Finland's Ozone Player Releases Orange Apples

Otso Pakarinen is a wonderfully talented performer and composer from Helsinki, Finland, who performs under the moniker Ozone Player. He has a new CD, Orange Apples, which leans in a solidly Prog angle with lots of guitar, bass, and drums, but is equally captivating and a delightful pair for his last CD, the synth heavy Frozen Paint On Boiling Canvas.

The song titles for Otso's tunes are actually as fun as the music, and the songs on Orange Apples are no exception: "Extrasenory Deprivation" features some wonderful talking/yelling synths with a mechano-Ponderosa feel.

"Orange Apples" brings back memories from last year's Different Skies when I had the pleasure of performing a preview of this tune with Otso and a cast of great musicians. It is a frenetic and smooth, and reminds me of something Zappa would have composed.


"Animal Pharm" starts very Tibetian and has a Wendy Carlos just tempered sound. As with all Otso's tunes, the soundstage is open and stunning, with plenty of space for the ambiance of the space the instruments are sitting in.

"Lemons And Lizards" brings in some nicely proggy counter-rhythms and lines into the percussion heavy proceedings. A great mix where all little melodies and buried sound design work can be heard clearly. Delicate and heavy.

"Two Completely Unprepared Pianos Under Attack" was also previewed live at the last Different Skies. Stately grand pianos are attacked as they saunter down the lane. But they refuse to yield and the battle that ensues is a hilarious as it is musical. The funniest neo-classical heavy metal this year!

"Escape Goat" ranges from a funky, bass heavy, prog tune, to a contemplative harp folk song, and back. Early Genesis via Finland without PG.

"A Turtle's Diary" is a lovely band tune featuring some nice piano work.

"Apocalypso Yo-Yo" starts with some vocorder admonishments and morphs into middle eastern flavored synth, then the band kicks in, jamming.

"Infer No. 21" begins with strings and piano and drums, then jumps into all manner of classic and modern prog antics. Otso is so good at making you feel like you've heard this music before on some classic album, but then takes it in a direction that is so new and modern. "Book Of Worms" continues this approach, adding a bit of progress fusion jazz into the mix (with Brian Good's wonderful soprano sax). As does "Dog-Matic".

"Helsinki" ends the CD with bang of electric guitar, female voice, synths, whistles, and acoustic strings.

Otso's last CD Frozen Paint On Boiling Canvas was a Best CD Of The Year Selection for many folks a couple of years ago and contained some of the most interesting and well produced electronic music I've heard in a long while. Both CDs can be found and listened to at CDBaby.com: Orange Apples and Frozen Paint. They are also on iTunes.
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Four Questions: Kim Ware of The Good Graces

Kim Ware has operated an indie label called eskimo kiss records since 2000 as well as played drums in countless bands (most recently Mary O. Harrison and Chickens and Pigs, and best known for her time spent in the Wilmington, NC indie trio Pacer), and now also fronts The Good Graces, which she started in early 2007 after acquiring a $90 guitar from a flea market. Ephemeral Radio checks in with the indie powerhouse.

Question 1: What's up with The Good Graces?

Wow, lots. But I'll give you the short version and resist trying to be clever and/or saying something silly like "fighting crimes." We're playing shows... a few coming up in town at Kavarna and also in Athens for the annual Athens Popfest. Also releasing our debut CD Sunset Over Saxapahaw this fall.


Question 2: What's it like going from the back of the drum kit to the front of the band singing and playing guitar?

Oh wow it is SO different. I had gotten really comfortable on drums, having been a drummer in different bands for about 15 years now. I guess for me the main difference is with drums I never feel like I'm the main focus, I'm more just the gel that holds everything together.

But singing and playing guitar, I'm really putting myself out there; I think for most people the main thing they focus on when listening to music is the vocals and melody, so for me the biggest difference is just getting accustomed to feeling like what I'm doing is the bigger focus rather than something that is sort of in the background.

Don't get me wrong, I think the drummer really is integral to the band keeping it together and things sounding good. So that's a little bit of pressure I guess but it's nothing compared to being up there playing MY songs, singing words that I wrote about my own experiences.

Question 3: What's your favorite thing about the Georgia music scene? Your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing is the diversity. On any night of the week you can go to a different bar, hear something completely different than the night before but walk away impressed by what you just heard. I don't even get out that much, but when i do I'm blown away by all the opportunities there are here to see some really great music. It's really hard for me to pick a least favorite thing, because I really do see so many positive things going on with the scene here.

So I guess I'd say maybe my favorite thing is also my least favorite. Sometimes there's so much going on that I get overwhelmed. I'm the type of person that feels like I have to take advantage of all the cool stuff going on, otherwise I'll feel like I'm missing out on something. So I think that's the curse of living in a larger city; sometimes it can just wear me out!

Question 4: Tell us about the recording process for your new CD.

Well, I did a portion of it with Jerry Kee at his studio in Mebane, NC. Jerry is amazing and has produced records for practically anybody who's anybody in the NC indierock scene... Superchunk, Polvo, Kingsbury Manx, all sorts of folks. I did a few songs with him and John McNicholas, who plays guitar with me, joined me for that session.

The rest I recorded with Jay Manley, also in NC. Jay plays guitar for an awesome power pop band called Velvet, he and his wife (and band-mate) Jane used to live in Wilmington where I'm from, and I put out their first record on eskimo kiss.

Anyway, they have this amazing home studio in an old farmhouse in the middle of the woods. It was such a relaxed, fun experience hanging out with them, I ended up doing a few more songs there than I had planned because the whole experience was just very inspiring.

For both sessions I laid down the foundation of the songs, which is vocals and the acoustic guitar. Then we all added various bits and pieces to sort of bring the songs to life...that was the funnest part, adding some of my ideas and seeing what the others could bring to the table. I'm really excited about it; some songs stay sort of stripped down and true to how they originated, but some of them really did venture into new territories that I had not even imagined, which I think is the coolest part about collaboration.
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