James D. Hicks’ Recording Sessions in TurkuText and images: Matti Komulainenreport:

James D. Hicks (on right) and Frederick Hohman in the Turku Cathedral, June 2016.

The American organist, James D. Hick recorded his latest album in Turku. Hifimaailma was along for the recording session in the Turku Cathedral and in the Mikaelinkirkko church. After all, organ music is reference material preferred by many audiophiles.

Well, the feeling here sure is intimate. The tower of the Turku Cathedral is at an approximate height of 100 meters from the surface of the Aura river, but the organ ledge of the building is completely occupied by the instrument itself. The organist is literally inside of the instrument–the

various parts comprising the massive structure of which were constructed in 1980, by the organ construction shop Veikko Virtanen, forming a massive entirety.

The main organ of the Turku Cathedral is the largest mechanically outfitted organ in Finland, and they are the second-largest in the nation, second to the organ in the Lapua church. They have 81 organ stops and 6,057 organ pipes. The whole beauty of an organ weighs 15 tons, and is 14 meters tall. The sounding length of the largest pipe is 8.3 meters, weighing 140 kilos.

Organ Recordings with cathedral sounds

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James D. Hicks’ Recording Sessions in TurkuText and images: Matti Komulainenreport:

James D. Hicks (on right) and Frederick Hohman in the Turku Cathedral, June 2016.

James D. Hicks: an American organ artistJAMES D. Hicks (b. 1958) has researched Nordic composers in a series of recordings, the latest of installment of which, the sixth part was recorded in Turku during the summer of 2016. The Virginia-born Hicks, now residing in Bernardsville, New Jersey first visited Turku in July of 2013. As the main performer of the Turun Urkujuhlat (Turku Organ Festival), he became fascinated with both the city and the local music. Hicks studied music in the UK, in addition to the USA, performing his studies at Peabody Institute of Music of Johns Hopkins University, at Yale and Cincinnati universities as well as the Royal School of Church Music. He found Nordic music during his studies, and has deepened his relationship (with it) during his recording project. In acquiring the music material, the artistic director of Turun Urkujuhlat, Ville Urponen and the Sibelius Museum in Turku helped him, since their collections included unpublished compositions. The greatest motivating factor has been curiosity, and the desire to provide an alternative to the mainstream. “As important as Bach, Mendelssohn and Messiaen are, upon completing my studies, I felt a need to search for other composers which should be known for their works, but for some reason remained in the shadows of history.” The history of the organ reaches into the antique period, beyond two-thousand years. Besides being old, the instrument is also versatile. On the latter half of the 1900s, its electrical applications have cre-ated experiences in the masterful hands of such musicians as Jimmy Smith and Jon Lord, in jazz and rock. The multifacetedness of the instrument was also what led Hicks to choose the organ. Rock and especially its progressive direction direction, which Hicks “was a fan of while younger”; Deep Purple, Focus, King Crimson, Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer demonstrated how versatile the instrument is. “The musicians were classically trained, and combined their skills with synthesizers and other forms of expression, in addition to the organ. I don’t accept boxed-in thinking, but rather, I believe that you can learn an enormous amount from different musicians, and apply it in your own work.” For Hicks, all forms of musical expression are equally valid. “I feel that Duke Ellington is completely as good music as Mozart. Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” represents the classics of the 1900s on an equal plane as Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”–or Pearl Jam’s “Alive”. Original ideas take shape in the most special forms and contexts. Quality, I feel, doesn’t particularly pertain to any one type of music.”Given the opportunity, Hicks envisions himself recording a new selection of American music, as a continuation of the collection with the same title. “My latest rock favorites are the bands from Seattle, such as Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. One of my envisioned future projects would be an album where I would explore the grunge movement of the 1990s on organ.” In his recordings, Hicks has concentrated on a broad scale. In addition to the Nordic composers, the recordings reveal an attraction for various kinds of folk music–the musical expression reflect the traits of the individual cultures, in Hicks’ opinion. He has claimed to be a friend of Celtic music, and proclaims to have learned how to play the bagpipes, 15 years ago. “I became interested in it at an older age–there’s Scottish blood in our family. The disadvantage to the organ is not being portable. I like hiking, and started thinking about what playing in the woods would be like, and through that process, the bagpipes seemed like the right choice. I soon realized that it was just as hard of an instrument as the organ. Their perfect control requires as much talent and practice as the violin.”

