On Tuesday 12 April 2017, Finnish pioneer of avant-garde electronic music Mika Vainio passed away. He was 53 years old. According to Finnish media Vainio died in an accident while on holiday in France.
Shock
Mika Vainio is considered a shining example and inspiration. Many artists in the electronic music world are therefore dumbfounded, reacting to social media full of disbelief and sadness at the obituary.
Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft of Touch write: "We are stunned to hear that Mika Vaino has passed away. It was an honour to have had the opportunity to work with him. All our thoughts are with his friends and family."
Harsh reality
What stands out in Vainio's oeuvre is an extremely delicate sense of the harsh and emotional reality of pure sound. This cannot be missed in his technoid noise and industrial soundscapes. His subtly manipulated drone ambient and hammering beats are also full of it. And right through them, the purest, splitting sine tones seek a safe haven.
This style is what Vainio brings first. He deepens it by far-reaching minimalism. Preferably little more than a tone at 50Hz, the frequency of alternating current. Gradually, he also manages to suffuse his music with emotional expressiveness that goes far beyond technology. Hardware instruments, that is, because Vainio's work is an example of his heartfelt aversion to computers.
Sponge
It is not immediately minimalism that rings the bell for Vainio. Living in Turku as a teenager, he usually spends his free evenings at the local music library. Like a sponge, Vainio soaked up Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma as well as The Stooges, John Coltrane and Captain Beefheart. Via Kraftwerk and Devo, he finds himself on the electronic trail of industrial acts like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle. Although Vainio himself initially plays drums in punk bands, he also starts organising raves and experiments with performance art-like noise concerts.
Ultra-miminalism
With Ilpo Väisänen and Sami Salo, Vainio forms the trio Pan Sonic (initially known as Panasonic, but that name is changed after pressure from the electronics brand) in 1993. Salo leaves in 1996. Vainio and Väisänen then continue as a duo skilled at bringing together the matter-of-fact harshness of industrial and dull languidness known from reggae and dub.
In 1994, Vainio co-founded the Tag Sähkö on. Subsequent records are characterised by punitive ultra-minimalism.
Collaborations
Vainio's discography is huge. He releases under his own name and as Ø and Philus, among others. Vainio's work has been released on Säkhö, as well as on many other labels, including the aforementioned Touch and also Editions MEGO and Raster-Noton.
Raster-Noton remembered Vainio on Thursday: "Dear Mika, apart from the immense musical impact you have had on us - we will never forget you."
Mika Vainio often collaborates with other artists, including outside Pan Sonic. These include work with Joachim Nordwall, Charlemagne Palestine and with Merzbow. Vainio also makes records with Fennesz and Franck Vigroux. With Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley brings Vainio as ÄÄNIPÄÄ released an album. On it, the two showcase a dramatic and massive sound. This resonates grandly in hollow spaces. Physical impact of sounds plays an important role. In all these aspects, Vainio's apt hand is effortlessly recognisable.
What is really needed
Vainio's work is not one 'of omission'. He merely puts those sounds on the tabula rasa without which there really would be no composition. Precisely because of this, Vainio was an inspiration for a wide range of artists: from Carsten Nicolai, BJ Nilsen and Carl Michael von Hausswolff to Emptyset, Zeno van den Broek and Gábor Lázár, who, like himself, performed in clubs, at new music festivals and in museums. With the death of Mika Vainio, this vanguard loses one of its most important and inspired standard-bearers.
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