some of the critiscism that was made in this certain Finnish forum seemed like that it has this overtly negative "väärin tehty"-mindset or even negative bias towards noise in general. But it is what is!
Quote from: Commander15 on July 23, 2024, 08:58:10 AMSome of the critiscism that was made in this certain Finnish forum seemed like that it has this overtly negative "väärin tehty"-mindset or even negative bias towards noise in general. But it is what is!
Oh dear. Let me guess: you wade through 5 pages of garbage to find one post that's actually on topic and contributes something?
Quote from: Atrophist on July 23, 2024, 06:55:10 PMQuote from: Commander15 on July 23, 2024, 08:58:10 AMSome of the critiscism that was made in this certain Finnish forum seemed like that it has this overtly negative "väärin tehty"-mindset or even negative bias towards noise in general. But it is what is!
Oh dear. Let me guess: you wade through 5 pages of garbage to find one post that's actually on topic and contributes something?
Well besides the tired "shit eating nazi" kind of jokes and nearly zero on-topic messages there was maybe two or three messages that made some sense at all.
Quote from: Commander15 on July 23, 2024, 08:43:41 PMQuote from: Atrophist on July 23, 2024, 06:55:10 PMQuote from: Commander15 on July 23, 2024, 08:58:10 AMSome of the critiscism that was made in this certain Finnish forum seemed like that it has this overtly negative "väärin tehty"-mindset or even negative bias towards noise in general. But it is what is!
Oh dear. Let me guess: you wade through 5 pages of garbage to find one post that's actually on topic and contributes something?
Well besides the tired "shit eating nazi" kind of jokes and nearly zero on-topic messages there was maybe two or three messages that made some sense at all.
And in the end everyone is baffled by "How come in 2024 only MEN are talking about noise?!" The question could be interesting, but the baseline is that females should be put forefront, even though there hardly is anyone. The only prominent female figure that comes to my mind, is/was M.V of Kovana. But I'm not sure if she's involved with noise anymore after Kovana ended? She was a great performer with strong stage presence.
I am sure this particular finnish forum often presents just fine questions related to noise, that could be interesting to discuss. It just usually won't happen over there.
Like question of lack of female presence in documentary, not sure if it is particularly good question, but it is something that can be asked, and would be very easy to answer as well. If documentary is about things that actually exists and has happened in context of theme of the document (real deal noise, not experimental sound, performance art, etc)... Then that's that.
I think the absolute core idea, that can be found from documentary as well as SI interview with director, is that it is all up to just doing it.
As encouragement, I am sure director could give even exact details what was being used. What I could mention from technical aspects, almost all live footage is smartphone videos. They are pretty damn good in quality. At least good enough for DIY documentary. Part of the interviews are that too. Software used to edit the video is free for anyone to download. If you got half decent phone, you don't need even computer. You can download something like capcut or anything like it, and you're pretty much ready to go. For advanced and higher aiming documentarists, one might want to look into lavalier mic and avoid the loud hollow room echos and distance quiet interview sound. That's like 30 euro investment and you get the broadcast quality sound.
Knowing that this is it, makes question interesting. Next step is merely the thing that is both blessing but also curse of DIY: One has to actually do it. No money needed really, just prioritizing what you spend your time with. Almost everybody has technology accessible. Also free instant distribution is just matter of signing up to video streaming service. Melun Maa should work as encouragement that (theoretically) anyone can do it.
Congrats Kuollutmato for making this documentary! I have not seen it yet because I want to watch it together with my partner and with proper speakers. I cannot speak about the quality of the film but I sure know it is a pioneer work that documents a special moment in Finnish DIY music and encourages others to make films about noise.
Excellent documentary. Had a chance to watch today and thoroughly enjoyed it!
I watched the documentary a couple of days ago.
Very nice, interesting discussions with a DIY touch that fits perfectly with the genre.
When I watch a documentary (or read a music book) I usually consider two things to understand if it works (at least for me):
- did it make me want to listen to the mentioned bands?
- did it give me the idea of doing something similar?
In this case the answer is yes to both questions.