Vladislav Delay Quartet

*2023 stock* Sasu Ripatti is the versatile Finnish producer behind pseudonyms such as Luomo, Sistol, Uusitalo, Conoco and Vladislav Delay. He is a breath of fresh air for obsessive diggers of electronic music, especially because he's not limited to just that.

'Vladislav Delay Quartet' is an album veiled with peculiarity given the various dance material that preceded it. It is the result of Ripatti's return to his homeland in Hailuoto, an isolated island in the Northern Ostrobothnia region of Finland, populated only by 1,001 thousand people after living a good part of his life in Berlin. And as one return brings another, this album emerged from Ripatti's roots in jazz which surfaced again in the shelter of an undisturbed environment where music ceased to be about what surrounds it too. Once reducing production entirely to sensibility, the result came out as an intimate listening involvement where one is enraptured by the communication this album invites to.

The album begins with 'Minus Degrees, Bare Feet, Tickles', a turbulent song that feels like a sonic picture of an abrupt dive into Purgatory. Purification is achieved once the deepest roots of guilt, regret and hatred are faced and ravaged. 'Santa Teresa' follows as a first experimentation of the divine state. Apprehension makes its way out of the spirit through cornered pristine corridors. The sound of closing gates left behind and opening ones ahead is emulated in 'Des Abends' and the seemingly endless walk through them is underlined by the repetitive electric sounds of 'Hohtokivi'. 'Killing the Water Bed' sounds like steps made tiredly into an unknown dark space where flickers of light are moving chaotically, guiding the followers towards their destination. Thick mist suffocates skin pores while earthly lake sounds emerge through delirious clarinet, saxophone and crumbling drums.

All this sinister attempt to escape ends with a dash into 'Presentiment', a ravishing track which encloses scarce gravity between the walls of soft cymbal strokes. This moment of light and clarity is interrupted by 'Louhos' as one last struggle before eternal peace. 'Salt Flat' is a continuously ascending track ending the album in a mood so buoyant that it reinforces the listener to go again through this now known experience.