A
duo consisting of
Finnish electronic music producers
Mika Vainio and
Ilpo Väisänen. Originally known as
Panasonic, but changed its name after being threatened by Panasonic
USA with a
lawsuit in spring
1998.
The group was formed in
1993.
The next year they were joined by
Sami Salo and released their first
EP on
Sähkö Recordings. Salo left the group in
1996 in order to
concentrate on his
photographing career.
The
chief of
Blast First -label from the
UK saw Pan sonic
perform live in early
1995 at the
Disobey club in
New York (*) and immediately signed them on. To this date they have released four
albums and four
singles/
EPs on Blast First, including a
collaboration album & EP with
Alan Vega of
Suicide fame.
The duo has performed live all around the world, contributed to
art installations and
fashion shows and even recorded a live session with
John Peel. In
1995 they used
Jimmy Cauty's
Audio Weapons Armoured Car System to play live in a car park in
London. Their
1999 tour was unfortunately
cut short due to Mika having a
nervous breakdown.
Pan sonic's style is similar to
Mika Vainio's
solo stuff, but more
rhythmic and
accessible, especially in the later releases. Mika and Ilpo themselves call their
music "horsemeat rockabilly", and say their influences include
for example Pierre Henry,
Throbbing Gristle and
aforementioned Suicide.
Pan sonic uses a lot of
homemade equipment to create their sounds. The
devices are made
exclusively for them by
Jari Lehtinen, who could be called the third (or fourth) member of the group. Early on in their career, the guys worked and recorded in a dressing room of a
sauna somewhere in
Finland.
Nowadays Mika & Ilpo live and work in
Barcelona,
Spain along with fellow musician
Jimi Tenor and
Sähkö Recordings boss
Tommi Grönlund. They recently recorded music for an international
Nissan Almeria ad campaign, and are currently
working on a new album.
A full
discography is available at:
http://www.sci.fi/~phinnweb/panasonic/discography/
(*) Some sources claim this happened in late 1994 at a club called Vox in England.