Pan Sonic
Oksastus
Kvitnu

Finnish experimental, electronic music twosome Pan Sonic (a.k.a. Panasonic, before, well... until their "namesake" didn't like that) are Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen, and the pair have released a number of albums over the years. Some 20 years, that is, and 13 albums, many of them being collaborations with other artists (counting Alan Vega, Merzbow, Keiji Haino, and John Duncan). Since Pan Sonic split in 2010, this record is their late and last epic - a retrospective post-script, or a posthumous document from the recent past. Oksastus is a live recording done in Kiev (or Kyiv), Ukraine (hence the the Ukrainian label Kvitnu being the release co-op). The live recording dates back to June 6th 2009, which means it took place midway between the Orange Revolution in 2004 and this year's even more serious uproar, which lead (and is still leading) to tragic and fatal incidents and who knows what's up next.

'Oksastus' is a Finnish word for the process of grafting or cultivating of plants. Oksastus is the sound of the process of grafting and/or cultivating of controlled noise waves. The album is produced by Ukrainian experimental musician producer, promoter and curator Dmytro Fedorenko of projects like Critikal, Kotra, and more. As always the design is delicious, meaning trademark Kvitnu art done by another Ukrainian experimental musician, composer, and artist/performer (and graphic designer, being Kvitnu's 'house designer') Kateryna Zavoloka, a.k.a. Zavoloka. Oksastus stretch out over an hour, and it is a monstrous ride through industrial soundscapes, cramming the air around you when listening. The eight tracks don't bear any names or titles, they simply carry their playing time/running length as an ID: 7'06" - 5'31" - 4'35" - 11'03" - 5'42" - 17'28" - 4'41" - 5'41", with '17'28"' being the the most epic of the sound monsters. The sound of Pan Sonic is mostly hectic and aggressive. Their drive is entirely instrumental, and is makes me imagine a more total and full-tilt version of Norwegian act Holy Toy. Oksastus is a tough listen. Sweat your ears out.

Oksastus comes as a strictly limited CD edition and as a beautiful (innocently) white double vinyl, packed in a specially produced cardboard cover printed with metallized paint with additional hot foil pressing and UV-laquering.

Copyright © 2014 Håvard Oppøyen