Additional information: www.jameshicks.com

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The American organist, James D. Hicks recorded his latest album in the Turku Cathedral and Mikaelinkirkko church, during the midsummer week of 2016. The double album, released on the Pro Organo record label is the sixth part in a series presenting Nordic organ music. The two-record concept is devoted to Finnish music. Along are two commissioned pieces, two pieces seeing their debut from the 1990s, as well as pieces from a more familiar reper-toire. “The project is my personal homage to a culture to which I am attracted to.” James D. Hicks states, summarizing his motive. Hicks performed in Turku for the first time in 2013, so he knew what to expect. “The Turku Cathedral and Mikaelinkirkko church offered world-class instruments in spaces which have marvellous acoustics. Especially in the Turku Cathedral, I feel like I am at the center of Finnish culture. Both places have their special strengths. In the Turku Cathedral, I concentrated on the more extended compositions, of which some were inspired by national romance. For Mikaelinkirkko, I chose more concentrated pieces, with durations of one to five minutes. They were primarily contemporary pieces.” Simultaneously, Hicks wanted to open the concepts of the characteristics of the individual instruments. “I would call the The Turku Cathedral material epic. In Mi-kaelinkirkko, on the other hand, my aim was to surprise. This is why, for instance, there is music along with jazz influences, and a trumpet piece which is in the baroque spirit, a Sibelius interpretation with percussive sounds and a piece, which could even be a fit for a horror film,” the maestro says, listing his departures.

The sound of a national sanctuary The Turku Cathedral is considered the most valuable historic construction in Finland. It was originally constructed in wood during the 13th century, and was inaugurated as cathedral during the year 1300. It got its final form during the 1400-1500s. The fixed decoration of the church is rather new due to fires. After the Turku fire of 1827, a new decoration was created for it as well as a new tower, to replace the tower which was destroyed in the fire. The pulpit is from the 1830s, the altar complete with table from the 1840s, the paintings of the main shell are from the 1850s, the benches from the 1860s and the balcony handrails and door plates are from the 1920s. According to the building patrimony register, the church, located in the medieval center of Turku, on the Unikankare hill, is in the shape of a brick basilisk, with a westward tower, with an octagonal shell unit on its eastern end. The trunk room is flanked by a unified row of chapels, constructed dur-ing the medieval period. The wide center nave of the three-nave church hall features star cupolas. The pillars are square in the oldest, western part of the church, and the pillars con-structed during the time of Bishop Hemming, to the east of the pulpit are octagonal. The chapels which open towards the lateral nave, and are devoted to various saints, were changed to burial chapels of ruling figures during the 1600s. As liturgic life flourished in the Turku Cathedral in the 1400s, there was most likely an organ present as well. It is possible that there was an organ in Turku, already at the end of the 1300s.

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Frederick Hohman: audio guru, producer and organistJAMES D. Hicks’ recording sessions are being recorded by Frederick Hohman. In addi-tion to being an audio guru of organ music, he is the founder and producer of the Pro Organo record label. He is separated from ordinary multi-talented individuals by being an organ artist himself as well. Hohman started his professional recording career in 1983. Analog recording with equipment of the time was radically different from today’s practices. “I was working with an Ampex ATR-102, two-channel unit in a shopping cart, which I had sawed off the extra parts from. The behemoth weighed more than 70 kilos and, for field use conditions, required the muscle power of a professional wrestler. Tape whizzed through the machine at 30 inches per second, on 14-inch reels. For a two-day session, you had to have many boxes of tapes. Editing was done with a cutter. The Scotch 226 tape recorded from 20 hertz up, and the recorded material was flawless from 35 hertz to 35,000 hertz.” Modern recording technology does not require strength conditioning training of the user.

