samuli kemppi:  voyager

With a techno career stretching nearly a decade, Finland’s Samuli Kemppi is a natural choice for the fourth edition of THEMA’s continuing Chronicle series. His intensely rhythmic, futuristic style has been making its mark across Europe since 2004, but it was really four years later, when he was picked up by Ostgut Ton, Prologue, and Kosmisch, that the world found out the true impact of his sound. Since then he’s enjoyed his strongest support from the last of these imprints and, even more importantly, from Luke Slater’s powerhouse Mote-Evolver, a go-to since its inception in 2006 for the freshest sounds techno has to offer. Following the summer launch of his own Deep Space Helsinki label, we are proud to announce Kemppi’s Chronicle debut with Voyager, an EP of deep, science fiction sounds backed by intense beats. Characteristically for the producer, there’s no waiting to unleash the barrage of elastic basslines and layered percussion we receive in Transmission. The steadily-thickening synthesizer textures grow throughout its length, but so does the density of the drum patterning; it makes for an unstoppable catapult launch into alien territory to start the EP. A2 Horizon is more grim and heads-down, an exploration of the cosmic void between galaxies which gradually falls into accelerating orbit around a distant body. B1’s Beacon may move similarly, but it starts with a clearer trajectory and a more hopeful end point in keeping with its title. His signature busy drum machines are at their most linear and smooth here, and rather than disorient the listener they provide propulsion for the mission. The unforgiving rhythmic jack of Echoes has strong gravity, and an optimistic melody gradually swells from uneasier beginnings to finish the voyage. To ease down listeners from the depths of this dense EP, we’ve included an ambient interlude as the closer; starting off with sci-fi themes, it disintegrates into a haze of woozy echoes and rhythmic bursts of static before simply fading into the ether. Taken together, these five pieces clearly chart the continuing outbound path of Chronicle and Kemppi to the interstellar regions of techno’s growing universe.

[CHRONICLE] Samuli Kemppi - Voyager (cat#. EVENT0004)