Janne Halonen
Finnish group Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble is set to release a new album on March 23rd, 2018 titled "We Are Together." The majority of the music was written by members Janne Halonen and Noël Saïzonou on location in the exotic village of Grand-Popo, Benin, West-Africa in April 2017. Once you listen to the collection of songs on the album, you will notice the influence of the African rhythms on their very unique jazz/fusion sound. The ensemble will roll out the album in Berlin on the 23rd of March 2018, as well as in their home country in a show at Tavastia club, Helsinki on 11th of April 2018. I recently asked Janne a few questions about the process of making this album.
R.V.B. - Congratulations on the upcoming Helsinki - Cotonou Ensemble's album "We are together." It contains a nice variety of songs, with a signature African continental feel with a mix of popular jazz/funk. What is behind the title of the album and what were you guys shooting for as far as a musical concept for the album?
J.H. - Thank you Robert. I’m glad you’ve taken the time to listen to the record, and based on the feeling I get from your questions, you seem to appreciate it. The title of the record is very much in line with all the previous titles we’ve had: it’s originally a phrase that we use a lot when talking to each other. ”We are together” is a phrase especially Noël uses every time when we part our ways, or manage to find a solution to a problem.
On the other hand we think the message it contains also suits very well to today’s polarized climate of attitudes and opinions. It’s very good to remind people, that despite all our differences, at the end of the day we are all together on this planet. So the title of the album has sort of both global and local dimensions to it.
The album itself isn’t really a concept album by any means. I guess the main difference compared to previous records is that, due to being signed by a real label (Bafe’s Factory), this time we were facilitated a lot better in terms of time, money and team. There’s more variety in detail of production side of things, while the ingredients of the music are pretty much the same as before.
Of course some natural development of the band can also be heard throughout the record: We have played a lot together over the years, and this time around most of the members contributed as composers/arrangers, while before all that was done mostly by myself and Noël Saïzonou.
R.V.B. - There are three different mixes of the single off the album "One Shot." Would this be for different clubs what may have a different atmosphere? It sure has a party feel.
J.H. - Well sort of yes. To me only the DJ Hermanni Afrobeats Remix is actually straight forward enough for a club environment, but of course you never know what appeals to who at the end of the day.
The band version is obviously the most modern (or club) sounding piece of music we have ever written. However if you compare it to the stuff that is actually being played at Afrobeat parties, it’s still sort of ”old school” with all the Live -instruments etc in it. The idea about the remixes came a bit by accident, since I played the song to DJ Hermanni, who’s a promoter and a DJ for the biggest Afromusic Club in Helsinki ”Afro Sunday”. We were working together on a completely different project, but it just sort of came up, that he liked the song and was willing to give a shot at remixing it. Then once we had the idea of remixes on the table, our keyboardist Visa Oscar got into it too. He had already played a big role in doing the drum programming for the band version, so it felt really natural to have him give the song a full-on treatment. That’s how the 2nd remix came about.
R.V.B. - Did you approach this album in a different way from precious albums?
J.H. - Like I mentioned before, as we develop and become increasingly unified as a group, the intention is to get everyone more and more involved in the creative process. There are plenty of brilliant musical minds in the band. It feels that more we get people involved in the writing, the more committed everyone will feel about the music, and the less it’s possible to ever run out of ideas.
R.V.B. - I understand you went to West Africa to get away specifically to write material for the record. How did these surroundings help in the writing process?
J.H. - The number one thing is to get out of your normal environment. Once you announce you’re going to Africa, always the phone stops ringing, emails stop piling and for a while you become free of your normal life responsibilities. I guess people kind of consider you gone, when you check out to Africa! That is usually very liberating for creativity. For the entire 2 and half weeks I was in Benin, I had my mind working on the music 24-7, except for the times I was playing basketball with the youngsters of Grand-Popo.
I was prepared to jam a lot with Noël during the writing sessions, since that’s usually a good way to get fresh arrangement ideas. However this time the Voodoo priests had forbidden drumming on the entire Grand-Popo area for three months, so our writing process needed to be much more vocal and have emphasis on making good demos right away. So basically we spent a lot of time in front of a computer screen, since we were not allowed to play.
Obviously there’s always something about Africa and the hot weather, that makes you write in a certain tone. In Finland music tends to be more serious and less playful.
R.V.B. - Is it a challenge to have nine musicians contribute to the Helsinki - Cotonou Ensemble sound. It is very unique?
J.H. - It is challenging. I think it comes down to working in smaller groups, which is what we do a lot, especially when it comes to being creative. There’s so much technical stuff about the music, that you don’t want to waste everyone's time on solving something that doesn’t directly concern them. I try to lead the band in a manner, that everyone has their say and gets to contribute, but all the times when we’re actually in the same rooms, I’ll be the chairman try to make the session as effective as possible.
R.V.B. - Can you give me a brief description of the band members?
