Ø (Mika Vainio) * Franz Kirmann – Ambientblog
Ø – SYSIVALO
Mika Vainio was (was, indeed: he died in 2017 at the age of 53) a Finnish electronic musician, composer, and producer of huge importance. He was one half of Pan Sonic (with Ilpo Väisänen), but also released his work under various other aliases. One of these pseudonyms is Ø.
As Ø, he released 9 albums (including Sysivalo). All of them are released on the Sähkö Recordings label, which he co-founded together with Tommi Grönlund. ‘Sähkö’, by the way, is the Finnish word for Electricity.
The album’s title, Sysivalo, is a combination of the Finnish words for dark or sinister (sysi) and light (valo). Vainio recorded the music for this album from 2014-2017, but sadly passed away before it was finished and released.
The 20 tracks are compiled ‘post mortem’ by Rikke Lundgreen and Tommi Grönlund according to Mika‘s notes. In these notes, Vainio described the record as “a distinct Ø album that was going to include several shorter
tracks, etudes.” There are seven of these Etudes; all the other tracks have names.
With some exceptions (like T-Bahn), the tracks on this album are beatless soundscapes, and are indeed a combination of darkness and light – “subtle soundtracks of eclipsed emotions. Like an incapacitated creature waiting for something to happen.”
Sysivalo once again demonstrates why Mika Vainio was such a well-respected artist, with his unique capability of combining minimalism, analogue warmth, physicality and electronic harshness into a soundscape that almost feels ‘natural’.
The physical edition of Sysivalo is available as a 2LP+CD set (not available separately).
FRANZ KIRMANN – HEURES INDUES
On Heures Indues (‘unreasonable ‘hours’, or ‘inappropriate hours’), Franz Kirmann (French producer now based in London) returns to working with analog and modular synthesis after focusing on audio manipulation with granular samplers in the past few years.
The atmosphere on the 11 tracks on this (50-minute) album are “meant to evoke long and lazy sunny afternoons in the Senegal of his childhood in the 80’s, and vague recollections of moments blurred by the distance of time”.
I can’t really judge the Senegalese atmosphere, and the sound is more contemporary than 80’s to me – but I can confirm the ‘lazy sunny afternoon and the vague recollections’ atmosphere.
Kirmann remembers: “There is nothing you can do apart from let yourself go to some reverie and fantasies” – and that seems like great advice to enjoy this album.
Heures Indues is released on Courier, a ‘micro label’ based in Essex, England, that focuses on experimental and electronic music. The album is released on cassette in a limited edition of 30 (hence the ‘micro’). Digital download is also available.
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