What Now with Simo

What Now with Simo

By Simo Sakari AaltonenArtsMusic
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What Now with Simo episodes

  • 5.7 In Which I Talk Baloney in the First Collage Episode
    Veil of darkness — Morning row — Swimming on the beaches — Great privilege — My flashlight — Juice left — Creative activities — TV a lot — Arcane matters — Discussion — Completely against — About seven — Word-for-word perfection wandering off to one side — Come out later — Art is a circle — Talking baloney — At Dawn — Fresh inspiration — You will regret it — Properly continue — Early Music — Ten years — That Dark, Dark Night — Crystallisation — Love — An Iceland Symphony — Let them flow — All the feelings — One plus two — “In the Fog, Deep” — Eight is the number of infinity — Dissatisfied seagull — Dying to write — Be more fluid — How it made you feel — The sun has risen — Waterfall — Thunderstorm — Follow a story — Let yourself — Gentle moment — Absolute disaster — Needing to continue — Trying to backpedal but sliding forward — An oldfashioned fruit machine — This is a dance — From November 2022 to May or June 2023 — Cordial invitation — Nauseous — The full range of human emotions — Arm numb — For nothing — Bring some light and some beautiful darkness — What always is very meaningful
    8 min
  • 5.6 In Which I Share Rainy Night Thoughts on My Balcony

    Long period of rains — On my rainy balcony — “Autumn Leaves” — Chet Baker’s version — English lyrics by Johnny Mercer — Forecast — A promise of sun — The rains started — Ray Bradbury’s “The Long Rain” and “All Summer in a Day” — The 1982 TV adaptation — Days for summer dreams — Beaches overrun with blue-green algae — Dangerous — Things I’m here for — Obstacles — Rejected by Finland — Collectively and individually — Outcast — “Die already, Simo, or go away.” — Dreams and aspirations — Resentment — Unfinished thought — Another chance for Finland — Past midnight — Creating the sheet music for Tales from the North, Book I — Long process — Hoped to receive some support for this task — Sleeping in fresh air — Glass panels — Night thoughts — Earlier picnic episode — Inflatable mattress — Exhausted — Burned out — Back to more energy and joy — All the doors remain closed — Seeking support — Not healthy — About my aims — Part of the international community — Kinship — Something I’m not — Not against Finnish things — 2023 — Wish for more understanding of the world and of long-term concerns — Topical, passing — David Lynch and Ray Bradbury — Among the most socially conscious in the deepest, most lasting sense — Universal human subjects that will never go out of date — People who seek to ride passing trends — Different needs — Imaginary exercise — Do you feel a burning desire? — Time-specific struggles — The full spectrum of human emotions — Many kinds of Bradbury stories — Timeless stories — “The Night” — “The Lake” — Beginning of July — All the losses — How much life is behind and how much remains ahead — Futures — Reading people — Seeing into a person’s soul — Beneath the surface — Do I have a future? — Those very special dreams — Art & Love — Second volume close to completion — Real dream experiences — Physical and emotional effects — So many topics and several people — Their beautiful works — I wish — Burning too much — Honesty — Sharing the reality of things — Passing on some humanity and warmth — Idiots downstairs — Good night and wishes

