Ø ‎| Kantamoinen (2LP) [BKEDIT013]

Ø ‎| Kantamoinen
Label: Boomkat Editions ‎– BKEDIT013
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Album
Released| 20 Apr 2018

Kantamoinen is perhaps the most intimately beautiful yet little known LP in MIka Vainio's Ø canon, bridging the gap between his classic ‘90s minimal techno productions - compiled in the vital Metri and Olento collections - and the project’s subsequent turn to more ambient, kosmic and dub wise dimensions in the coolly brilliant Oleva and Konstellaatio albums.

Upon original release it was an immediate favourite of ours - a go-to disc for hazy daydreaming and post-club head salvage alike, drifting between iced out instrumental rhythms and chasmic spaces interspersed with moments of indelibly heart-rending melody that have clearly lodged in the memory ever since.

Taking in 16 tracks in just under 50 minutes, it’s notable for including a number of exquisitely succinct - or tantalisingly short - glimpses of Vainio at his sweetest, even sentimental, especially with the breathtaking Tuulessa / In Wind and the frosted harmonies of Talven Henki / Winter Spirit, as well as the rare appearance of vocals (the voice of Oskar Sala recorded by Hans Ulrich Obrist) in the armchair transportation of Äänikuva / Sound Picture.

Vacillating poignant emotive clarity with forlorn abstraction, this expansion and contraction between deep, wide and relatively longer-form pieces, and a high frequency of shorter, starry-eyed passages, lends the album a more broken, strangely resolved flow than many other Mika Vainio records, and with a twinkling lustre that refocuses the ear with an ancient yet timeless sort of depth perception and atemporal appeal.

It’s an often sublime and necessary addition to any collection of classic ambient music and a firm reminder of Mika Vainio’s full spectrum electronic dominance and purity.

Second vinyl edition, cut at D&M.

TRACKLIST:
A1     Galaksit / Galaxies
A2     Miekkakala / Swordfish     
A3     Antenni-muurahais / Antenna-ant     
A4     Näkinkengät / Shells     
B1     Äänikuva / Sound Picture     
B2     Kertomus Kaukomailta / Tale From Farawaylands     
B3     Aallonmurtaja / Breakwave     
B4     Talven Henki / Winter Spirit     
C1     Poseidon     
C2     Monneista Viimeinen / Last Of Catfishes     
C3     Aurinkokala / Sunfish     
C4     Tuulessa / In Wind     
D1     Kesämaa / Summerland     
D2     Yöhalla / Night Frost     
D3     Ensimmäinen Valo / First Light     
D4     Kotiin / To Home

# Experimental # Ambient # Electronica