Song-by-Song: ‘Voices Of A First Day’ by Jonsjooel

Jonsjooel: “Sometimes I like to remould an old song until it becomes a totally new piece.” Photo: Jonne Heinonen

Complete with chopstick percussion, the Finnish artist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist takes us inside the cinematic soundscape of his new EP

A Finnish artist based in Berlin whose sonic bathtub is filled with folk, jazz, and electronica until it overflows with bubbling colour, Jonsjooel makes music that is both poignant and cinematic. Following on from his 2023 album, Lullabies For Younger Self, an homage to his late grandmother, his new EP Voices Of A First Day was inspired by nature and has a title adapted from Robert Lawlor’s book on the relationship between Australia’s indigenous people and the land, Voices Of The First Day. It’s also an exploration of our spiritual connection with the natural world. Here he explains how he created the EP’s evocative sound…

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GOODBYE AH

Starting with the hardest one. First I composed the piano part that felt good and hypnotic. That was the only thing that was easy with this song. Everything else was a proper struggle, but sometimes songs are born like that. Ok, maybe the drum part was actually an enjoyable experience since I just love playing drums. Everything else took a long time to find the right feeling. But it was worth it. Like it usually is.

SOMEWHERE ELSE THAN HERE

This is sort of a spinoff of one of my other songs. Sometimes I like to remould an old song until it becomes a totally new piece with basically nothing left from the “original”. This song came out very intuitively and the only challenge was to figure out a drum track. Anything with real drums didn’t seem to fit to it, so I ended up playing my water bottle and a table with chopsticks. It was just small enough to fit with this thick piano track, which is, by the way, played with a regular upright piano with an octave doubling.

VOICES OF A FIRST DAY

My personal favourite of the EP. It’s made by using only my Moog Subsequent 37 which is a monophonic synth so, apart from the arpeggiated lead, I had to play every line separately. I just love that instrument. It is so versatile yet simple and inspiring. While composing this, there was a point I felt like l was starting to float. That is when I knew this is going to be important for me.

Jonsjooel: “As a composer, I’m really intuitive and really don’t like to think about anything theoretical.” Photo: Jonne Heinonen

SO MANY WAYS

For a brief time, I had this great instrument called ContinuuMini and you play it by sliding one or two fingers on the board. One time I was experimenting with the instrument, trying to find moods and feelings. But the recording ended up in my demo folder and stayed there for a year or so. I found it when I was gathering potential material for my EP. I immediately felt there was something about it and wrote lyrics for it. It all came so effortlessly. As the ContinuuMini was filling the spectrum already, I decided to keep it as simple as possible and added only some vocals.

VOICES

For the base of this song, I sampled my own vocals and played them with an OP-1 sampler keyboard. I was looking for something that resembles choral music. For me, making music is mostly trying to find different feelings and energies, letting my emotions be the guide. As a composer, I’m really intuitive and really don’t like to think about anything theoretical. With this song, I made a nice mental trip to the summery woods.

Jonsjooel’s Voices Of A First Day EP is out now via Kieku Records. Find out more at jonsjooel.com

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