Verandan - Niklas Delin , 2020.

Swedish , b. 1989 -

SOLITI 2023: THE END OF YEAR LISTS

Ville Hopponen (Verandan)

This year I finished a lot of songs and finally started writing all lyrics in Swedish, my mother tongue, which made the process much more enjoyable. (Bad wordplay is easier if you know the language well…)

This led to finally recording a now all but finished album of these songs with the Verandan band, which will be the first album I’ve written entirely myself.

I also found time to play bass with Juuso Paaso & Laiha Lohtu as well as drums with Pink Chameleons, both of which were very enjoyable.

It’s hard to feel very hopeful in these times, so I’ve mostly tended to concentrate on the things at hand, i.e., music, family, friends, being outside etc.

I didn’t listen to very much music in 2023, mostly some old favourites. Recording and everything else made my ears tired, although there were some concerts and new albums that stood out clearly:

Albums: 

Dina Ögon – Oas Rami Vierula – Erämaahan Vasas Flora och Fauna – Man blåser bort Topias Tiheäsalo – Skeletons

Concerts: 

SOLITI 2023 PART TWO: THE END OF YEAR LISTS

SOLITI 2022 PART TWO: THE END OF YEAR LISTS

Aleksi Peltonen (Verandan)

Here’s a playlist I’ve been listening to. Some old, some new stuff.

SOLITI 2022 PART TWO: THE END OF YEAR LISTS

Ville Hopponen (Verandan)

The year went by taking care of everyday things, and writing and demoing a whole lot of new songs for Verandan for an upcoming album. All this made me not really want to listen to music much. My ears need a lot of rest!

Moved to Roihuvuori, which has been great. Had a good summer. It goes without saying the situation in the world is awful at the moment, so I have tried, and also often failed to concentrate on things right in front of me.

Nevertheless, some things that stuck with me in 2022, old and new favourites:

Aleksi Peltonen from Verandan Highlights of 2021

I became a dad! And then music wise… Alabaster Deplume – To Cy & Lee: Instrumental Vol. 1 This actually came out in 2020 already, but I got into it this year and it’s one of the greatest jazz albums in my opinion.

Haruomi Hosono – Paraiso, Philharmony Great experimental and electronic pop from the 70’s and 80’s

Astral Brains – The bewildered mind Really liking the mood on this psychedelic pop record.

Kate NV – Room for the moon One of the most interesting Russian artist nowadays

Michael Rault – It’s a new day tonight Easy pop record with a great retro production

Anthony Moore – Out Great folk rock album with a retro vibe

SOLITI 2021:  THE END OF YEAR LISTS

Ville Hopponen from Verandan Having gotten weirdly used to life during a pandemic now (not necessarily in a good way, just that you feel like you are starting to forget how it could be otherwise), the year felt like it just passed somehow, quite quickly too. For me it was year which felt like it had no time periods or any particular touchstones that defined them, save for some moments here and there. Not that nothing happened, things happened and there were changes, but somehow the year felt like just a long stretch where you can’t really remember if something was in the spring or two weeks ago.

I haven’t attended any concerts, nor had time to read much at all (I did enjoy Mats Jonssons comic book novel När vi var samer, and a few music books not worth mentioning). The upside is that I got more songs written than ever before, and also released three singles. Got a new day job, the kid started daycare, and I got more grey hair because of stress and lack of sleep.

Attached is a playlist of songs I came across that stuck with me during the year. The first 16 were released in 2021, the rest are from other periods in the history of music. As always, slightly older music played the biggest part in my listening, a lot of Beach Boys as usual. And there is always so much old things to discover! I didn’t really listen that much to any new whole albums except for ”The Bewildered Mind” by Astral Brain, and “Dina Ögon” by Dina Ögon. Writing music a lot tends to make you crave silence more than listening to music sometimes.

New and old songs for Soliti 2021