Music to love and enjoy
"Zero e um (Ett och noll)" was launched as our single because of the captivating symmetries of its original melodic structure, its lyrical content and for the strength it gains by combining the two.
In "Zero e um" love is a match. In our Brazilian version whoever gets either the "zero" or the "one" is anyway a winner: true love is surely given and received symmetrically.
Bo Kasper originally wrote this fabulous song in Swedish, with allusions to the bossa style. So we added shades of Brazilian rhythms that are not much known in Europe: such as "baião". Still, like Ronaldinho dribbling, the tune stays on same tempo, even if it swaps at times between bossa and baião. Not an easy choice for sure, but that’s the idea in Toninho’s arrangement (not to mention his nylon guitar and electric or acoustic violin parts): he really got our crew in the Aeroplane to dance it in their souls while playing. The jump was quite O.K. for Fabio Oliveira (7 string classical Liikanen guitar) since he is from my town in Brazil (São Paulo), and he’s an expert on chorinho music (yes, we will get this style it in the album too), which is pure dribbling with music. One of the greatest challenges was to dream up a north-east Brazilian sound and style for Olga Shiskina (39 string Koistinen kantele). Olga is a mega classical champion in gusli, the Russian instrument that is a relative to its Finnish kantele, and our band wanted to prove that kantele isn't just a folkloric instrument, but can enter the mix in jazz, bossa and baião and even African styles too. Pekka Kolehmainen laid down a powerful bass part for us: leaping from bossa to baião needed a rock solid, experienced and creative musician, but at same with that musical body language that is typical of our roads in Copacabana. Jussi Mäkelä is an incredibly skilled percussionist. To have a clue as to how he works: in our previous album he played an entire samba school alone! So, we got him cruising out his unique "pandeiro" touch against a "Nordestino" triangle, generating an incredible feeling of love with just two instruments. Juha Tanninen is one of the true Finnish cognoscenti of the different Brazilian rhythms, and I often wonder whether he knows more than most Brazilians themselves. Juha is a typical Brazilian drummer (for instance, when he came to make our video, he forgot to bring his drums). Anyway, he did even better, inventing a drum from scratch and in real time. Anders Östling is a veteran in our Brazilian Aeroplane band, he links our bossa to jazz. He couldn't come to the studio to work with us exactly that day for Zero e um, but Toninho and I wanted him so much that … we faked his style! Yeah, Toninho borrowed an electric guitar from Marko Ala-Turkia of St. Paul's Sound (our sound gear experts) and imagined what he would have wanted Anders to play. Man, Toninho did it! Again. Anyway, Anders himself is with us in the album. Leri Leskinen is a mega star on the Finnish production music, and we were honoured when he put his talent for keyboards into the single as well. Tommi Vainikainen recorded and edited the arrangement. It is, of course, his job, but one could clearly see that he was having a lot of fun too, and he even added a drum line for us. Our Zero e um was made at Leri Musical Studios Ltd. form Helsinki.
No musical work sounds its best if it isn't mastered with skill and heart. So, I couldn't take any risk with a piece like this. The quality of Bo Kasper’s original music is so massively high-level that I hired Svante at Chartmakers Ltd. from Helsinki to give it his blessing.
Now, how about the video?
This project was extremely fortunate on it as well. ?
In Helsinki there's a company called Also Starring Ltd. where they don't just make advertising videos, they actually are the top creative folks in the area. The stroke of luck was that they liked our idea, and their work made it even more unique. Markus Virpiö directed it, combining elements completely different from the usual Brazilian clichés. So he took the video as a real movie, a short but lovely Scandinavian one (yes, we needed it to be Scandinavian since we are targeting Brazil – Nordic people and culture are a super exotic thing as far as Brazilians are concerned!). Jarmo Mäkinen was our main actor in the video: a superstar who usually plays the bad (Finnish) guy in Swedish films. I am really happy that he accepted the invitation to work with us on our movie, and it does at least have the consolation that its storyboard is one of the rare ones in which he doesn’t get shot in the end! ?We are working at the moment to have it accessible as soon as possible.
As I always say:
"Being an optimist is a condition of birth, but music might have something to do with it".
"Being an optimist is a condition of birth, but music might have something to do with it".
Remarkable and nice news:
- iTunes
- Helsingin Sanomat
Inquiries /
Tiedustelut: 0505149025
Distribution
Agreements: Generare Oy Ltd. (Jakelu ja sopimukset)
Suomen jakelu: Töölön musiikkitukku Oy
Visit Bo Kaspers Orkester's official site, you should consider buying his original songs in Swedish if you haven't done that yet:
www.bokaspers.com
Bo Kaspers Orkester original music is sold also on iTunes
Kantele is a very special Finnish instrument. Our band is glad to introduce it for the very first time into the bossa and jazz style.
Endless thanks for our studios:
www.leri.fi and
www.finnvox.fi
Video production as short movies, gifted creative media professionals:
www.alsostarring.fi
Skills and creativity from our sound gear supplier:
www.stpaulssound.fi
Mastering as a form of music bless:
Unique Search Engine Optimization and IT, also our Independent Label and Producer: