Bleep

Sasu Ripatti has never one to stay too long on a single frequency. Across three decades, the Finnish chameleon has embraced a plethora of genres and styles (with nearly as many aliases) to great effect. Between his solo work in glitch, house, techno, footwork and ambient under projects like Luomo, Sistol, and Conoco along with his collaborative jazz efforts in the Moritz von Oswald Trio, Ripatti is a certified master in all things electronic.

However, he may be best known for his work under the Vladislav Delay moniker, which split the difference between his club-oriented solo work and the avant-garde impulses he chased with other players. That project’s third record, the beguiling Anima, remains a singular record in an improbably eclectic oeuvre. Using the 1998 independent movie Hurlyburly as a reference point, Ripatti composed free-form instrumental sketches and then placed them together into sequences he found himself molding after the film. Calling the record something like his attempt at becoming a character within it, playing music.

Originally released in 2001, the Keplar label is reissuing its visceral grooves on vinyl for the first time since in honour of its 20th anniversary. Anima is an innovative work from an artist that has maintained an enviable creative restlessness for a very long time.