by Andreas Stuhlmann
Once having made a splash in international music through Jimi
Tenor, Finland scored some more points in the country rankings
of electronic music when a duo called “Panasonic” — since renamed
“Pan sonic” due to corporate lawyers — appeared. The next big
shot, who might even secure Finland the top position in the field,
is Vladislav Delay. His first full-length player, “Anima” contains
a single 1-hour track, which is anything but cold, programmed
art, making comparisons with Pan sonic less than helpful. With
a basic mood and melody strongly reminiscent of early “Kraut”
artists such as Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, Tangerine Dream,
etc., Delay can’t claim to be presenting anything revolutionarily
new on “Anima,” but overlaying this with a steady and calm flow
of various rhythms, noises and samples, he has created a sound
collage that highlights a melodic theme from various rhythmic
angles, maintaining artistic tension from the first second to
the last. “Anima” combines eternal beauty with the cutting-edge
techno image of Mille Plateaux, the label on which this wonderful
piece of art was released, and presents an alternative approach
to Autechre’s defensive move into protective darkness.
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