Pekka Airaksinen

Other Power Pekka Airaksinen

How does music sound when it's only influenced by itself? In order to solve such a koan one should totally lose himself in the deep aural arts of Pekka Airaksinen. Helsinki born Airaksinen started his eccentric musical career in the mid-sixties remixing 'Twist and Shout' by The Beatles. He looped one bar of the song for ages at a youth dance with his friend J. O. Mallander. 'The audience did react', he remembers. 'At least two people told us to put it down.' In late sixties Airaksinen was best known as the musical master mind behind the notorious avantgardist group Sperm, which released a groundbreaking album of noisy minimalism called Shh! In 1970. Two years later Airaksinen, always ahead of his time, released One Point Music, a seminal composition filled with clattering rhythm box beats and eerie organ grooves. After One Point Music, he vanished into the ether for more than a decade, mostly concentrating in Buddhist meditation and inner space traveling. In 1984 Airaksinen was finally ready to shower the universe with Buddhas of Golden Light, his most exquisite work to date. A mesmerizing musical message of expanded consciousness, transmitted via Roland's TR-808 -rhythm composer and Yamaha's DX-7 -synthesizer. Buddhas of Golden Light quietly became a cult album and a sought-after collector's item among the more high-spirited music lovers. And after 28 years its Indian -vibed electronic be bop still lacks comparison: even Sun Ra's cosmic jazz doesn't measure up. Buddhas of Golden Light is one of the all-time favorite records of the Harmonia -staff, so it was mind-blowing for us to find out that there were more tapes existing from the same era. (Airaksinen's modest enterprise was to compose an ode to every 1000 Buddhas of buddhist mythology.) And here they are: the cream of the crop, first time on vinyl as a limited edition of 500 copies! Respectfully remastered and selected by Team Harmonia, the music of Other Power sounds more contemporary in 2012 than c