Kristjan Jansen

Phew, despite the lack of proper rehearsals and last-minute new members in the band, Mosaiik's first live turned out a nice, cosy and groovy event.

In addition to the usual line-up we managed to get to the stage the guitarist extraordinaire Tõnis Leemets, from Treee and WGT.

In true Mosaiik style we played almost exclusively Eastern block retro instruments: Orpheus bass, Jolana guitar and Faemi-1M analogue synth. For Rhodes and Hammond sound we used Nord Electro, 12-string, and drums were more of a modern fare. And berimbau straight outta Brazil!

We played 4 songs, first one from the demo CD, “Vanilla Cafe” and then on three new pieces. There was a hope for proper live recording, but all we got was super lo-fi photocamera storage: poor microphones of the IS-S3 just were'nt able to cope with volume levels and resulted with pretty bad digital clipping.

But still, here's the snippet from our last song with working title “Batido de Abacaxi” aka “Pineapple Coctail”.

There are more clips though over here but be warned about the sound quality.

Finally, thanks for everybody: Our friends, rampade.org team, the headliner band ÖÄK and of course the super-warm audience!

A day before our first gig, Mosaiik got together in a almost-abondoned Soviet schoolhouse and tried to come up with the repertoire. Here we play our “radio single” Vanilla Cafe. (Hidden video bonus: Can you spot the flying drumstick?)

The lineup: on drums Madis Zilmer from Phlox, Erki Jansen on bass, Paavo Eensalu on keyboards, Mari-Liis Girassol on berimbau and Kristjan Jansen on 12-string guitar.

The golden silence of Mosaiik is over: first time ever we try to get to the stage and play live. Mosaiik is asked by rampade.org guys to play at their club, Juuksur (map here) in October 24, 2008. Entrance fee is mere 75 EEK, the DJs start at 20:00, we gonna be playing around 21:00, the main headliner, the living legend of Estonian underground, ÖÄK, gets on stage around 22:00. Expect lot of mad action from Soviet analog synth monsters!

After springtime mini-success of Mosaiik in Estonia radio (3 times on air does not sound much of a hit building but trust from a very respected indie DJs is a big honour) it was not surprise to get some summer indie festival gig offers. Unfortunately I can not get my act together for Fantast and Seltsimaja Rockers this time but big thanks for Rampade and …um… who listed me on Fantast festival? I never got an actual invite, it's hard to give a gig when you have not heard about it :)

Meanwhile I have worked on new song sketches, spent time to finally gather together my music gadgets lying various Estonian attics and gave my lovely Orpheus bass (picture) to a crazy Russian guitar-smith. Her (Orpheus) electronics are messed up so for a “Vaniljekohv” single I had to grab her sound via Shure SM58 mic taped on a plate. Can not wait to get her back to my arms!

As some might know, I have been a home recording fan for a while now, collecting obscure Soviet synths and guitars and trying to assemble some of their bits and bleeps together. Recently I kicked myself to finish some of the arrangements, asked some friends to play some of the instruments and parts I was not able to, spent some nights figuring out the mystery behind mixing, sketching and coloring some retro cover art in my notebook, bought some hard-to-find “cdr-vinyls” and finally snail-mailed ultra-limited edition of Mosaiik first ever demo single to my friends.

It was a lovely time and now you can take part of the outcome too: check out Mosaiik in MySpace, Last.fm and Virb. If you want a proper physical thing to listen, drop me an e-mail, I might have some stuff left.

Last but not least: I already got some airtime – the living legend of Estonian music Vaiko Eplik played Mosaiik on his 11. March radio show. Thanks!

Update: You can now download high-resolution cover art for a demo single: frontside and backside (both 1.1 MB PNGs).