--- www.jorihulkkonen.com ---
 
Following his last albums ‘Different’ and ‘When No One Is Watching We Are Invisible’ comes ‘Dualizm’, Jori Hulkkonen’s fifth album on F Com. Featuring vocal contributions from 80s electronic legend John Foxx (Ultravox’s initial lead singer), Tiga, Swedish award winning pop singer José Gonzáles, Nick Triani (an english singer based in Jori’s home country, Finland) and Jerry Valuri ‘Dualizm’ shimmers with Jori’s trademark lush techno and house orchestrations shot through with tons of electronic funk and pop. Preceded by the single ‘Science’ and followed by two further singles in the shapes of ‘Lo-Fiction’ and ‘Dislocated’, ‘Dualizm’ is released on 11th of April on F Com.
 
Already an established producer and DJ in his own right his other noticeable hit single came under the pseudonym of ‘Zyntherius’ with Tiga covering Corey Hart’s ‘Sunglasses At Night’. His DJing has taken him all over the world from Tokyo to São Paulo, Sydney to San Francisco, Dubai to Singapore, Moscow to Montreal and obviously not forgetting Europe's finest clubs and festivals. Apart from doing guest slots globally every weekend he also currently has two residencies, one at Club Indigo in Istanbul, Turkey and another at Club Rosegarden, in Helsinki, Finland.
 
Going back to his Finnish roots, Jori Hulkkonen was born and raised in the small town of Kemi amongst its 20,000-something inhabitants in the north of the country. From very early on, from the early 80s to be exact, his musical influences leant towards all things electronic and slightly more eclectic than your average ten year old Scandinavian kid growing up in the middle of the cold war.
 
In the late 80s, Jori's musical passion started displaying itself when discovering more abstract forms of electronic music, namely Detroit techno and house music. While earlier influences included slightly more traditional music from Depeche Mode to The Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths, this new wave of American electronic club music pushed Jori towards experimenting with new structures and textures.
 
Inspired to produce himself, his first records were released on his own Lumi-label in the early 90s and he soon began releasing for other labels such as the Italian ACV and Cari Lekebusch's Trainspotter's Nightmare and Hybrid. Then in 1996 Jori signed his first album deal to the French F Communications stable resulting in the Chicago house and Detroit techno influenced ‘Selkäsaari Tracks’.
 
More albums followed on F Communications: ‘The Spirits Inside Me’ (1998), ‘When No One Is Watching We Are Invisible’ (2000) and ‘Different’ (2002) and a bunch of singles and EPs add to the impressive body of work Jori has already put out on the label (let alone the dozen’s of singles and two albums he has produced under different pseudonyms).
 
2005 sees Jori releasing his most adventurous record yet. Even though it’s still very much his sound and production, he has chosen to take his musical journey in a new direction, consciously trying to avoid the more familiar approaches in terms of structures and arrangements.
 
To some degree there is a clue in the title. ‘Dualizm’ expands upon two distinct approaches. On the one hand you have a deep, melodic and melancholic, soft side as exposed on Science, Blinded by The Numbers and Stykkarit Laukee Taas. Then the taste turns to one of sugary dancefloor pop: Dislocated, Lo-fiction & Dying in Beauty – all in turn great potential singles. ‘Dualizm’ finds Jori Hulkkonen digging back to his twin inspirations of electronic pop and the more abstract dance forms of house and techno. This dichotomy of ideas is further exposed on the artwork which consists of ortho-stereograms: pictures divided into two parallel images which can actually be viewed by the naked eye in 3D (with a little bit of practice).
 
Forging together the two world’s of dance and pop, ‘Dualizm’ is a double-edged aural assault for Finland’s finest. Mr. Hulkkonen, we’ve been expecting you...
 
 
 
Sory for the english langage, I will translate it when I find the time

Jori Hulkkonen est un artiste finlandais, né en 1973. Tombé amoureux de la house, dès la fin des années 80, il décide de s'équiper chez lui, pour produire sa propre musique. Il commence par travailler dans le label Lumi, qu'il dirige avec Ari Ruokamo, puis décide en 1995 de se lancer et de contacter différents labels. C'est F Communications qui lui répond. Il enchaîne alors les tournées à travers l'Europe, dans les clubs et les festivals. Il travaille ensuite beaucoup en tant que producteur, notamment pour le label suédois Plumphouse, sous le nom de Bobby Forester et sous le nom de Jii Hoo sur F Com. Il sort sous son vrai nom The Spirit Inside Me, en 98 et continue de mixer et devient résident au Kerma, club d'Helsinki et animateur radio. Fin 2000, il sort un nouvel album When No One Is Watching We Are Invisible, suivi en 2001 d'un Cd mixé pour Turbo Recordings, et en 2002 d'un méchant maxi electro sur Gigolo (reprise en compagnie de Tiga de Sunglasses after Night, tube des années 80 de Corey Hart) et d'un nouvel album plus deep house: Different.
 
 

Jori Hulkkonen: The Spirits Inside Me
CD, F communications (France) 1998
 
 

Jori Hulkkonen: When No One Is Watching, We Are Invisible
CD, F communications (France) 2000
 
 

Jori Hulkkonen & Laurent Garnier - Classic & Rare/La Collection Chapter 3
(commercial mix CD)
2CD & Ltd Ed Unmixed Vinyl Box Set, F-Communications 2002
 
 

Jori Hulkkonen: Different
CD/DLP, F communications (France) 2002
 
 
 

Jori Hulkkonen: Dualizm
F communications (France) CD, 2005
 
 

Excellent DJ, deja entendu mixer en boite.

 
Cool en live ca doit etre sympa.