Pan Sonic, new 4cd album - Kesto

[Uncle Gripper]

Controlled noise experimenters Pan Sonic are to release a new behemoth of an album, a 4cd experimental soundscape.  I saw them live on Friday night along with John Peel, Irmin Schmidt, Carter Tutti and Wire.  Needless to say Pan Sonic were the highlight, towering sheer faces of sound penned the crowd in, while razor sharp sonic light sabres ripped at flesh and eardrums alike.  Ye canny beat these guys live, home listening requires patience and a medium to good sound sytem to unlock all the detail and frequencies.  Here is the press release and it's worth mentioning that it was me who done the website for the around the world tour they mention.  I met up with them on the Dublin leg, superb night, ended up blitzed wandering around Dublin at 4am with Ilpo (one half of the group).  Anyways, enough ligging, heres the quote...

PAN SONIC
New Album: KESTO (234:48:4)
Release Date: May 18, 2004

"There is no theory for PAN SONIC. We have no plan. We just make the music." (Mika Vainio)

KESTO (234:48:4) is a brand new quartet of compact discs from PAN SONIC (Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen) available only as one complete set.

This is an epic work in the true sense of the word.

The title means "strength" or "duration", entirely appropriate in both the size of this work (over four hours of new music) and the scale of the band's adventures since the release of their last album Aaltopiiri in 2001.

Directly after Aaltopiiri's release, uninspired by the traditional rock and roll performance circuit they had so elegantly mastered since their public birth in 1995, PAN SONIC undertook a mammoth round-the-world tour that was organized via an enthusiastic response to two small adverts in The Wire music magazine. The adverts invited promoters, fans or the merely curious to offer the band a range of far flung locations and exotic venues in which to perform. In exchange, the band asked only for the promise of accommodation and a percentage of any profits that the event might generate. They received hundreds of offers, which resulted in a eight-week-long expedition that took them from their base in Barcelona to Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Papeete, Easter Island, Buenos Aires, Tijuana, Mexico City, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Princeton University, and Reykjavik. In the course of the tour they played in every type of venue, from major concert halls to back street "rumbatini" shacks, gathering inspirational atmospheres from a wide and wild variety of events including a monkeys' tea party, an Easter Island shebeen, late night hot springs and frozen snow baths, audio recordings of the famous stone heads of Easter Island and the lo rider cars of Tijuana, and working with a 40-member Icelandic choir.

They had fully expected to continue on for another four weeks by driving to events in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Israel and Greece, but Mika Vainio fell ill through the physical and mental stress of almost constant travel and performances, causing the Eastern Bloc section to be cancelled. The travelogue recommenced in Istanbul and was completed in Athens, but Mika vowed from there on in that touring would consist of no more than four consecutive performances.

After a lengthy period of recovery Mika relocated himself and their studio to Berlin from their first temporary home of Barcelona, where they had moved in 1998 to escape the long Finnish winters in their hometown of Turku, 100 miles west of Helsinki.

The original discussions of ideas for the new recordings were based around Mika's favorite painter Francis Bacon and his use of the triptych (a format Bacon used a number of times in his lifetime). Always pushing the boundaries, PAN SONIC were inspired to go on to record a fourth part.

Those familiar with PAN SONIC's work may detect a correlation between their use of sound and Bacon's use of paint; the KESTO recordings represent a substantial new depth and vitality in the quality of their sound palette that brings a newfound life force and delicate violence into their music.

PAN SONIC have remained true to their original and pioneering use of their special handmade analog tone generators, more old radio set than synthesisers, with the occasional use of digital samplers for the more rhythmic sounds. They still record live to DAT tape in real time with no overdubbing.

The sounds within are complemented by the award winning photography of fellow Finnish artist Anne Hamalainen.

Meet the "quadruplets":

(As PAN SONIC often use a form of slang or "twisted" Finnish words, for this release they have added their nearest understanding of the Finnish meaning in English wherever possible to help listeners to integrate the source atmosphere into the tracks)

KESTO (234:48:4) = 234 minutes, 48 seconds, 4 milliseconds

CD1
01. Rahina 1/ Mayhem 1
02. Mutaaattori / Mutator
03. Onkalo / Cavity
04. Pakoisvoima / Fugalforce
05. Louhi
06. Rahina II / Mayhem II
07. Tiimu / Halter
08. Keskeisvoima / Central force
09. Vahentaja / Diminisher
10. Rahina III / Mayhem III
11. Lautturi / Rafter
12. Painovoima / Gravity

CD2
01. Etaisyys / Distance
02. Konnat / Toads
03. Virtamuuntaja / Current-Transformer
04. Tasmania
05. Johto 5 / Cable 5
06. Valomuuntaja / Light-Transformer
07. Altistus / Exposure
08. Routa-olio / Groundfrost
09. Telemiittit / Telemites
10. Sykkiva / Throbbing
11. Prospekt Vernatskogo
12 Arktinen / Arctic

CD3
01. Viemarimaailma / Sewageworld
02. Kaytava / Corridor
03. Ilmenemismuoto / Appearanceform
04. Pakkasen Holvit / Arches of Frost
05. Selittamaton / Inexplicable
06. Ilma / Air
07. Koljan Uni / Sleep of Haddock
08. Linjat / Lines

CD4
01. Sateily / Radiation

This year PAN SONIC have already provided a sound installation for the Berlin Biennale and performed at the Phillip Glass "Alter Ego" festival in Milan.

They will play the UK for the first time in nearly three years in April at The Triptych Festival (Edinburgh / Aberdeen / Glasgow) and in May at "RE~TG" – a celebration of Industrial Music in the 21st Century" at Camber Sands as special guests of the curators, Throbbing Gristle.

In November they travel to China to perform at Beijing's 2nd electronic music festival and in early 2005 they will return to Japan and Australia, as well as attempt their first tour of Africa.

They will also feature in David Toop's new book Haunted Weather and the accompanying double CD (out April) and in American digital film maker Edward Quist's much anticipated 1999 debut long-form DVD KUVAPUTKI (summer 2004)

Incidentally i was speaking to Paul Smith of Blast First and he says they have secured monies for a 5 date tour of the UK early 2005, and i quote 'with a great sound system'.

[chand]

Sounds interesting. Never heard anything by Pan Sonic, but I heard good things about them from some cool people, and I always used to come across their CDs while looking for Pan American stuff. I might check that out.

[Johnny Yesno]

I've already ordered my copy of Kesto. Cheers for passing on the gig info, though. I am now fucking excited. I've seen these chaps gig before and they were truly amazing. Their oscilloscope thing is superb.

[Johnny Yesno]

Well, I received it the weekend before last. After several listens I'd say the second disc is the best and the fourth is a waste of plastic. I think it would have been better as a double but it is a nice looking boxed set. I also don't think the production is quite up to their usual extraordinary standard. If you want that level of achievement get "A".