Ilpo Väisänen, born in Kuopio / Finland in 1963, studied visual arts and ceramics, graduated from Turku art academy in 1991 and in the early 90s took part in several solo and group exhibitions. He formed the performance-art group ultra3 in 1991 and in 1993, together with Mika Vainio, the sound group sinO which turned into Pan Sonic (originally called Panasonic).
Pan Sonic was one of the most ground-breaking and innovating projects in contemporary electronic music. In a musical form in which sequencing and recording music using computers is standard, the group was known for recording everything live, straight to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) using home-made and modified synthesizers and effect units.
Pan Sonic performed in clubs, galleries and at festivals in Europe, America, Australia, and Asia, for instance Southbank/Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Barbican (London), Centre Pompidou, Fondation Cartier (Paris), Volksbühne, MaerzMusik festival (Berlin), Sónar festival (Barcelona); they did collaborations with Masami Akita (Merzbow), FM Einheit, Erkki Kurenniemi, Barry Adamson, Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine, Sunn O))), among others; had numerous CDs/LPs, live releases, album collaborations, and remixes (e.g. for Ryuichi Sakamoto); composed music for Comme des Garçons fashion shows; gained the Ars Electronica award in 2005. In December 2009 their split was announced, Ilpo and Mika continued with their own projects.
Ilpo Väisänen is trekking through new possibilities in sound, timbre and structure. Political, philosophical, cultural – human. Musically speaking, and from the viewpoint of the prevalent vocabularies, he mixes techno with the spirit of the most caustic rock, with dub, and the most enlightened side of what was to be known as industrial. Ilpo Väisänen returned to solo albums through now canonical Editions Mego in 2015 with ‘Communist Dub’, ‘I-LP-O in Dub’ in 2017, and last year’s larger album, ‘ÄÄNET’, in honour of his late friend. Peppered with some field recordings from a Pan Sonic tour of the USA, this album makes for the most dignified, powerful and delicate elegy.
Ilpo Väisänen performs on November 7, 2024 at the eavesdrop festival at silent green.
FACTS
1. universe is eternal
2. earth survives, people do not
3. god exists only in our mind
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Sounds outside or inside.rythm connected to knowledge of understanding world.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I was doing sound installations before and it was easy to slip into music from there.also I was studying flute as young student.listening all kinds of music.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Miles Davis:bitches brew
Joy division:unknown pleasures
eno&byrne:my life in a bush of ghosts
King tubby meets rockers in a firehouse
Beethoven`s 9th symphony
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Activity
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Armchair at home
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Painting
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
Munir Bashir:meditation-improvisation auf dem ud
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Rick rubin
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Merzbow at paradiso,amsterdam(do not remember year)
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Technology is tool to express ideas or tool to express ideas is technology.as my friend Erkki kurenniemi said:others solder, others play.
11. What can we expect from your concert at eavesdrop festival in Berlin?
unexpected sounds,uncomfortable emotional depths in tico tico.
