AIRAKSINEN, PEKKA - One Point Music

Pekka Airaksinen started making music in the late 1960s with the group the Sperm, combining performance art with experimental music of the day. With influences such as John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, the Sperm combined free jazz and psychedelic pop to create a sound resembling early industrial music and noise. After the Sperms breakup in the 70s, Pekka Airaksinen became a Buddhist and would stop releasing music for almost a decade. Airaksinen, who was regarded as a recluse, returned to the public eye in the mid-80s under his own name and with a brand new but equally futuristic vision. His album Buddhas of Golden Light is an incredible mixture of Sun Ras cosmic free jazz and twisted rhythms programmed on a Roland 808 drum machine. At the end of the decade techno elevated the 808 to a fetish object and Airaksinen disappeared for another five years. In the 90s Airaksinen released a large number of CDs and CD-Rs on his own Dharmakustannus label, on which the style of each track varied wildly - breaking every rule of the niche-group marketing concepts of the era. All his recordings, whether they are his unique interpretations of contemporary music, new age, ambient house or jazz, are characterized by a sense of improvisation and casual roughness that is rare in electronic music. The most avant-garde pieces of his recent output continue his earlier work with the imaginary anthropoid music of the future. One Point Music is his shining moment. Originally pressed in an edition of 120, this reissue has been needed for a long time. - Mutant Sounds. Reissue of 1972 release (just "A Little Soup.." from this album is included on the double CD released on Love in 2003). Very highly recommended!