“The field recording device which I use weighs about one kilo and fits in a larger coat pocket. The recording platform is a memory card the size of a stamp. I do all of the post-pro-duction in my own studio. At the recording site, I mainly have to record the session at an appropriate (sound) level.” In Hohman’s opinion, “possibly the highest-quality” recording method is DSD (Direct Stream Digital). He admits, however, that the current PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) recording devices’ 96 kilohertz and 24-bit signal cannot necessarily be distinguished from DSD in studio conditions. The microphones which Hohman prefers are from the vintages of 1960s-1980s,which he has additionally modified himself. Hohman says the he uses anywhere from six to ten microphones at a time–three to five stereo pairs–depending on the location. With this method, he can capture several alternative signals of the same performance. “I can select the best option or use other simultaneous recordings while mixing. We often mute the others and end up using one stereo pair, however. The goal is to produce an album, which reproduces the music, as such, but offers a bit more detail than a live perfor-mance.” Beside the above, he uses newer devices, on a case-by-case basis. “With the newest microphones, the frequency band extends up to 40 kilohertz. It is justified since classical music has tones which extend up to 30 kilohertz, which we cannot hear, but which affect the frequencies which we do hear, below them, in the five hertz to 15 kilohertz range. The recording of the highest-frequency sounds therefore serves the achievement of a clean, realistic and open sound, especially in orchestra, choir and organ music.” In the recording of classical music, one key factor is the placement of the correct micro-phones in the recording space. Almost always, Holman places microphones at a distance of 4.5 – 10 meters from the floor and walls. “I first listen to where the music resonates the best, and where it has pleasantly gained space. I place the microphone at about one-half meter away from this point, and further away from the instrument. I use very sensitive microphones and they can deduct sounds better than our ears–which is why I use this distance.” Hohman says that the reverberation of the Turku recording locations is almost the same. There are differences in the directions of sound, however. The shape of the Turku Cathedral focuses the sound strongly down into the middle nave, in Mikaelinkirkko, the instrument radiates more everywhere in the environment. “For that reason, I decided to record closer in Mikael than I had originally thought. This is how I prevented the diffusion of the sound of the organ. In the Turku Cathedral, the up-wards location of the instrument complicated my work. When listening to the middle nave, the rear pipe section partially covers up the front pipe section, so the sound is different in different sections. Both organs were flawless, per se, and traffic noise did not enter either.” For cables, Hohman trusts his own solutions. “The distances can be dozens of meters, but I still pull a long cable to each microphone, to ensure a clean signal. I make the cables myself, from the best materials. The coupling of short cables to adapters would only create problems.”

The pipe sections of the Turku Cathedral

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Written information on the organ constructed in the Turku Cathedral only exist from the midway point of the 1500s, however. The space is naturally reverberant, and its sound characteristic has been described to have “good cathedral acoustics”. That varies, however, according to where the listener is situated. Hicks actually used headphones during the sessions, to monitor his playing: “I haven’t really used headphones, but now they proved particularly useful. Because of the construction of the Turku Cathedral, it is hard to tell the playing balance downstairs on the performance bench. Through the use of headphones, I gained a far more accurate perception of what it sounded like in the space. I used them both during the concert and while recording. I would hope for something similar to be available elsewhere as well, it would especially help guest organists, like myself.” The recording was preceded by intensive practice and a concert. The performance was simultaneously the dress rehearsal for the recording, since Hicks performed the entire recorded repertoire during the concert. The recordings were made during the evenings in the Turku Cathedral, after the closing of the sanctuary. At Mikae-linkirkko, work was performed during the afternoons, since it was closed to the public during Midsummer Eve, which is when the recording session was done there. The founder of Pro Organo, audio guru and organist, Freder-ick Hohman was responsible for the technical implemen-tation of the sessions. Hicks prepared for the recordings by getting acquainted with both recording locations during a four-day visit in April of 2016. In addition, he played the pieces at home. When the material and instruments had been internal-ized, the actual recording was done quickly. “We spent about seven hours at the Turku Cathedral, over two nights, from which about 78 minutes of re-corded material was produced. At Mikaelinkirkko, ap-proximately three hours were used, with the result of ap-proximately 45 – 40 minutes of recorded material as the outcome. In addition, we filmed a 15-minute video for the Pro Organo website, which tells of the recording ses-sions and their special characteristics. All in all, I would estimate that nine months were used for this project.” Hicks says that his goals were achieved in the sessions.“I wanted to indicate how unique the organ music created in Finland is, and how it reflects the multifaceted local mental landscape.”

Frederick Hohman’s field and studio equipmentRecording device: Zoom F8

Microphones: Microtech Gefell UM-705, 5 pcs, from the early 1990sPearl Microphone labs, approximately 20 pcs, from the 1960s and 1970sAKG C-422, C-4268, C-34, C-33Earthworks QTC-40, QTC-30, QTC-1Sennheiser MKH-800

