out for a while: Pan Sonic - Aaltopiiri [Blast First]

Artist:
Pan Sonic

Title:
Aaltopiiri

Label:
Blast First

Cat#:
BFFP166

Release Date:
19th February 2001

Format:
vinyl, CD, download & streaming

Tracklist:
01.
Ensi

02.
Vaihtovirta

03.
Toisaalta

04.
Johdin

05.
Kuu

06.
Aanipaa

07.
Arvio

08.
Liuos

09.
Ulottuvuus

10.
Hallapyydys

11.
Reuna-Alue

12.
Valli

13.
Kone

14.
Johto 3

15.
Murskaus

16.
Rasite

17.
Kierto

Press Info:
Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen formed as Panasonic in 1994 a hundred miles West of Helsinki in their hometown of Turku, Finland. Originally a three piece with Sami Salo, they have not only lost a member but also a letter in their name.

Now known as Pan sonic, due to intervention from the Japanese electronic corporation in 1997, the duo return to us in 2000 with their new album AALTOPIIRI.

Pan sonicAALTOPIIRI offers the listener a wide range of flowing, atmospheric sounds and rhythms. Recorded at their studio in Barcelona, the pair choose an improvising approach to recording their music. “When we are in the studio everything is recorded straight on to tape. We might do several takes of a song, but there are no overdubs,” explains Mika. Mainly recorded on analogue equipment, some of which is designed and built for them by long time friend, Geri Lehtinen, a physics expert. “For me the most important thing in our music is the sound itself,” says Mika. “The structure is secondary. For different kinds of tracks, of course, were looking for different kinds of sounds. But I still don’t know myself what is in a sound that attracts me. There’s some kind of nature in the sound itself, some kind of information.”

Mika and Ilpo first met in the late 80’s when Mika was organising illegal raves. Their long and productive partnership has seen them explore many different avenues. At one of the first live Panasonic shows an early band member swallowed a microphone. “We were just interested in what it sounded like in his stomach,” says Ilpo, “he started running into the wall and we were amplifying the sound.” Their first releases were for the Finnish label Sahko and they were soon picked up by Blast First. They have been invited to perform at venues and events as diverse as Angela Bulloch’s show at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Finnish Embassy in London (where they literally brought the ceiling down), in front of thousands of baffled New York clubbers at the Limelight and two Commes De Garcons fashion shows in Paris and Tokyo.

They also have a thriving art career & through invitation have produced sound installations for The Pompidou Centre & Cartier Foundation, Paris, The Haywood Gallery, London & The Walker Gallery, Minneapolis.

They also are developing a series of recording & live performance collaborations with other artistes, the first with Suicide’s Alan Vega was released as an album titled “endless” under the name V.V.V. in 1998 and they recently recorded with Einstürzende Neubauten’s F.M. Einheit , the fruits of which will be released as an album in 2001.

PansonicBoth Mika and Ilpo indulge in their own side projects and they have remixed tracks for the likes of Björk, 2K (KLF) and Riuchi Sakamoto & also release their own solo projects on various labels including Touch, Sahko & Mego.

AALTOPIIRI is an album filled with alluring, ambient frequencies and hypnotic rhythms. Tracks like Kone and Kierto stutter and groove, while elsewhere Aanipaa and Liuos provide lush, addictive pulses. They are often asked what the track & album titles actually mean when translated into English, but as they often invent or combine Finnish words the “definitions” become quite vague. For example, a legendary maybe mythological low creeping mist from a particular area of Finland or, a variant technological term for a certain aspect of a early radio wave experiments.

As Mika says, “There is no theory for Pan Sonic. We have no plan. We just make the music.”

Snippets: