Meeting the Avantgarde

by RokDaZone

I don't dream of a Scenish dreamteam, sorry.

Hirvih/Jormas

Da Jormas is one of the bestknown groups being active on the Amiga. Strange enough, one will hardly find them in any chart. The reasons may be summed up and explained within few words: The Jormas had more releases than any other team, none of them ever reached Scenish standards. Not in design, not in graphics, not in coding, not in mus... ah, there the trouble starts.

Although it is doubtful that some Sceners do not know what Da Jormas stand for, be told that many groups tried to profile via fastmade Techno- and Gabberintros, but hardly anyone ever succeeded. Jormas did. Since the 18th March 1994, when a bunch of strange guys from central Finland - underneath them Vesuri and Piirakka Munalla - formed Jormas at a private party in Muurame, the panicstricken Scene got repeadetly confronted by crying intros, featuring eye-dazzling colours, flashing pseudo-stroboscopes and a noice that Gabberlovers put into hysteric enthusiasm.

Asked for the reasons behind their strategy, Hirvih, who describes his team as a Multimedia/Entertainment group with emphasis on music, gives the highly expected We had much fun creating them, no particular reason. Real lovekids have no strategy and no politics. Or to put it with Floating Joint #57: Nuthing beats the crap like this.

It's pretty difficult to put dA JoRMaS into a plain 'Scene frame'. There's a lot more beyond.

Da Jormas is a friendly team and Hirvih, the second year student of Computer Science and Information Systems, stresses that he would not kick any members if he could, even not the most inactive ones. Karvahuora was the only member ever getting kicked out. And this was in late 1994. She was nice! he adds.

Recently, Da Jormas like many other groups seem to slow down processes. Are they getting tired of their own style? Are they even splitting up? Not splitting up but growing up anyways, the soon 20 year old explains unexpectedly serious, so much has changed since our early days of hC and the most important thing is nowadays, we're not only in the computer Scene but in the music scene, too. Some of the main producers have been busy with (high-)school, work, military service, the opposite sex and so on. Also we're trying to put more effort into our stuff, not just copying the old sources (and even texts) and putting in a new soundtrack. The Jormas finally growing up? No, I do not think so under regard of their latest release from Assembly. The style has not changed. Thank goodness, it has not!

Scene-stuff from dA JoRMaS is often just 'side-products' The existance, having a good time, having a LIFE with non-ego-boosting attitude is the main thing!

When it comes to the Scene, the very same Jor-mate confuses the interviewer again. My personal opinion is that the (original) Scene died in the early 1990s. Nowadays the computers are part of your everyday life, so the magic is gone. The original Scene I wonder, what may this mean to him and why did it die? Plain hardware raping code, he searches for the difference, won't do anymore, so you need a completely different way of approach. To make your multimedia performances wanted, you need ideas, design and pretty egoless attitude.

Ah, understand. The magic of the old days laid within the simplicity, while modern releases have to be thought through carefully thus putting in real effort. The computer as tool to create work. A new thought pops up. May it be that Jormas show an anti-trend to this by their releases? We had much fun creating them, no particular reason. Hirvih repeats, leaving me questioning why I asked afterall. Avantgarde remains avantgarde.

Strange sounding slogans and hideous handles

For all non-Finns, having ever wondered about those strange handles of the Jormatic dudes, here for the first time ever a translation:

The AMiGA Scene of today is called Stage.

Hirvih of dA JoRMaS