The Red Light District
Beatmag’s regular technical columnist James Spectrum (AKA Jari Salo of Pepe Deluxe)
Uncannily many writings of ancient people worldwide tell the same story, that of decline from an original age of imagination and hope. Mysterious artifacts and sites around the world have been created with help of knowledge and culture more advanced than our current one. This ‘Golden Age’ is perhaps best captured in the legendary monument known as “’TWA Flight Center’, designed by Arch-Architect Eero Saarinen. While it’s impossible to fully understand the depth of Saarinen’s genius, leading popular experts agree on what is most likely the original source and inspiration for his seemingly unlimited creative power: his childhood home.
Eero was born, brought up and trained by his Master-Architect father Eliel, with whom he shared the same birthday, in a mystical mountain hideout called Hvitträsk. Like something straight outta ‘Lord Of The Rings’, the main Hvitträsk building is a striking example of architectural synergy. Almost every single interior detail, including art, dishes and furniture (that is often built-it), was specially designed to match the building and the surrounding landscape. Whereas great architecture is often described as ‘frozen music’, Hvitträsk, praised by the national composer Jean Sibelius, is a place of movement and transition. This unique concept was later refined to phenomenal perfection by Eero in the TWA Terminal.
In stark contrast to both Saarinen’s inspirational fireworks we have the way-too-common cookie cutter anti-design, emphasizing hellish monotony, boredom and eternal suffering, as experienced in offices, laboratories, hospitals and quite surprisingly also in temples of sound, aka ‘studios’. In his book ‘Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity’ (1995) Marc Auge uses terms “places for passing through, for forgetting, for not occupying” when defining modern airports … but he could as well be writing about the spaces where most contemporary albums are created. One cannot but wonder if this is one of the main reasons why fresh ideas in music are as common as decent generals in Burma.
Combining the Pepe cornerstone philosophies of “If it looks good, it probably sounds good” and “name first, then the rest” with a deep desire to have at least one completely new musical concept on the next album, we decided to approach the renovation of our main studio from a slightly different angle. This meant a lot of groundbreaking research and development work as at the time of writing this text “recording studio design” gives over 27000 hits on Google whereas “recording studio decoration” results in what is known as “magic number” (yip, three!!!). For example we were so sure that there would be tons of information about using puppet theaters as opto-sonical diffusers (a device that distributes waves evenly) that it took us several weeks before we gave in, stopped searching, and build a working model based on out personal preferences.
But let’s not get ahead of things! The name of our spanking new playroom is Sanctum Sanctorum. The Latin phrase means literally ‘Holy of Holies’, but in common usage can also be applied to mean any private and much-valued place. Sort of volcano hideout for the good guys. We found out that it’s also the name of Dr. Strange’s residence in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Both the buildings have many oddities, but contrary to Strange’s mansion, in Pepe HQ there would appear to be less space inside that would seem from outside!
The entrance to the studio is called The Hall Of The Six True Kings. Next to a golden door there are portraits of the following characters:
1. Elvis (the Czar of Kings) rowing a boat on a lake in Finland.
2. 3-D Godzilla (the King of Monsters) crossing the interdimensional border.
3. Carl Gustaf (the King of the Sweden), ruler of the Garden of Eden.
4. Arsene Lupin (the Patron Saint and King of Sample Users) winking an eye.
5. Conan (the King of Self Made Men) with Red Sonja.
6. Emperor Norton (the King of the Lost Kingdom of America) riding a bike.
Among the other decoration in the hall and located directly above the entrance door, there is a small framed document. It is an official declaration that James Spectrum has been awarded the Noble Title of Baron from the Royal Family of Sealand. Sealand (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand)is one of the very few countries whose name has never appeared on Amnesty International’s report of human rights violations, and yet it is not a country of sissies and spineless hippies either, no sir. In 1968 it defended itself successfully against United Kingdom, a country that was about seven million times bigger in population. The combination of these two important facts made the title impossible to refuse when it was offered earlier this year.
In the next issue I will venture to the main chamber and you will hear the eye-misting tale of the Dark Knight. Until then, stay decent!
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I was going crazy with the last Gunners game the other week, i hope we can keep the points up and get top of the premier league, Come on you gunners!