Pan Sonic was a Finnish

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

group founded in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

in 1993. The group consisted of

Mika Vainio Mika Tapio Vainio (May 15, 1963 – April 12, 2017) was a Finnish electronic musician. He was best known as a member of Pan Sonic. In addition to his real name, he recorded under the aliases Ø, Kentolevi, Philus, and Tekonivel. He has worked wi ...

Ilpo Väisänen Ilpo Väisänen (born 1963 in Kuopio) is a Finnish electronic musician. He is best known as a member of Pan Sonic. In addition to his real name, he has recorded under the aliases ''I-LP-O In Dub'', ''I-LP-ON'', ''Liima'' and ''Piiri''. Together w ...

, and Sami Salo. Salo left in 1996 leaving Pan Sonic a duo. The group was originally named Panasonic until 1998. In December 2009, it was announced that Pan Sonic would disband after their concerts that month. Their final album, ''Gravitoni'', was released by Blast First Petite in May 2010. ''Oksastus'', a live album recorded in 2009, was released in 2014.

Music

Pan Sonic cite their main influences from the early 1980s, with

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

acts like

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh ( custom-made instruments; p ...

and

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

, hip-hop and dub. Vainio often remarks that their music is a merger of these two schools of music, taking the harsh and pure sounds typical of industrial techno and spacing them out into longer, subdued

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...

s familiar to instrumental reggae and dub. The late outsider

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

artist

Hasil Adkins Hasil Adkins (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, ...

is also cited, as well as

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

star

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

. Some of their equipment is made by third "extra" member Jari Lehtinen. These and other custom made instruments are responsible for creating the sounds typical to Pan Sonic's music. They also use samplers and an MPC2000

sequencer Sequencer may refer to: Technology * Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically * DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...

. Pan Sonic are great fans of experimentation and art performances and have done exhibitions and sound installations in museums. They have also made music for

Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942) is a Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. She is the founder of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market. In recognition of the notable design contributions of Kawakubo, an exhibition of her designs entitled '' Rei K ...

's fashion shows. The group was known for recording everything live, straight to DAT using home-made and modified

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

and effect units. In the late 1980s, as part of a "sound performance", the duo spent 10 hours in a garage, exposed to low-frequency (13 Hz) noise at 125

decibels The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose ...

. They performed a gig in London's East End from an armoured car using a 5000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

sound system allegedly "similar" to the type used by the police to disorient

riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

ers.

History

Pan Sonic formed in 1993 as a

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

group with member Sami Salo (who later left the group). They moved to operate from a base in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

to escape the long Finnish winters. Mika Vainio later moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, while Ilpo Väisänen returned to Kuopio. Their first 12" was released on Finland's

Sähkö Recordings Sähkö Recordings is a Finnish independent record label, based in Turku, Finland. Sähkö ("electricity" in Finnish) was founded by Tommi Grönlund in 1993. The label gained international acclaim by its minimalist electronic releases. Sähkö Rec ...

. Originally, the band was called

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...

, but the

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

of the same name threatened legal action unless it was changed. The conflict was resolved, and the duo removed the "a" from their name to become "Pan Sonic", which was used as the title of their 1999 album ''A''. In December 2009 news of the duo splitting was announced on PhinnWeb – with Mika and Ilpo continuing with their own solo projects. In October 2013 a new Pan Sonic album titled ''Oksastus'' was announced. It is a live album recorded at a concert in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, Ukraine on June 6, 2009. It was released on February 20, 2014. Pan Sonic created a soundtrack for the 2015 documentary called ''Return of the Atom'' directed by

Mika Taanila Mika Taanila (born 1965 in Helsinki) is a Finnish film director and visual artist. His films can be categorized somewhere between the traditions of classic documentary film-making, avant-garde and video art. His most notable films are ''Tectonic P ...

and Jussi Eerola. The film examines the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland. ''Return of the Atom'' premiered in

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in 2015. Mika Vainio died on April 13, 2017 at the age of 53.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

EPs

Video albums

References

External links

Pan Sonic
on

pHinnWeb pHinn (a.k.a. Erkki Rautio) of Tampere, Finland is the founder and Webmaster of pHinnWeb, a WWW site dedicated to Finnish electronic music, techno music, avantgarde, experimental music, rave culture and underground culture. pHinn also works a ...

* * {{Authority control 1993 establishments in Finland Blast First artists Finnish electronic music groups Musical groups established in 1993 Sub Rosa Records artists