    28 min
  • 5.5 Anti-Podcasting, Demystifying Creativity, and Lasting Work
    Ray Bradbury’s writing process — Secret self — This podcast — 2020 — Spontaneity — Backlog — My wandering way — Some intentions behind my podcast — Almost an anti-podcast podcast — Special guest episodes — One-person operation — No haphazardness — Morning at the lake — Calm — Now you’re closer — Experimentation — Learning — Alan Moore — J. Michael Straczynski — Babylon 5 (1990s) — Online before most of us — Newsgroup — Demystifying the creative process — Obfuscation — Acting out of narcissism — Many different Alan Moores, then only one — Laundry to the laundrette — Occult and mystical subjects — Regular person — Personas — Not my kind of people — An outlet for thoughts and feelings — No local friends — A bug — Sometimes completely aimless — Being a human being — Free of all nonsense, façades, personas… — A record of moments both good and bad — At my best and at my worst — Ensuring this podcast will remain available after my own time — Currency vs. longevity — Glimpses of one person’s life — Breeze — Perceptions — Something I hope will change over time — Celebrities — Simple realities re: all of us — Throwing up, diarrhea, bodily functions — No one any different — A fancy — Heroic, saintly images — Cultivating a mystique — After I finish recording — Letters and conversations — Communicating verbal thoughts — Thoreau and his journal — Our time’s way of doing things — Warning about social media — More permanent, lasting form — Non-fiction book series Art & Love — Second volume nearly finished — Companion series — What Now with Simo vs. Art & Love — Recording things worth recording — Works by others — Written, polished, unlimited series — Accountable — Coming topics — Navigating in this world as an artist — Peter Falk’s memoir Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life — Delightfully constructed book — But that’s another story
    34 min
  • 5.4 Book Vision, More Silence, and Finnish Woods
    Recording conditions — A topic — Filming — Bridge — Last summer — Perfect shot — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems video — The vision of the book — Updated YouTube video descriptions — Illusion or mirage — What caused it? — Long winter wait — Andrew Mellor’s book The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture — Serialised discussion — First two paragraphs — Special, even sacred things — Light in Finnish forests — Immersing oneself — The time problem — Attempts to gain more for creative work — Burning the candle — Weird one — Quoting permission — The sounds of a Finnish lake — People swimming — Finnish architect Alvar Aalto — Quote from musicologist, folklorist, and educationalist Pekka Hako — Buoys — Cushioned recorder — Ambience — Jean Sibelius — Tapiola — Spirit of the forest — “Forest winds and creaking trees” — Disorienting — Structure — Only key shift — Evocation — Silence — Minor to major — Single key — Music I grew up with — Film music — Game music — Background music — The X-Files example — From suspenseful to major — The Shangri-Las: “Leader of the Pack” — A whole story in a few minutes — Amazing composer and arranger (“Shadow” Morton with two co-writers) — The tragic moment — Upward shift — Ecstatic moment of release — Discussions with Pierre Estève — Silence, pauses, negative space — “The natural state” — Rocks — Editing or not — Sleep aid — Bringing light and lightness — Intention — Gull message — Talked out — Being alive — Beauties of the lake — Back to shore
    32 min
  • 5.3 Lake, Respect, and a Simple Question
    The Paul Williams lyrics — Can you guess? — Following up — Talking past things — Too noisy and windy — Not morning — Golden time for lake episodes — The wind — Human and animal activities — Bird fight — Their own business — At the lake and in the boat — Past summers — Ran the boat ashore — Weather forecast — More regular podcasting — Broadcasting — Radio shows — Always liked finding my own way — Maybe just didn’t find the right programmes — Tastes and interests — Northern Exposure — Chris Stevens (“Chris in the Morning”) — His radio show — Ideal — Terrific talk, real honesty, curiosity, great music — End of tangent — One important thing — Train wanderings, thoughtwise — Respect for living performers — Pianists — What I didn’t want to do — That should be theirs — Real performances — The sheet music — For others to take over one day — For this music to be complete — Questioning — One last thing — Adrift — Catching the thought — Fishing — Simple question — Simple answer — Not an option — All I could do — Going home — Salvage something — When it’s like the world is new and young again
    13 min
  • 5.2 Tales of Tales, on a Train, Heading South
