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Time passages
The carefully constructed house of Luomo
BY TONY WARE
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Fish — the kind that swim — appear to play a pivotal role in the metaphorical life of Sasu Ripatti (a/k/a Vladislav Delay), the Finnish-born DJ who also goes by the name Luomo. A producer of micro-house, glitchpop, and experimental dub, he says he’s a shy performer who prefers a hermetic life to the spotlight and who frequently feels like a "fish out of water." He’s at his home studio in Berlin, recovering from the flu as he prepares for a string of live dates (including an appearance this Sunday at Enormous Room), and he does at times seem to be fishing for words as he discusses his craft. He says he finds inspiration in the lifestyle of a fisherman — an existence imbued with natural silences that are reflected in his work. He looks forward to a yearly vacation from music during which he, well, goes fishing.

"Fishing is very technical, a ritual, and I can get lost in that. It’s like gear whoring in a way. I can get lost in the process as I do in the studio. When I’m in pure nature I can wait eight hours, and I’m so Zen I don’t exist. Within all that space you start to realize how much you develop a noise filter in you from too much information being around you, numbing your senses in the cities. I like to balance my time feeling small with the vastness as well as clustered at home, much as I do tracks that are meant to work on the dance floor [as Luomo] and others [as Vladislav Delay] where social actions don’t matter as much."

No stats are readily available to substantiate Delay’s skills at sea. But he’s produced more than enough hook-laden tracks over the past eight years to confirm his musical talent. The Luomo disc Vocalcity — originally released in 2000 on Germany’s Force Tracks and recently reissued on Delay’s Huume imprint — remains a house-music landmark, with tracks pared down to meticulously cross-stitched pixels that create quiet moments in loud places. Ventilated beats drift toward the horizon on yearning chords and enticing vocals. Beneath it all, you find a drummer-turned-producer nourished on a steady diet of improvisational jazz reversals and unrelenting dub-pocked house music.

"I snack, I consume all day long," says Delay. "And production is the same as preparing cuisine. You can freestyle or re-create those fancy Michelin things if you want. It comes down to ingredients, what you mix and what you don’t. You have your ingredients, and if mixed well they taste good. But what attracts me most to music is that you can use ingredients that have not previously existed. I make well-chosen courses with my albums being the menu . . . an orgy of eating where each thing is different but well made and making sense together."

The newest item on Delay’s menu is the result of a three-way collaboration with his girlfriend, Antye Greie (also known as producer AGF), and Scottish pianist Craig Armstrong (best known for his string arrangements for Massive Attack, Björk, and Moulin Rouge). The Dolls (also Huume) is a heavily processed but not heavy-handed album of percussive rattles and melodic sways. It’s here that Delay seems to feel most at home, amid whispers, hiccups, and hints in the chest-tightening divide between a gasp and a moan. Whether he’s making music inspired by love (as Luomo) or the love of sound (as Vladislav Delay and on The Dolls), there’s always a sense of percolating intimacy.

"I try to create in a moment rather than building a long time and fine tuning. I’m not a fan of theoretical stuff attached to electronic music. I explore emotions and feelings; I don’t try to impress technicians. I do not destroy sound, but I also do not do only playback. I think my music is still very underground, as people are connecting to it very personally."

Luomo | Enormous Room, 567 Mass Ave, Cambridge | Nov 6 | 617.491.5599

 


Issue Date: November 4 - 10, 2005
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