I started DJing in the early 90s while organizing illegal night raves at Oranssi and Lepakko and continued with running illegal clubs (Q, Maa and Taivas) during 1993-1995 with my friends. At Taivas I also played my first 8 hour set. Ever since those days afterparties and allnighters have had a special place in my mind. The whole electronic music and rave culture is based on that ”dance that never ends” mentality. Just let the music play!
Back then both – clubs and huge raves – had big line-ups with DJ sets that only lasted for an hour or two. The first DJs who I heard playing longer ones were Sven Väth at Love Parade and Paul van Dyk at E-Werk in Berlin – both playing 5-10 hour sets. Later on I was lucky enough to catch Danny Tenaglia on one of his all night sets at New York’s intimate Vinyl club where ”The DJ’s DJ” showed how to build drama through-out the night. I was fascinated by how these DJs took the dancefloor through so many feelings and genres during one night. It’s quite easy to build a two hour uplift but to take tempo down while rising the intensity takes much more from a DJ.
Those experiences led into starting Club Unity in 1996 and trying a ”One night – One DJ” approach. For me Unity has always been a place to try things out and play a wide spectrum of electronic dance music. Nights built from deep house to full on trance made some unexpected tracks stand out and become long term hits in our scene. Unity began at Nylon Club, where I also played my first 16 hour set in summer of 1998 at a somewhat legendary Sunday School daytime party. My second 16 hour set was at Kerma on New Year’s Day 2003. Besides offering a big amount of hedonistic memories through-out the day&night, it also resulted in Kerma’s alltime sales record.
Three years ago I decided to play a longest (legally) possible set at a finnish club. I wanted to try the daytime party concept that I have been missing since the Nylon days. Many people are familiar with this through Space in Ibiza, Berghain in Berlin, Body & Soul in New York or Secret Sundaze in London and I feel as if it is time to bring it back to Helsinki. Even if only for one day.
The 23 hour set on New Year’s Day 2010 will be a retrospective look into the past 23 years of electronic dance music, but also very much built on the most upfront music out there. I will go through my whole record collection, vinyl, CD and digital, to build a musical story through genres, styles, feelings and moods. An aural trip through time and space from Lepakko, Nylon, Kerma and Uunisaari to today and back to the future!
Join us in a dance that never ends and dance to a beat that goes on and on. This only happens once, but it will always be with You.