    Hello — Song by Paul Williams — “Nice to Be Around” — An interstitial episode — On a train — Family trip — Cup of coffee — Wooden stirrer — Second album — Tales from the North, Book I — 12 pieces — Piano duets — The nature of the album — The primary function — Introducing the pieces into the world — One rendition — For others to perform — Not mimicking actual performances — In the digital realm — In no way “definitive” versions — Liner notes — Not pre-empting — Professional performers — Virtual version of a piano from Abbey Road Studios — Spitfire Audio — Mrs Mills Piano — Bright and loud — Lacquered hammers — Lovely quality of detuning — Nice tang — Limits I set for these renderings — Soft and loud notes on this piano — Transparent results — All kinds of pianos — Tack pianos, honky-tonk style… — Overall volume — Concert grand piano — What some composers have done — Vertegrand — Upright piano — Artistic sensibilities — To demonstrate — Chopin nocturnes and preludes — Interpretations — Text notes — Bandcamp — This piano integral to the composition process of these pieces — Pro Tools — Preferred way of working now — Working directly with the final sounds — Sheet music — An Iceland Symphony — Musical notation — Notation app Notion for iOS, iPads — At a remove from what you want to hear — Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) — More flexible — Better choice — Piano roll interface — Classical music — Faster and better — Horizontal lines — Grid resolutions — Freedom to experiment and make changes — Having the music live — The upshot — Sheet music coming — Something else coming — Thousands of notes to notate — Ownership and copyright — Books — Reasons for self-publishing — Full control — David Lynch — Final cut — Absurdity — Movie example — Editing — Painting — Announcement (Jämsä) — Knowing when something is 100% how it should be — Publishers — Co-creations — Nothing wrong with it as such — Covers — Back cover descriptions — Advertising — Likeminded souls — Horrible covers — Many happier cases — Depends on the individual — Amalgamations of intentions — Pain only starting — Any artist at some point starts to know — Commercial writers — Responsibility — Not about ego — Can’t betray that inner voice — Otherwise distorted — At Dawn: Early Short Stories — Amazon — The earliest of the stories from 2001 — The searching years — My most special things — Magazine anecdote — What would happen then? — In this day and age — 1950s or 1940s — Ray Bradbury — The world has changed — Legwork — Agents — Heartbreak and pain — Tunnel — Sleep aid — Long excursions into wildly peripheral matters — A great purpose — In real life as well — Relationships — Gift of sleep — Learned from Northern Exposure — Bernard — Chris Stevens — Good advice potentially anywhere — Blessings — Office jobs — 3rd anniversary episode with Pierre Estève — YouTube — Mangling — 1st of June — Lake episodes — 10 minutes of your life you’ll never get back — The music of nature — The music of the train — See you soon
    49 min
  • Pierre Estève 2022–2023 Special — Part 2
    Sky Flowers: “Murmuration” pt. 1 (@ 0:00) — Intro — Sky Flowers: “Murmuration” pt. 2 (@ 0:39) — Locations — Megaliths of Carnac in Brittany — Shapes — Sourcier — Pythagore / Pythagoras — Special properties — “Gymnopédie Baaka” pt. 1 (@ 2:34) — “Sunriders” — High place — Echo — Rhythm — “Afterlife” (@ 4:28) — Fresh air — Temperature — Senses — Creating outside — Atlantis II: “The Sunken Isle” (@ 7:01, feat. Alyssa Landry) — Houses — 20th floor — Sunrises, epic storms — Black Moon Chronicles: “Incantation” (@ 10:18) — Theory — “Fairy Tales” (@ 12:06) — Adventure games on an island — L’Île-d’Yeu — Patricia Ruscito, programmer Pierre Gaudillère — Children of 8–18 — Weather — One rule — “Calm Morning” (@ 15:22) — Cameras — Drawings — Schools — Learning by themselves — Surprises — Pedagogically interesting — “Opera Baaka” (@ 19:05) — Adults — Director — Space — Computer voice — Homer Simpson — Perceptions — Dracula: “Harmonic Flow” (@ 22:01) — Learning from each other — Fresh ideas — “Curu” (@ 24:29) — Teacher of English — Research — “Good News from the Multiverse” (@ 27:00) — Communities — Northern Exposure — Deo Gratias: “Gaia” (@ 28:31, feat. Alyssa) — Adolescents — Porn magazine — Justified — Nazi captain — Sweets and a plushie — Pixel art — Teacher of Spanish — Objected at first — The girls helped — Atlantis II: “Knees Up” (@ 33:11) — Le Dossier de la Torpille (The Torpedo File) — U-boats — Coordinates, longitude, latitude — Motivation — Atlantis II: “Fintan’s Tree” (@ 36:51) — Stones — “Toyos” (@ 39:13) — Earlier days — National Education — Atlantis Evolution: “Limules célestes” (@ 41:32) — Sound patrimony — Isturitz — Stalactica — Bone flutes — Spaces — 10,000 to 50,000 years ago — Resonance — Conchs, whistles, rhombes (rhombuses / bullroarers) — Outside — “Forest Spirit” (@ 45:28) — Nature — Greek theatres — Acoustics — Colosseum — Black Moon Chronicles: “Destiny” (@ 49:11, feat. Alyssa) — Applying results — “Honey Joy” (@ 51:25) — CD-Rom extras — Bios of Pierre and of Stéphane Picq — Boring lessons — “Itamaracá” (@ 53:00) — Piano and flute — “Journey to My Roots” (@ 55:34) — Horizontal and vertical culture — Dracula: “Elfin Song” pt. 1 (@ 58:06, feat. Alyssa) — Insights — Notebook — Sharing — Dracula: “Elfin Song” pt. 2 (@ 1:00:45) — Games — “Pacha Mama” (@ 1:02:37) — David Lynch — Musical storytelling — Leonardo da Vinci — Biomimicry — Twin Peaks — Connected — Atlantis II: “Stars” (@ 1:07:15) — Rare artists — “Ombres du Soir” (@ 1:09:26) — Credits — Inspiration — Interviews vs. discussions — Wandering — “Gymnopédie Baaka” pt. 2 (@ 1:14:47) — Studios — Architecture, woodworking — Always more — Atlantis II: “Illumination” (@ 1:18:58)
    1 hr 30 min
  • 5.1 Nordic Insights, Future Plans, and Past and Present