J.H. - Noël Saïzonou - the lead vocalist, percussionist and other main lyricist/ composer. A highly talented and ambitious guy originally from Porto Novo, Benin. He has a great knowledge on traditional Beninese music styles and Voodoo tradition, as well as most of the standard brass band repertoire of Benin. He also used to be by instructor to traditional Beninese music and still is a great friend.
Juha Räsänen - my go-to drummer in most styles. We got to know each other by jamming some Rhythm & Blues stuff together at this one music camp. Very used musician in Finnish all-around-musician scene. Has a weekly talk show gig in national tv. Also a close friend and a master of ceremony always when we go out after a gig.
Sampo Riskilä - Met him at the same time as Juha, somewhere in 2009. These days my main guy in the administration side of the band. During our friendship he has turned from an old-school rock/r’& b bass player into this Hi-fi 5-string thumb slapping groove machine. From Northern Finland, brutal sense of humor and storytelling abilities.
Visa Oscar - A versatile keyboardist and doctoral student of jazz music in Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. Has great knowledge of synthesizers and music tech in general. The mad scientist of the band. His early idols include Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul and his jazz vocabulary is amazingly wide. Before HCE we had worked together in numerous theatre projects, various bands and couple of studio works.
Menard Mponda - The last person to join the band. He’s from Tanzania but has lived in Finland for 25 years. Great solid hard-grooving percussionist and a charismatic performer. His traditional Tanzanian low pitched percussions create a nice full bottom for Noel’s more aggressive and solistic style of playing.
Mikko Pettinen - a multi talent. Plays trumpet in the band but carries a lot of weight also as a background singer. Really good vocalist and keyboardist on top of being internationally awarded trumpet soloist. Is a regular 2nd trumpet at UMO Jazz Orchestra, which is the only professional big band in Finland.
Joakim Berghäll - a highly employed multi instrumentalist with saxophone being his main media of creativity. We’ve known each other for a long time, but not really worked extensively together before this band. This is the guy who covers Corey Henry’s solo on a Snarky Puppy -song ”Lingus” playing all the instruments. You can look it up on Youtube.
R.V.B. - How do you promote your live shows? How do you explain your style to a prospective venue owner?
J.H. - I’m so glad that isn’t really my job as much anymore. We’ve done our best to find other people to do that job for us. However, if I was to do it myself, I would probably quote this one fRoots journalist who said ”Fela meets Weather Reports” and have him/her watch some videos.
R.V.B. - What are your plans to support the new album?
J.H. - To play as much as possible. I know we should do videos probably, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get to that this time around.
R.V.B. - Can you give me an example of some memorable gigs that the band has had?
J.H. - Probably my personal favourite was at Montreal Jazz Festival in summer 2016. It was the first show ever on North American soil. The stage was huge, it was packed with audience and we were on fire. That show also sort of represented something to us, that we had been able to make something happen.
Also the very first summer when we were touring, in 2013 had several memorable moments to it, as well as our Benin tour in fall 2015. That one was a special adventure.
R.V.B. - The song "Bourian" is sung without any musical accompaniment and done very well. What are you trying to get across with this particular song?”Bourian” is kind of a reminder of where it all started from: the traditional music of Benin and especially the music of Voodoo. The traditional music of Benin contains mostly only vocals and percussion, and to be able to understand any contemporary artists coming out of Benin, such as Lionel Loueke or Angelique Kidjo, one needs to dive into the world of traditional drumming. That is also the key to everything we do, so we wanted to include a snippet of that sound on the record.
R.V.B. - What is the future goals of Helsinki - Cotonou Ensemble?
J.H. - To be honest, we are probably for the first time in a situation, where we haven’t really written out concrete future goals. We obviously would like to take the band back to Canada, and extend the tour to US and Mexico as well. There are also at least 3 ideas for new record concepts and dozens of ideas for other things we could do. I guess once we get this one out, master the songs for Live performances and get done with all the shows scheduled to this spring and summer, we need to take a moment, sit down as a group and evaluate where we are and where do we want to go from here. Personally I feel we are in a really nice place, with an expanding management team, a great new record and a developing group of musicians who are also committed.
R.V.B. - How does voodoo mix into your music? What kind of power and mystique can it add?
J.H. - The joke inside the band is, that it never rains during our shows, because Noël can control the weather. It might be even true, since it never has!
Seriously speaking the root of our music, the very fountain we get all the fundamental ingredients from, is the Voodoo drums and bells. Noël also is such a wise and genuinely good person, and super charged performer, that he probably drives some of his energy from sources not available to general public. I can’t explain it any other way.
However, generally speaking people in the band come from very differing backgrounds and have a lot of variety in their level of interest towards voodoo. I find it interesting and intriguing, but at the same time very different to grasp or understand, since I think major parts of it are secret to a guy like me.
So to make a long answer short: Noël certainly has a lot of powers and I don’t really know where they come from. With the rest of us, not so much relation to voodoo.
Interview conducted by Robert von Bernewitz
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For more information on Helsinki - Cotonou Ensemble visit their website www.helsinkicotonouensemble.com
Special thanks to Aija Lehtonen at Bafe's Factory www.bafesfactory.fi/hce/
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