It has been wonderful in beautiful and sunny London these last two weeks. The weather has been just perfect, chilly at times, but full of light.

When I landed to Heathrow, the airport got closed because of the volcano ashes from Iceland! I was very lucky to get here right in time. Actually the people at the studio were not expecting to see me any more when I arrived.

Now my songs are really starting to kick some a**!

Colin has been working very hard on the songs and he does his job carefully, with lot of thought and passion.

It has been nice to see that he seems to like what he hears, so it probably makes him work even better

I am very happy with what I can hear so far. These songs that are going through his fingers, are definitely sounding lot heavier than any of the songs from my last record.

Just the sonic difference in guitars makes the songs radically heavier. I have always liked how he treats the guitars with the bands that he works with, like Slipknot for example.

In the morning I sent some songs for the band to start rehearsing for the summer shows.

Alex was the first one to react and this is what he said:

“ thank you for sending the song and: yes, fucking killer!!!:-)
very cool- sounds really cool- guitar sound is the bomb- the song turned out great! the ambience sounds and choirs are also amazing.
vocals are very nice- pretty dry and clear- cool!

wow! yes!

i think this is how it should be- great job to all you guys.
it turned out great and (of course) over the overall sound i love the guitar- sound! please tell colin an extra thank you!:-) “

Anyway, you cannot expect me to make only a heavy metal album either. I am making Colin sweat with cellos, orchestras, choirs and sound ambient design 

Among the songs Colin mixed there is a duet

I haven’t been really working with such impressive vocals before. Courtesy of “All That Remains’” singer Phil Labonte.

With him the song “Dark Star” reached another dimension. Thanks Phil!

It has been a great pleasure to work with Colin and his engineer Martyn Ford. We have had many good laughs!

Tomorrow I will have new photos taken by photographer Paul Harries. I am very excited about the forthcoming session.

Also quite many journalists came to listen to my new material in the studio these last days. Soon you’ll be able to read studio reports from London written by media from Germany, Finland and UK.

For the first time in my life I had the chance to see London Philharmonic Orchestra´s with the The London Voices and The London Oratory School Schola in the Royal Albert Hall. They performed the score of the movie “Two Towers” from Lord of the Rings while the movie was projected at the same time on the big screen. It was just stunning. The whole thing gave me goose bumps… Howard Shore, the composer of the score was also there presenting the music.

For now, this part is over. Colin and Ginge will get back home and I will continue the mixing process in LA.

With love, Tarja