We premiered a new club concept called Moodswings last Saturday at Café Kauppayhtiö in Rovaniemi, Finland. The new club is done in co-operation with Rovaniemi-based media artist Aku Meriläinen aka VJ Merrylaeinen.
For those not familiar with Kauppayhtiö: It’s a two-storey club in the center of Rovaniemi which is the capital of Lapland in Finland. So we are at the Arctic Circle. We did the club in the bassment which is the space meant for some deeper clubbing.
Moodswings combines two totally different ends of the sound spectrum – organic soul and new bass culture. In addition, every club night has its own unique visuals with new ways to interact with them.
Moodswings is also the world’s first ever open source dance club.
The night was as fine as it gets. The evening opened gently with people trying out the interactive visual set and won some strange prices.
The instructions for the visuals were as follows:
There are four candles at the altar.
By lighting and smothering the candles you can contact the goddesses.
They will announce themselves on the night sky.


If you are especially in favor, you will be rewarded. The goddesses have let the oracles know that during the night they will give rewards four times.


Don’t worry, this is a very practical religion. The signs of favor are very clear.
The visual system included seven different-sized mirror balls that the audience could play with with the aid of those four candles. An amazing thing, really.
As the night got deeper the place got packed and was a blast. Couldn’t have imagined for a finer launch for the club!
I’m posting the first photo of the night here and there’s some video coming up shortly, too.
In the meantime you can find more info about the club here.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger.
And here’s a shot of Aku’s visual imagery.
Here’s great graphic art for the poster by Marko Mäkinen.
