Jori Hulkkonen

Jori Hulkkonen (born 1973) comes from the north of Finland, a small town called Kemi. After growing up in the 80’ listening to a weird mix of traditional Finnish pop and early electronic beats from the neighbouring Swedish radio, 1989 he decided to get equipment and try producing music himself.

Small independent label Lumi records was born 1993, and the year following that saw Jori moving to a slightly larger northern city, Oulu, where he ran the label together with Ari Ruokamo (who runs the label nowadays alone). 1995 Jori decided it was time to seek new challenges and started contacting various labels, resulting to releases on Cari Lekebusch’ Hybrid and Trainspotter’ Nightmare -labels, and Italy’ ACV’ Out Of Orbit off-shoot. 1996 Jori finally got in touch with F communications, and released later that year his critically acclaimed debut album “Selkäsaari Tracks” (F communications) which is an original blend of Detroit soundscapes and Chicago influenced jacking beats. It was the same year Jori also started doing live acts and DJ gigs all over Europe; firstly as a part of F communications tours which covered some of Europes most famous clubs such as The Rex (France), The End (UK), Cream (UK), E-Werk (Germany), Kadoc (Portugal), and Paradiso (The Netherlands) to name but a few.

Since that Jori has seen the best that Europe has to offer club and festival wise: Roskilde, Sonar, Transmusicales, Montreaux Jazz festival, 10 days Of Techno, Respect at Le Queen, Moog, Florida 135, Vertigo, KU, Who’ Who Land, Chemistry, etc… -not forgetting clubs and festivals in his native Finland and Sweden…Jori has also kept himself busy on the production front. After an album for the Swedish Plumphouse-label (Bobby Forester "Love You Forever, 1997), and an album for Trainspotter’ Nighmare (Finland: 0 points, 1997) Jori released probably his biggest record so far: Jii Hoo “Let Me Luv U” on F communications -a record played and praised by DJs and musiclovers worldwide. In 1998 Jori re-invented his sound once again on his “The Spirits Inside Me” album (F communications), a record that permanently established Jori as a household name in the scene. First half of 1999 has seen Jori releasing a few 12"’ on various guises and labels, producing some other artists, doing a load of and labels, producing some other artists, doing a load of remixes, and gigging around Europe.

Now, four years later Jori is living in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, has a monthly residency in Finlands number one club, Kerma, has two radioshows on national RadioMafia radiostation, and his DJing travels have taken him from Golden Gate to Red Square, and things are just starting to warm up… Apart from a busy DJing schedule, the last year has been spent in the studio putting finishing touches for the new album on F communications. Featuring vocal contributions from Chris Udoh of The Wamdue Kids and Paul Oxley, and a collaboration with Tuomas Salmela (20:20 vision), the album sees Jori expanding his sound to a more organic direction, but still keeping faithful for the classic electronic vibe…