mika vainio/joachim nordwall: monstrance

Mika Vainio was a member of the legendary minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic. Emerging from the Finnish industrial and rave music scene in the early '90s, they became one of the most important electronic music acts. Vainio's solo work goes from abstract drone to minimal and experimental techno, under his own name or as Ø for labels like Touch, Raster Noton, Sähkö, and Editions Mego. He has worked with Alan Vega, Keiji Haino, and many others. His music is always extremely physical and present. Mika Vainio lives and works in Berlin. Joachim Nordwall has run the iDEAL Recordings label since 1998, releasing intense electronic music of various kinds and organizing club nights and festivals around the globe. He started making electronic music as a teenager in the late '80s in the psychedelic drone duo Alvars Orkester (Ash International), drifted off to sweaty avant garde punk rock with Kid Commando in the late '90s and formed the ritual rock and electronic drone group The Skull Defekts in 2005. He is also recording solo works under his own name and works with Mats Gustafsson, The Gagmen (with Aaron Dilloway and Nate Young), Mark Wastell, and The Sons Of God. Nordwall is based in Stockholm. Monstrance is their first album together and consists of drone works and pulsating electronic minimalism, but also guitar, acoustic elements, organs, and metal percussion. It was recorded in Einstürzende Neubauten's Berlin studio during an intense session in early summer of 2010. Monstrance is a place where Vainio's and Nordwall's backgrounds as musicians and composers meet, and something new and extremely powerful is born. Something deep, raw, and direct. Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft.