Vainio, Mika

Aineen Musta Puhelin (Black Telephone Of Matter)

Label: Touch Country: UK

"As half of the venerable Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio crafts bold soundscapes with uncompromising vision. On his Touch label releases, Vainio appears to strike out in fearless departures from the familiar, and he does so to our benefit. With many recordings in/as Pan Sonic, Endless, O, and Philus, it's under his own name that Vainio is a true pioneer. Isolating sine waves and oscillating drones in sparse dissemination, he displaces the listener and challenges one with his tactile impressions. Spatially, Black Telephone Matter is akin to AMM, digitally reminiscent of Keith Fullerton Whitman, and sensually familiar to Christian Fennesz.

Imagine the bleaker moments of micro sounds in Fennesz's Black Sea, and piece them around longer compositions with extremely streamlined and efficient functions. With an impact that is ultimately jarring, closely listening to this album opens up its aural possibilities. Notes take on vibrant undulation, songs singe in dark and drowning ambience, and the breadth of the album reaches far beyond immediate responses. Black Telephone Matter plays like a private installation of soundscapes in your mind. As far as the tenuous genre of modern sound art is concerned, this is music to my ears."-ReviewsOther Music

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