Ilpo Väisänen, born in 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.

Together with Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen was part of the Finnish duo Panasonic/Pan Sonic, one of the most ground-breaking and innovative 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. In December 2009 their split was announced, Ilpo and Mika continued with their own solo projects.

Ilpo’s former releases on his own label Kangaroo, a sub-label of Raster-Noton, have clearly shown his personal affinity with dub music.

Apart from that he is also playing some kind of free-form noise with a tendency to drone with Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM) in the duo Angel / Die Angel with the latest outcome: “Entropien I” on the Berlin based label Cosmo Rhythmic.

In order to generate his sounds and soundscapes, Ilpo Väisänen rarely uses more than the simplest of devices: analog keyboards and other oscillators he’s fabricated himself. In an age of digital ubiquities, his economy of means and anachronistic aura almost constitutes a challenge, indeed a provocation.

His world permanently fluctuates between hot and cold; composed of creaks, whistles, strange noises and rhythmic improbabilities, it’s a world oftentimes futuristic, yet prehistoric.

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Photo credit: Tomoko Nasato