Mika Vainio
Mika Vainio (1963 - 2017) was a Finnish electronic musician, composer and producer. He was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland, (the other half was Ilpo Väisänen). Before starting Pan Sonic in beginning of the 90's Mika Vainio has played electronics and drums as part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, Vainio is always creating unique, physical sounds.
Mika Vainio (1963 - 2017) was a Finnish electronic musician, composer and producer. He was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland, (the other half was Ilpo Väisänen). Before starting Pan Sonic in beginning of the 90's Mika Vainio has played electronics and drums as part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, Vainio is always creating unique, physical sounds.
Member of: Pan Sonic
Peau Froide, Leger Soleil
Double LP version. Peau froide, léger soleil is the result of a three-year recording process initiated by Mika Vainio and Franck Vigroux after a series of shared live experiences, beginning with a show in Paris in 2012. Their collaboration is an exercise in sensitive intensity, drifting through the whole space between minimalist meditations and maximalist kinetics. Vainio's signature brutalist production resonates throughout the album, constructing a psychic scenario for Vigroux's researches in …
Halfway to White
With Folio, Touch introduces a new series of bespoke hardback book and CD publications, produced to the highest specifications. This first release, Halfway to White, is a collaboration between singular photographer Joséphine Michel and acclaimed musician and sound artist Mika Vainio. Joséphine Michel's images reframe our perception of the visual by exploring the notion of "sonic photography," as she exposes her subjects according to the resonance of the noise-fields felt at her chosen loca…
Hephaestus
Arne Deforce is renowned for his passionate and unparalleled performances of contemporary and experimental music. As a soloist, his repertoire consists mainly of solo and chamber music with a special interest in works deemed "unplayable" but "performable" from composers such as Iannis Xenakis, Richard Barrett, John Cage and Brian Ferneyhough. Mika Vainio was one-half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their…
Kilo
Finnish experimental electronic musician Mika Vainio's first solo album for Blast First sees him return to his classic power electronics/heavy beats approach that made Pan Sonic garner a worldwide reputation. The album developed from Vainio's recent live sets to make 10 tersely-titled tracks inspired by the shipping container industry. Four stars in Mojo: "heavy-freight," The Quietus describes it as "fearsome."
Rasputin 3000
This one-time limited edition of 750 copies comes from Austria's Comfortzone label and catches Mika Vainio in swaggering backroom dancefloor mode again for a 2nd, Jukebox-styled 7". A-side is a corrosive, killer slice of Industro-Bashment called 'Rasputin 3000', all skeletal rhythmic swagger and elemental distortion. B-side features an even more stripped down and haunted number called 'Devil Arrives To Finspång'. Nobody does this thing quite like Vainio - miss out at your peril!
Fe3O4 - Magnetite
Vainio is back with his fifth album for the esteemed Touch label! Currently based in Berlin, was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland, (with Ilpo Väisänen). Before starting Pan Sonic in the beginning of the 90's, Mika Vainio has played electronics and drums as part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or m…
Venexia
**Vainio and Drumm on one record? Oh f*ck yes - an Immense album mastered & cut by Rashad at D&M to 140g vinyl. Housed in pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, itself contained in a silkscreened pvc sleeve with artwork by Kathryn Politis & Bill Kouligas.** PAN continue to take action against unoriginal, conformist sound with the release of an incredible, inspired ensemble piece recorded in Venice on May 12th, 2008 by four like-minded and exceptionally talented musicians. Make no mistake; i…
Life (...It eats you up)
Whereas previous works by Mika Vainio have utilised guitar Life (… It Eats You Up) is the first to use the instrument as its primary sound source. A fascinating, sometimes disturbing and deeply personal work this new 10 track set bears all the hallmarks (exacting attention to detail of tone, rhythm and texture) of Vainio's previous works with some stunning surprises, such as his cover version of The Stooges' 'Open Up and Bleed'.Tracks such as ‘Mining’ hark bark to the banging beat exces…
Hate People Like Us
Remixes of PLU music by Coil, Negativland, Farmers Manual, Bruce Gilbert, Boyd Rice, Dummy run, Rehberg & Bauer, Stock Hausen & Walkman, Death in June, Christoph Heemann, Sons of Silence, Barbed and Mika Vainio. "Radio shows and kitsch 60's Easy Listening, found sounds, overheard conversations, all subjected to a malicious clown's fiendish tinkering and manipulation of texture and tempo... Wild but wonderful." -- Paul Stump in The Wire.