Monitors: Tannoy System 1200, 1000, 800, 600 + sub

Amplifiers: Hafler Trans Nova P3000, P4000

Additional information: www.frederickhohman.net, www.zarex.com

The Nordic Journey recording seriesJames D. Hicks has recorded his Nordic Journey recording series for the American Pro Organo, which is specialized in classical music. The recording have included works from composers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Finland has been represented in the series from the start. The first recording, made in Linköping, Sweden (2010) presented Hicks’ interpretations of of the works of Taneli Kuusisto, Joonas Kokkonen and Jarmo Parviainen. In the second part (2014), the rare pieces, also Finnish, by Viljo Mikkola were included, which Hicks recorded in Malmö. The sixth part, the double album, “Organ Music from Finland” (2016) was desig-nated, in its entirety, to Finnish organ music. Frederick Hohman founded Pro Organo in 1984. The name of the label references a radio program series, which Hohman had produced and hosted during 1977–79, and which was transmitted over a vast area, from Boston on the east coast of the USA, to El Paso, Texas. The first eight releases were released as chrome C-cassettes, which featured Dolby B noise reduction. After this, Pro Organo focused on the newly released CD format. The current recording spectrum ranges from various forms of downloads to physical platforms, such as the CD, SACD, DVD, Blu-Ray and Blu-Ray audio. To date, the company has released nearly 260 releases, of which approximately 190 are still available. The majority of the production, three-fourths, is organ music. The remainder is concentrated on classical choir music. The famed reputation of Pro Organo is a result of the know-how of its founder. Besides being known as an audiophile–who has designed and manufactured a part of his equipment himself–Hohman is known as an organist. The combination of engineering skills, ears and vision has gained the actor in his field a broad artist roster, which expands from the home field to Europe and Australia. The Nordic Journal recording series continues in Norway in 2017, when Hicks will record the seventh part of the recording in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. The eighth record has been slated for recording in Iceland, a year afterwards. In the autumn of 2018, Hicks will head to Reykjavik, where his plans include recording in the modern Hallgrímskirkja church.

Additional information: www.proorgano.com

Record CritiqueFinnishorgan artNORDIC JOURNEYOrgan Music From FinlandJames D. Hicks(Pro-Organo/2-CD)

THE RECORDING OF CHURCH ORGANS brings about its own challenges, in many regards. Often, the church space is open and reverberant, and the organ naturally sounds different on e.g. the organ balcony than further away, by the altar. Recording is still the topic of discussion when the organ builder adjusts the tone of each pipe of the instrument to resonate in a uniform and desired manner, in each pipe section. In this case, the tone is generally evaluated and listened to from some ideal location in the church space–often in the middle passageway of the floor, for example. Then, when the actual playing is recorded, the recordist of the music may look for such a “sweet spot”, where they then place the stand for the main microphones. In a dream scenario, the stereo pair of microphones which is placed in said spot can already provide a balanced and clear audio image. Most often, the sound is clarified and enhanced with some auxiliary microphones, however, but this sometimes leads to the acoustic space imaging sounding muddy. When the American organ artist, James D. Hicks has arrived–on his journey presenting the art of organ construction–to record the fine soundscapes of two Turku organs, recording Nordic organ mu-sic, he has partnered up with the professional skills of organ recording specialist, Frederick Hohman. Together, they have managed to showcase the sonorously best aspects of both the Turku Cathedral and Mikaelinkirkko In the two-CD package, each instrument has been devoted its own segment. The sound of the Turku Cathedral instrument, with the largest and most majestic tone of any Finnish organ, fill the whole acoustic space of the cathedral. This can be heard already in the opening piece, which is Mauri Viitala’s ambitious and intact Toccata from the year 1977. The sound is simultaneously open and vigorously clear. The proprietary addition on Hicks’ album is his desire and skill to add less-known pieces from Finnish organ literature, and often even unrecorded gems, which he has additionally prepared to be masterful performances. Such are, among others, the Armas Maasalo variations, performed on the Turku Cathedral organ, The Viitala partita “Sen suven suloisuutta” (The Sweetness of its Summer), or the Fredrik Isacsson “Fantasia” sonata. The Swedish organ, which was installed in Mikaelinkirkko, 15 years ago, have been constructed influenced by the great French romance-style instruments. With this versatile instrument, Hicks per-forms more of a special repertoire, among the pieces Harri Viitanen’s “Jäätelöauton teemasta Bachin tapaan” (From the Ice Cream Truck Theme, in Bach Style), or Marko Hakanpää’s carousel-themed romp, “Alpeilla” (In the Alps), as well as Santeri Siimes’ broad rhapsody of the composition “Ramus virens olivarum”. This carefully created entirety is already the sixth part of Hicks’ releases presenting Nordic organ arts, and with its high-quality recording, it awakens an interest for getting to know the other parts as well.

Heikki Valsta*****Watch the video on the recording of the album: vimeo.com/183116333