Mika Vainio

Sometimes known as <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a>, Mika Vainio was the co-founder of Finnish techno duo <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Pan Sonic</a> (known as <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Panasonic</a> until 1998), whose innovative brand of blistering rhythmic noise and uncompromising minimalism transformed them into one of the most popular exports from the Northern European techno underground. Unlike <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Pan Sonic</a>'s harder, comparatively more dancefloor-oriented gear, however, Vainio's <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> work tended more toward the ambient and experimental, wedding sparse machine noises with shifting rhythms, stubbornly unmusical sonic textures, and assorted channel separation weirdness. His work under his given name followed a similar path, although some of his later recordings and collaborations, particularly ones produced after <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Pan Sonic</a>'s 2009 breakup, flared up to the intensity level of the duo's harsher moments.

Vainio's <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> releases stretch back to the early '90s (predating his association with <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Panasonic</a> by a few years); his earliest work appeared on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Corporate%22">Corporate</a> label before landing with Finnish techno institution <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a> in 1993, where he released most of his material, including three albums and a handful of EPs. The increasing popularity of <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Panasonic</a> found Vainio giving less and less time to his <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> work, but he did manage to release some of his most accomplished solo material in 1996, on his second <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a> full-length, Olento, which featured the most effective fusion of <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Panasonic</a>'s austere minimalism with less immediate, more challenging structures. Demand for Vainio as a remixer grew, with revisions of tracks by <a href="spotify:artist:7w29UYBi0qsHi5RTcv3lmA">Björk</a> and Tactile both appearing in mid-1996.

He continued to record as Tekonivel (for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a> sublabel Puu) and as <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Kentolevi</a> for <a href="spotify:artist:3MXePESrFifdxyENQfsaid">Patrick Pulsinger</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cheap%22">Cheap</a> label; titles issued under Vainio's own name include 1997's Onko (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a>), 1999's Ydin (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wavetrap%22">Wavetrap</a>), and the following year's 20 to 2000 (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a>) and Kajo (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a>). Wohltemperiert, the second collaboration between <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:67KBhMPZRzsSKdZqMwpoFB">Noto</a>, aka <a href="spotify:artist:3aJZxbrbxP5qfQ755XurHS">Carsten Nicolai</a>, appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a> in 2001, followed in 2002 by Invisible Architecture 2 (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Audiosphere%22">Audiosphere</a>, in collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:2DoQBgPsB9AdmWpIa2hUSz">Fennesz</a>). Vainio's next solo album was 2003's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a> release Sokeiden Maassa Yksisilmäinen on Kuningas (In the Land of the Blind One-Eyed Is King); this was followed by collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:2DoQBgPsB9AdmWpIa2hUSz">Fennesz</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3ellcfQKaQGsPfsbzBW7bn">Christian Zanési</a> (GRM Experience, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Signature%22">Signature</a>) and <a href="spotify:artist:6OduuyK8bSNjSEqAMU1EuE">John Duncan</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4UJLCrifQfI4rByJfIXoAe">Ilpo Väisänen</a> (Nine Suggestions, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Allquestions%22">Allquestions</a>). He resumed the <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> alias for 2005's Kantamoinen and 2006's Aste (both on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a>), while 2006's Revitty [Torn] appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wavetrap%22">Wavetrap</a> under his given name.

Following 2007's "Ikuinen" single and 2008's Oleva full-length, both released as <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7qk18OMPkaekOJt2QUva9G">Pan Sonic</a> disbanded in 2009, releasing two collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:6BsNCY0qB2WLl5LlXqA79y">Keiji Haino</a> in 2009-2010 and final studio album Gravitoni (<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Blast+First+Petite%22">Blast First Petite</a>) in 2010. Vainio devoted much more of his time to solo and collaborative work under his own name, with Aineen Musta Puhelin (Black Telephone of Matter) appearing on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a> in 2009. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Raster-Noton%22">Raster-Noton</a> released Time Examined, a double CD/book documenting Vainio's installation works, that same year. 3. Telepathics Meh In-Sect Connection, a collaborative album with <a href="spotify:artist:6j6DqqWXpJqgWxwe2wFjwN">Kouhei Matsunaga</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:6WH1V41LwGDGmlPUhSZLHO">Autechre</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:3nu5upBa3eLiejjFnda2Tp">Sean Booth</a>, appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Important+Records%22">Important Records</a> in 2010.

A new <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a> album titled Heijastuva appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a> in 2011, with Vainio's Life (...It Eats You Up) arriving on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Editions+Mego%22">Editions Mego</a> soon after. The year 2012 saw the release of Vainio's solo album Fe3O4 - Magnetite on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a>, as well as Venexia, a collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:5aQa51qekOqNjgMoJMWZyE">Kevin Drumm</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4CfB1cLSLHLqLkzqtPjthD">Axel Dörner</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5F54rp2UMTFUdv6rfOGzub">Lucio Capece</a>, on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Pan%22">Pan</a>. A heavier, noisier solo album titled Kilo appeared on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Blast+First+Petite%22">Blast First Petite</a> in 2013, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a> released Monstrance (in collaboration with <a href="spotify:artist:4w3hQtyx7t6ULytAbNYA30">Joachim Nordwall</a>) the same year. Vainio collaborated with <a href="spotify:artist:68asoMGlK8z2VFgAIWkeUM">Arne Deforce</a> for a drone collaboration titled Hephaestus, released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Editions+Mego%22">Editions Mego</a> in 2014. <a href="spotify:artist:2f1BFOhuLHw7mXfquuG85y">Ø</a>'s Konstellaatio surfaced on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22S%C3%A4hk%C3%B6%22">Sähkö</a> that year. In 2015, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Touch%22">Touch</a> issued Halfway to White, a book of photography by Joséphine Michel that included a CD by Vainio. Also that year, Vainio collaborated with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:4XNfRGAL3nvo8eC2bkQNd2">Franck Vigroux</a> for the full-length Peau Froide, Léger Soleil, released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cosmo+Rhythmatic%22">Cosmo Rhythmatic</a>. In 2016, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22iDEAL+Recordings%22">iDEAL Recordings</a> issued Vainio's soundtrack to the film Mannerlaatta. Sadly, Vainio passed away on April 12, 2017, at the age of 53. ~ Sean Cooper & Paul Simpson, Rovi