Time Examined
Indispensible 94-page Hardcover book and 2XCD limited edition focusing on Mika Vainio's intense and truly jawdropping work for installations and site-specific works - making for one of his most priceless collections of material complete with beautiful images and essays - do not miss! Raster Noton is never short of opulent hi-end concepts for sound and design, but they've truly excelled themselves with this book + 2xCD (one disc of unreleased material and a reissue of the amazing Ø + Alva…
Nine suggestions
NINE SUGGESTIONS gathers collaborations over the past couple of years between sound installation artist John Duncan and the two members of Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. Duncan's previous collaborators have included Elliott Sharp, Bernhard Günter and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, and the album is on his own label. As Pan Sonic's reputation would lead you to expect, there's enormous confidence here in the handling of material, whether we're talking about distorted screeching like the st…
Split
Despite the fact I've always had a liking for Pan Sonic I recently found out that Mika Vainio isn't actually the one with the fringe. Oh well, that's faceless leccyblokes for you. The one without the fringe is on spectacularly uncompromising form here, beginning with a nasty bit of high-frequency blasting before crashing into a heavy, ultra distorted 'tone' that could almost pass for Sunn 0))) being processed to within an inch of their lives. A temporary respite eventually arrives in the …
3. telepathics
Important Records have four releases involving Kouhei Matsunaga: an NHK record (apparently coming soon), a solo CD, a split LP with Mika Vainio and this here disc which has him collaborating with both Vainio and Autechre's Sean Booth. This is certainly a strange listen... The first track is Mika and Kouhei and needs the volume cranked right up. It builds from tiny scraping and string-like sounds into briefly menacing drones and back down again into crackle, hiss, dog frequencies and some really …
Vandal EP
We're struggling to contain our excitement over the latest in Raster Noton's Unun series, following essential excursions from Aoki Takamasa, NHK and Grischa Lichtenberger with four tracks of absolutely immense nasty beats and techno reductions from Mika Vainio! It's fully acknowledged that we have a man-crush on this producer, but it's totally justified when he gives out analog brutalism of this variety. There's a definite theme of northern-European destruction going on with this 12" with titles…
Shall I Download A Blackhole And Offer It To You\" Live In Berli
The complete live recording from the 15th November 2007 concert at Berlin's Volksbuhne. Music. Mystery. Magic Finlandian straight-men dual a last waltz with stand-up shamen, Mr Haino. All bow. Deluxe Packaging Designed by Stephen O'Malley.
Aíneen Musta Puhelin / Black Telephone Of Matter
Best known as one-half of acclaimed techno minimalists Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio also has an impressive résumé as a solo artist that stretches back to the early '90s and his association with influential Finnish imprint Sähkö. Recording primarily under the aliases Ø and Philus, and sometimes his birth name (depending on the project), Vainio's aesthetic mission has been consistently and rigorously defined by an investigation into the materiality of sound. Indeed, just about everything in his catalog …
Katodivaihe/Cathodephrase
Pan Sonic are Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen, both Finnish nationals now based in Berlin. Katodivaihe is Pansonic's first release for Blast First Petite since "sidestepping" (at their own request) from the newly EMI-owned Blast First/Mute Records for whom they have recorded since 1995. Their last release for them was 2004's 4CD release -- the musically massive Kesto box set. These 2006 recordings that make up this album feature the continued extension and development of their trademarked warm ele…
Trahnie
Editions Mego issues the first album by duo Lucio Capece and Mika Vainio. At first glance, the two seem unlikely partners. Two standard-bearers at opposing poles of extremity, both sonically and geographically. Lucio from Argentina and rooted in the traditions of jazz and improv, while Mika, hailing from Finland, sourced in early '90s electronic and industrial scenes. However, they both share an alarming attention to detail when it comes to their audio compositions, and neither are afraid …
Kesto
'Kesto (234:48:4)' is a brand new quartet of compact discs from Pan Sonic (Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen) available only as one complete set and highly limited. The original discussions of ideas for the new recordings were based around Mika's favourite painter Francis Bacon and his use of the triptych (a format Bacon used a number of times in his lifetime). Always pushing the boundaries, Pan Sonic were inspired to go on to record a fourth part. Those familiar with Pan Sonic's work may detect a c…
More Arctic Hysteria / Son of Arctic Hysteria
...The later years of early Finnish avant-garde. Another incredible volume, following the inspiration and eye-opening 2001 CD Arktinen hysteria -- Suomi-avantgarden Wsipuutarhureita. Perfectly packaged document of more utterly obscure electronic mayhem and theatrical intoxication, presented as near-high-art. Now covered are the 1970s and 1980s. 34 artists. Featuring a lavishly illustrated leaflet of 20 pages. Compiled by Jukka Lindfors. Featuring Jimi Tenor, Läjä Äijälä and early Mika Vainio (Pa…