Perttu Häkkinen 1979 - 2018
Perttu Eino Häkkinen, known not only as Randy Barracuda of Finnish electro act Imatran Voima and other musical projects (not to mention being instrumental in the birth of electronic skweee genre) but also as a radio journalist, columnist and author of two books in Finnish, died in Helsinki on the 12th of August 2018 as a consequence of a cycling accident. He had been born on the 10th of June 1979 in Kokkola.
I can't claim to have known Perttu closely, but just enough that I could call him a friend. I remember my first contact with him was around 1999 or so, when he e-mailed me. I think it was something about his electro project Imatran Voima that had just released their first record.
After that it was at electro and techno parties plus festivals in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku where I saw a lot of him; I crashed on his floor when I DJed in Helsinki at a party organised by him, the year was 2001 or so.
I remember him as someone with an ultra-rapid mind, mischievous sense of humour and a gift of gab, with an extremely persuasive charisma (one specific occasion comes to mind when he just insistently tried to trade from me the Aux 88 T-shirt I was wearing at a party).
Sadly, as I don't live in Helsinki myself and became less active in electro scene and stopped frequenting the parties, gradually I kept less and less in touch with him, only through very occasional e-mails and social media. I kept following his career as a writer, radioshow host and musician, though: just the amount of activities he was involved with was impressive.
After Perttu had passed, I remembered the last time I had actually talked with him. In 2008 I worked at the Kontti "recycling department store" of the Red Cross (in fact, a glorified flea market) when Perttu called me one day. He was in Tampere and asked me to see with him Kirlian Camera who had a local gig that night (27 June 2008 at Lumous Festival, says Wikipedia). Thinking I had to work the next day, which wouldn't be fun if I was tired and with hangover (I hadn't become teetotaller yet), I had to say no to Perttu. Which I now gravely regret, of course, but that's how it goes.
So I can't help but to use the familiar quote from Lao Tzu (and Blade Runner): “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long"... Goodbye, my friend, till we meet again.
Lux Fennica’s post about Perttu Häkkinen
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perttu_H%C3%A4kkinen
