Pan Sonic

Il gruppo finlandese techno-minimalista Pan Sonic è forse fra i più noti internazionalmente della scena techno sperimentale, solo fino a qualche anno fa del tutto underground. Ricombinando techno minimale e hardcore con musica industrial e noise Mika Vainio e Ilpo Väisänen hanno conosciuto, dal 1993, anno della loro nascita, una fortuna crescente in area musicale e audiovisuale. Sia Mika che Ilpo perseguono, attraverso installazioni acustiche, in solo e in duo, progetti espositivi in area artistico-visiva. Pan Sonic si interroga nella propria produzione sulla natura dell’elettronica; le loro opere, siano installazioni, concerti o Cd sono delle celebrazioni minimali della materialità e granularità della generazione del suono elettronico e del contatto elettrico. Creata con tecnologie semplici, la musica di Pan Sonic rievoca la natura della musica elettronica “primitiva” facendola riconfluire nel più moderno paesaggio di sound design del XX secolo. Pan Sonic in occasione di Netmage ha concepito una performance musicale, e, per la prima volta in Italia, un allestimento sonoro-chill out appositamente concepito da Mika Vainio.

Pan Sonic (originally Panasonic, until an inevitable confrontation with the Japanese manufacturing giant of the same name) was among the most active and well-known exports from Finland's experimental techno underground, the first to reach acclaim at an international level. Pursuing the jagged edges of minimal and hardcore techno, Pan Sonic earned an enduring association with industrial and noise music through their incorporation of antiseptic production techniques and power-tool electronics. As they junked together studio equipment from spare parts and ancient analog debris, Pan Sonic's search for the untried in techno was their compositional aim. They represented a collision between the Motor City's Jeff Mills and Cologne's Mike Ink: dance-based electronic music with maximum impact made with minimal extraneous detail. Formed in Turku in the early '90s, Pan Sonic began as the duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. As with most Finnish techno groups, Pan Sonic's earliest beginnings lay with Sähkö Recordings, the focus of the Northern European techno scene. Pan Sonic added live performance to their repertoire in 1996, playing a number of gigs throughout Europe and Japan untill 2009 when the duo splitting was announced, with Mika and Ilpo continued with their own solo projects.