Mika Vainio is a Finnish musician, composer and producer. Since 1994 he has been a member of the experimental electronic music duo Pan Sonic, together with Ilpo Väisanen. The formation feeds off of different musical sources, from concrete music to hip hop, over reggae to 1980's industrial. Their music is characterised by a sound composed of cold loops, essentially made possible by drum machines, synthesizers and other transformed appliances. In order to experiment with other forms of creation, Mika Vainio has also recorded albums under his own name or under pseudonyms ( Ø, Kentolevi, Philus, Tekonivel) and constructed installations. For example, Onko is an album comprised of the recording of a performance, which took place in the Netherlands in 1996. Mika Vainio's work is recognizable by its analogical characteristics, evocative of the minimalist productions, which preceded the start of techno music. He manages to create atmospheres and universes of original musical without using sound processing software. Mika Vainio has worked with different labels, notably Touch, Wavatrap and Sähko, and has collaborated with musicians like Björk, Alan Vega from the band Suicide and dancer Cindy Van Acker. In September 1997, he participated as a composer and performer on the album Three Compositions for Machines, recorded during a performance at the Korzo Theatre of The Hague. As part of the Masterclass Festival, a music festival whose goal it is to bring together artists from different disciplines, Staalplaat, a label based in Amsterdam specializing in industrial, electronic and experimental music, commissioned sound pieces by Mika Vainio, Charlemagne Palestine, composer of minimal music and artist, and also Peter “Pita” Rehberg, founder of the Austrian label Mego. These pieces were composed and performed on the inventions of Christof Schlaeger, a German composer and inventor who for years created machine-instruments that he would bring together in an orchestra. Indeed, his sound sculptures are set off against a scenic space in order to create computer-controlled visual and musical installations. Mika Vainio thus composed and performed with the "Rustler", a wind device, taking its name from the German word "rauscher" (noise). This sound machine, whose purring evokes motors and pistons, produces white noise, droning, bells and sound evoking the whistling of a flute, gives Vainio's piece a fascinating and dramatic character. Pita, for his part, used the instrument named "Schellebaum", a strange and imposing apparatus made of metal and covered with little bells. And finally, Charlemagne Palestine created a composition made with the "Siren", an instrument that produces variations on tones. The album also contains a track with a recording of the audience present at the Korzo performance as well as a duet with Pita and Mika Vainio.

Priscilia Marques