Pan Sonic
Gravitoni

I have a vague and confused memory of the “concert” by Pan Sonic that I had the chance to attend a few years ago: darkness in the hall, a long white-blue strip convulsively undulating to the roar of the beats, two motionless figures who, behind their respective consoles, wove a single vibrant sonic molasses made of distorted frequencies, tremulous basses, and minimal-techno pulses.

The image becomes clearer by listening again to this latest work by the Finnish duo, who have been exploring sophisticated and refined electronics that have evolved along the lines of experimentation on one side, and the most extreme minimalism on the other for almost twenty years.

“Gravitoni” thus appears to us as the ideal compendium of the career of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, who, since their debut “Vakio” in 1995, have carved out a respectable niche in the recent electronic landscape.

This work from 2010 is therefore able to capture and reorganize the elements that have characterized their various musical releases over time, and it does so not by sounding like a mere recycling operation, but rather as a vigorous reclaiming (after the disappointing recent attempts) of a sound, an identity, the throne, we might say, that rightfully belongs to the two Finns regarding the most minimalist branch of contemporary electronic music.

Sequences of stumbling mechanical beats, sludge bass, and shrill sonic layering, explosions of noise worthy of the most painful industrial: in one word, claustrophobia. In two: claustrophobia and asphyxia. In three: claustrophobia, asphyxia, suffocation.

There is, after all, not much variability in the feelings we can experience during the listening, the album cover is a faithful mirror of its contents: black. This album is black, it is a river of tar (black) whose flow is at times sly and at others overwhelming, when it does not decide to stagnate in putrid marshes with foul miasmas.

Like the two famous carabinieri (one who could read, the other who could write), Vainio and Vaisanen play perfectly complementary roles, and the symbiosis between digital and analog, between the careful rhythmic bases of the former and the icy modulations of the latter's synthesizers, is now something that borders on (formal) perfection, especially considering how the whole is meticulously processed with the fervency of the most autistic among autistics.

Let's be clear: there is no melody, “Gravitoni” is a cerebral album, cold, unfriendly, that leaves very little room for catchiness, so much so that, if it is possible to understand why a certain type of music is conceived and created, it is not completely clear why it should then be listened to. But even in its being an aseptic monolith suspended along a chromatic spectrum oscillating between black, blacker, and blackest, “Gravitoni” knows how to “entertain”, obviously if one can digest certain stuff.

The effort of reduction and stripping away everything deemed superfluous is maniacal, and in the end, it is precisely the minimalist imperative that gives an aura of intelligibility to the whole because it is possible to look inside “Gravitoni” without the need for X-ray glasses, being already in itself a skeleton.

And the skeleton, to be understood, moves, with slow and repetitive gestures, while allowing for long pauses. Consider the formidable pairing “Wanyugo”-“Fermi”, supported by a subdued rhythmic throb and slowly invaded by a black lava flow that suffocates them starting from afar. Or the powerful crescendo of the complex “Trepanointi/Trepanation”, which almost seems to us an oversized and exaggerated version of what Autechre were on “Chiastic Slide”: it is in the more structured moments that the album becomes convincing, because the noise explosions of a “Corona” (pure chaos) almost always sound excessive to us (stuff that challenges even the toughest ears), as if they were the inevitable counterpoint opposed to the equally inevitable moments of absence.

After all, Pan Sonic never does things halfway, and if when they want to make noise they certainly achieve their goals, it must be said that they do not hold back even when they want to sink into the starkest ambient: so stark it almost assumes the form of silence (note how it approaches nothingness in tracks like “Vainamosen Uni/Vainamoinen Dreams” and “Hades”).

Finally, kudos to “Pan Finale”, definitely the highlight of the album, the most catchy, self-indulgent, and shamelessly celebratory track, animated by pressing rhythms and solid synth geometries that together are capable of outlining the incredible final crescendo of this astounding “musical” tour de force, as well as expressing in a single blow the entire essence and substance of Pan Sonic's music.

Food for thought.