    “Season 5 Opening” (@ 0:00) — Welcome to the heart of Tampere — Café — The year 2023 — Several episodes in preparation — Following season 4 — Collections of full seasons on YouTube — Season 5 will also have other audio elements in every episode — Music — Natural sounds — Lake episodes — Outdoors — Rowboats — Sound design — Context — Anti-podcast podcast — Ginger tea — Andrew Mellor: The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music & Culture (2022) — Need for changes in my life — Immersed in the Nordic countries — Insightful and thoughtful — Another quality I appreciate — The darker sides — Honesty — In the two very first paragraphs — Finland — Journeys abroad — Iceland — Paris — London area — Sidcup — COVID epidemic — Byways of thought — The forbidding nature of Finnish forests — Not fairylands — Vast — Dangers — Profound loneliness — In the right company and places — Wild animals — Bears — Immersing oneself in water — Bathtubs — Premier Inn hotel — Best form of relaxation — Bad decision by some Finns — Born surrounded by lakes — The Land of a Thousand Lakes — Swimming — Close contact with water — Light filtering through the woods — Quote — Many awards — Overwhelmingly positive reviews — A difficulty in my life — Backlog — Writer and composer — The simplest words — My interests in things from other cultures — Gaining perspective by traveling — The Hero’s Journey — An aspect matching human psychology — Deserving of proper concentration — Made me smile — Screenplays — Dream of Snow — The game Serena (2014) — One of four writers — Poem “Oisín and Niamh” — Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems (2022) — Based on a Celtic legend — Myths retold and modified — My version — Clue about blue eyes — Celtic otherworld Tír na nÓg — State of being in love and loved — Book title in the game — Simo Sakari Aaltonen — Finishing the screenplay — Love the format — Films — Long-term agenda — Art & Love, Vol. 2 — 124 short chapters — Concision — Several albums of music — Bandcamp update — Passages Dark and Light (2022) — Tribute to Angelo Badalamenti — One of the greatest composers of all — Twin Peaks — Timeless music — Speaking to our hearts — The right place for the tribute — The importance of finishing the backlog — Having final cut — David Lynch — Making my books from beginning to end — Café closing — Important aspects of all books — Large fonts — Limiting your audience or not — Bye — “Season 5 Closing” (@ 30:31)

