Before you ask or wonder, these guys are from Finland and it means distortion or warp. vÄäristymä has been around since 1992, so that’s quite some time already. In the beginning, it was experimenting with computers. After they got struck with the analogue electronics virus – who hasn’t, I’d almost say – they began creating their instruments and making music with those. And at that moment vÄäristymä was born. According to Discogs, the first releases were from 2012, and there haven’t been many of them. A few from 2012 till 2014, and that’s about it. Occasional split efforts, some samplers … So it’s fair to say they saved it all up, and on this CD, it’s publicized what they’ve been up to this last decade.
The CD artwork and the promo text on Bandcamp include a list of all the equipment they’ve designed and created, and for a nerd like myself, that’s very interesting. I’ll save you the why, but believe me when I say it’s way harder than it seems to be to design playable instruments from scratch. So sincere compliments to vÄäristymä for this.
The opening track brings you directly into the atmosphere of an open space, maybe early in the morning, with nebula clouds rising from the tundra grass. It’s beautifully done, and perhaps a little less reverb could make it even colder in emotion. And the tracks following actually are similar to this atmosphere. It’s a very consistent album, where the sounds don’t change too much in nature, but they change enough to see the electronic progression vÄäristymä made over the ten years which is the span where the tracks were recorded.
At the same time, you should beware of the picture of an empty tundra with its scarce vegetation. How long would you be able to walk around and see things interesting enough to maintain the joy of walking around? And that is where my (personal) opinion gets a bit of the overhand. The compositions or style of music is minimal rhythmic structures with drones, beeps and noises. Something that will appeal to fans of Pan Sonic and followers of the Raster Noton label. Especially the older stuff. Maybe even people who like the minimal side of Orphx or some of the minimal stuff on Kvitnu. All things I appreciate a lot, but listening to this album over and over again, something is missing, and I can’t wrap my head around it. So it’s a really proper album, and I think I’ll play it more often, but at the same time it will not become a favourite album in this musical style. Having written that, knowing this album is made with homemade instruments these guys get all the respect from me they deserve. Beautifully done and very well produced. Favorite track? “Ulvoo (Live 2023)”.
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