Ø: Oleva (Sähkö Recordings CD/LP/digital)
Even though Sleeparchive gets a lot of acclaim these days for his specific brand of minimal, icy electronics (both on and off the dancefloor), it goes without saying that he owes a lot to Mika Vainio and Pan Sonic. Back in the day when Pan Sonic was still violating trademark law with their original name Panasonic, Mika Vainio and partner-in-crime Ilpo Vaisänen created an ultra-cold, hyper-minimal variation on techno. Their debut Vakio was an indication of where they were coming from as much as where they were going, and ever since they've been further distilling their aesthetic, subtracting more and more, adding back in, but rarely really returning to the more predictable 4-on-the-floor formula that powered Vakio.
Vainio's solo work has worked on two very different fronts. Under his proper name, he released a couple albums of extreme minimalism. Onko on Touch was in the "barely there" category, so quiet at times that one had to jack the volume or check the stereo just to make sure it was still in fact playing. Ø has been more of a playground for him, though... where he seems to more freely indulge his influences as well as his own curiosity for space and form. Older releases like Metri or Atomit had nods to 303 acid, Beltram-esque cold techno, and Detroit warmth, even a tinge of melody occasionally (something I don't think I've ever encountered on a single Pan Sonic release). As years have passed, Ø has grown to share the same severity found on many of Pan Sonic's releases, diminishing the direct references to techno and instead opting for something more removed and detached.
Oleva balances these extremes and does so rather well. There is only the occasional nod to the techno past of the moniker, in more upbeat tracks like "Loihdittu," although in that particular instance, the beat is broken, so it's insistent without the immediate dancefloor connection that a steady kick denotes by default. Vainio frontloads Oleva with the most immediate and rhythmic material, leaving the second half of the album to suspend in deep space. It's a trajectory that will likely seem familiar to anyone who's followed Pan Sonic or Vainio's solo material; start up, get active, slow down, disappear... yet however often he repeats this pattern, there is surprising room to roam within his minimal palette. Diversions away from the more severe end of the spectrum are a welcome bright spot, and his oblique cover of Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun" is not only refreshingly odd in choice but also quite compelling as its own piece of instrumental mood music. Unlike the more bombastic moments of recent Pan Sonic efforts like Katodivaihe, most of the tracks here are crystal clear and even have a bit of a twinkle to them, like light refracting and bouncing around a dark room. The sounds are all clean and distinct mostly. This is the case even on the more movement-oriented tracks like "S-Bahn" or the aforementioned "Loihdittu," wherein, despite their more busy nature, everything seems quite distinct and deliberate. On the more atmospheric end, Vainio branches out of electronics for a moment with the startlingly organic "Tasanko," which features plucked strings and bending strums, decaying in its surrounding space. Vainio seems to have an affinity for an oddly dry space -- it sounds equally deep and sterile, vacuous but somewhat claustrophobic. This is most apparent on "Mojave" and "Kaussaliton," the latter of which devolves into the tiniest high frequencies and zips of sound. By the time closing track "Muistetun Palaava Taajuus" rolls around, it's easy to forget that there were some rather spry moments in the earlier part of this album - the dread that fills the air with this more elastic ambience overwhelms any of the action that preceded it in the first half of Oleva.
While Oleva doesn't really break new ground for Vainio, who increasingly strikes me as an "I know what I like and I like it" sort of auteur, it is another compelling entry into his repertoire, channeling his previous efforts and the sounds that comprised them but in some new and interesting ways.
mp3s: Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun | Tasanko
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