    31 min
  • Pierre Estève 2022–2023 Special — Part 1

    Atlantis II: “Astralia 1” (@ 0:00) — Welcome — Sky Flowers — Installation and album — Part of the main exhibition Flowers of Change — Roppenheim The Style Outlets — Village of brands — Consumerism and art — Sky Flowers: “Clouds Above” part 1 (@ 3:26) — The street — Special mental place — Senses — QR code — Sky Flowers: “Clouds Above” part 2 (@ 6:13) — Relaxed with beautiful things — Unusual — Strong reactions — Atlantis Evolution: “Memories of Atlantis (Reprise)” (@ 9:26) — Like a second exhibition — Deo Gratias: “Panthalassa” (@ 11:23) — Darkness — Gratitude for sight — Dragon Lore II: “Into the Legend” (@ 13:50) — Healthy effect — Experiences at the Isturitz caves — Music in Penumbra — The complete experience — Sky Flowers: “Pluie d’Étoiles” (@ 18:18) — Silence, negative space, pauses — “Wall of Sound” — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “Spitzberg” (@ 21:32) — Active listening — Freedom — Obscura: “Lux Perpetua part 1” (@ 24:41, feat. Alyssa Landry) — Hot in Paris — Fan — Context and information — Ambience — Music for two new games — Scenario like in The Last of Us (2013) — Sound design first — Obscura: “Libera Me” (@ 27:41) — FPS (First-Person Shooter) example — Music matching actions and feelings — Applying new knowledge — Atlantis Evolution: “Life Cycle” (@ 32:06) — New directions — Being outside — Also psychological — Reactions — Moving quote — Joy — Peaceful — Plastic pollution — Connectedness — Dragon Lore II: “The Last Valley” (@ 37:33) — Picnic — Lying down outdoors — The sky — Clouds — Childhood — Sky Flowers: “Pareidolia” (@ 42:11) — Layers of speed — Landmarks — Anchors of health — Dragon Lore II: “Troubadour Song” (@ 48:58) — Negative or positive — Being in the here and now — Atlantis: The Lost Tales: “La Tisseuse de Destins” (@ 51:09, feat. Alyssa Landry) — Intense art — David Lynch — Twin Peaks season 3 — Dark relaxing — Dracula: “Gothic Love” (@ 54:29) — Dystopian and utopian — Being outside of both when doing things — Garden — Learning from nature — Atlantis Evolution: “Utopia” (@ 57:11) — Silence — Ways of understanding it — John Cage anecdote — Anechoic chamber — Pierre’s same experience — IRCAM in Paris — Birdsong — Animals in the garden — Bamboo: “Esprit de la Forêt” (@ 1:00:34) — Recording and sounds of technology — Planes and field recordings for Atlantis II in Ireland — Post-production — Atlantis II: “Highlands” (@ 1:03:34) — At the lake — Recording not simple — Water — L’Île d’Yeu — Special way of recording water — Atlantis II: “Return to Atlantis” (@ 1:08:05) — Biomimicry — Janine Benyus — Interaction of an ecosystem — Systemic — Forest — Atlantis Evolution: “The Village” part 1 (@ 1:10:55) — Instruments and associations — Accordion — Madagascar — Atlantis Evolution: “The Village” part 2 (@ 1:13:23) — Couples dance music — My parents — Resonant frequency — Composing in situ — Genii loci — Atlantis II: “Places in a Ring” (@ 1:17:16)

    1 hr 25 min
  • 4.16 Creative Basics, Visions, and Fog

    “In the Fog, Deep” (@ 0:00) — Season 4 finale — Grief — Doors closed — An Iceland Symphony — Progress in life — Age and new directions — Making music — People driven to art and people doing art as a hobby — Creating something new — David Lynch and his life’s work — Inspirations — Ideas — Never copy — Basis in reality — Possible misinterpretation of my aims — Ray Bradbury — Pierre Estève — Vangelis — Twin Peaks — The last thing anyone should expect from me — The real thing — Waste of talents — Our special things — A turning point — Receiving and creating — Journey through the history of music through its recorded forms — Late 19th century — No longer getting something from something — Repetition and repertoire — Horrifying — Beethoven — Wagner — Enough — Future generations — Bob Dylan — A supposed basic truth — Wiped out — Taboo — A dystopian vision for future children — Mozart — Schubert — Anton Bruckner — Just examples — Speaking to young hearts and souls — Endless, oppressive obligation — Limits — Fresh things — An adult mistake — 1,000 years from now — New music speaking to people now, in the future, and perhaps for all times — Outgrowing things — Superheroes — Enjoyable shared experience watching some of the films — Marvel — Specific context — Correction about Alexander Toth — DC Comics — Layouts — Educated guess about what happened — Told to tone down his creativity — Warren Publishing horror comics — Happens over and over in the world of art — Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) — Quentin Tarantino — Twin Peaks season 3 — Like fine wine — Importance of leaving things out — Uses of language — Faddish creative styles — References — Longevity — Later audiences and audiences around the world — Changing perspectives — “Weird” — Philip Glass — You can’t address the present — Here now, gone tomorrow — Sense of responsibility — Theoretical frameworks — Missing the point — Genuinely possible to do new things — Formula scenes — “All is lost” — Calculating manipulation — Mr. Lynch’s freshness — Inner lives — “Inciting incident” — “The idea tells you everything.” — Wrapping up — “Land of Youth & Beauty” (@ 35:03) — Full audio from the “Lake Presentation” video for Land of Youth & Beauty: Early Poems — Farewell for now

    48 min

About What Now with Simo

From the publisher's feed

A freeform, wide-ranging podcast by writer and composer Simo Sakari Aaltonen on any topics foremost on his mind at the time of recording. The seasons are also collected in book form. Some favourite…