Bleep

The final reduction from Pan Sonic, recorded between 2005 and 2011 and then sculpted into the album format by Mika Vainio at his Berlin studio in 2015, Atomin Paluu is the award-winning soundtrack to the Finnish film of the same name (translated to mean Return of the Atom).

Coming twenty-two years since Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänennder's debut Pan Sonic (named Panasonic at the time) debut EP graced our turntable and spat forth a frozen waterfall of crushing, brutalist electronic textures. Pan Sonic have always been a group that when a new record comes around you stand up and listen. The harsh, timbres of sound they created on albums such as Vakio, Kulma & Aaltopiiri showed a unit that while their roots were in techno, had the characteristics of early 80's industrial and post-punk. All executed with a shot-to-the-head minimalist approach akin to the reduced machine dub of Basic Channel/Maurizio. The records they crafted went on to blend into the DNA of everyone from the arctic techno of Sleeparchive and Sandwell District to the weightless grime championed by Mumdance and Logos.

Using the film's field recordings as a basis, the twelve tracks that make up Atomin Paluu are lean, stripped back to the muscle pieces of stark bone-dry synthesis that flit between sparse landscapes and wall of noise assaults that bury any feedback drenched noise producers in the snow. The artwork reflects this with images of the powerplant that the film is based on the construction of the plants architectural makeup, and the towering structures help enforce the dark undercurrent of the compositions contained within.

We can't think of a more fitting end to one of the most elusive and powerful production units electronic music has ever seen than soundtracking a film about a nuclear power station, and Atomin Paluu is the duo bowing out with a record that sounds like no other.