Sporing Promenade by Jüppala Kääpiö

this digital file edition comes with the pdf booklet.


Our first album "Sporing Promenade" was mostly produced in Canada during our stay in the second half part of 2007.
While strolling in the vast forest, we made a lot of recordings in the environmental sound by handy instruments, such as kalimba, flute, pitch pipe, also various objects such as nuts, stones that we found on the way, as well as our voice.

Then we made 'spontaneous compositions' with instruments such as viola, zither, melodica and effect pedals at home, along with the impression of our strolling and recordings from the forest. Those became the basis of this album.
A part of the recordings, from a concert in Montreal which was made with the same concept, and our first session in Geneva in Autumn 2006, were added to the basis. Then, this album was compiled as the first document of our collaboration.

Folk, Post Rock, Classic : that were Carole’ main influences. Drone, Ambient, Noise, Ethnic Music : that became the basis of Hitoshi's activity as a sound artist.
We think that our quite intuitive way of blending those influences caused this album to obtain a unique style.
The folded aspect of layered various sounds reminded us lamellae of mushrooms. So, we call our music "Lamellate Folklore" since those days.

The album were also visually enriched by the photos of plants, animals, landscapes that we took in Canada, Carole's stuffed dolls and Hitoshi's drawings, which are contained in a gatefold package and a 12 pages booklet.
We would be delighted if the people who obtains this album actually visit forests, and experience their own "Sporing Promenade" there.


私たちのファーストアルバム「スポアリングプロムナード」は、2007年後半に、私たちが滞在したカナダで主に制作されました。
その地の広大な森の中を散策しながら、親指オルガン・笛・ピッチパイプなどの持ち歩き易い楽器、道すがら見つけた木の実・石など、様々な「物」と声を使って、その環境音の中でたくさんの録音をしました。

その散策の印象をたどりながら、森の中での録音を使い、ビオラ・チター・メロディカなどの楽器やエフェクトペダルを用いて、自宅で行った「即興コンポジション」が、このアルバムの根幹になりました。
それに、同様のアイディアで行ったモントリオールでのコンサートと、2006年秋にジュネーブで行った、私たちの最初のレコーディングセッションからの抜粋を一部加えて、私たちの共同活動の最初のドキュメントとしてまとめたのがこのアルバムです。

キャロルが影響を受けてきた、フォーク・ポストロック・クラシックと、ひとしのサウンドアーティストとしての活動の基盤になった、ドローン・アンビエント・ノイズ・民族音楽などの影響が直感的に入り交じった事で、このアルバムのユニークなスタイルが出来上がったと考えています。
色々な音が重なって一つにまとまっている様相が、キノコの傘の下の薄皮「ラメラ」を思わせる事から、私たちは当時より自らの音楽を「ラメレート・フォルクローレ」と呼んできました。

ゲートフォールドパッケージと12ページのブックレットの中には、キャロルが作ったぬいぐるみ、ひとしのドローイング、カナダで撮った植物、動物や風景の写真も収められていて、視覚的にも楽しめるアルバムになりました。
このアルバムを手にした方々が実際に森へ赴き、そこでそれぞれの「スポアリング・プロムナード」を楽しんでいただければ、私たちにとってそれ以上の喜びはありません。


Review

Jüppala Kääpiö take us on a Sporing Promenade, a very sylvian-pastoral escapade where the watercolour-styled music is a series of meandering acoustic twitters, drones and peeps, surrounded at all times by forest-like atmospheres and evocative sound effects.
The singing voices which wail and hum in airy tones as though wafted into our lugs on a gentle breeze are particularly affecting.

Inside the booklet there are charming woollen dolls of elves, gnomes, and other forest sprites, photographed amongst nature’s glory (leaves, mushrooms, dew) in delicate, dream-like colours.
In fact the whole album exudes a distant, dreamy air that you could use while reading Alice in Wonderland.

The band may have a Finnish name and exhibit concerns we would associate with the wood-dwelling Finnish Free Folk brigade, but in fact they are German and Japanese - the husband and wife team of Carole Zweifel and Hitoshi Kojo, who also records as Spiracle (producing memorably minimal drone pieces).
A very convincing “take” on certain territories staked out by say, Jeph Jerman and Loren Chasse.

Ed Pinsent (The Sound Projector)

omnimemento is a sound archive of Hitoshi Kojo since 2005 to present, after the move to Europe from Japan.

The titles are in chronological order of the original works/releases, not by the release dates of the digital editions here.
So some new releases might be displayed in the lower part of this page.

The older works are archived as Octpia.
https://octpia.bandcamp.com

omnimemento.com
Octpia - Hitoshi Kojo
YouTube
SoundCloud
discogs.com