Contemporary Dead Finnish Music Ensemble
Music for romantics
I’m a huge fan of prog rock, and I always enjoy working with musicians that share the love for this complex style of music that I feel is the perfect musical story telling vehicle. It’s music for romantics!
Since the day we met, I felt a strong connection to Antti’s personality and music – and this was a very inspiring starting point to make a guitar for him.
The violinists’ heir
Antti Pesonen comes from a musical family. His parents and grandfathers were all professional violinists. So naturally his first instrument was violin. Antti didn’t care so much for the very high notes though, so he swapped to cello a few years later, and studied that in a Conservatory for eight years.
From cello to electric guitar
In his early teens however Antti fell in love with the guitar – electric guitar! Antti recalls that the guitar sounds from The Beatles, Elvis and then later on of course Hendrix were so exciting to him, and still are. He tells also that playing guitar and composing music for his band is a great fun and the necessary counter balance for his day-job.
Working for the opera
Antti works as a chief stage manager in the Finnish National Opera. His responsibilities are to co-ordinate and give technical cues in the performance so that the light changes, scene changes, sound effects etc. happens at the right time in the music. Antti explains that his job is quite challenging and often stressful because you can spoil the whole show if you screw up!
Lilith and Lulu
His favourite way to relax is to grab his Lilith and Lulu – those are the nicknames of his custom made Duke and Unicorn – a nice glass of single malt whiskey and letting go loose! You can find more information about the newer guitar – Lulu, that is, from its’ dedicated Spotlight page.
CDFME
As always, the myriad guitar parts of the latest CDFME (Contemporary Dead Finnish Music Ensemble) album Dark Matters were played almost exclusively with Lilith. The specs of the guitar include stainless steel frets, custom inlays, Peter Lerche -mod for the bridge pickup (moved 10mm further away from bridge) and a ToneStyler tone pot.
