Pan Sonic

Pan Sonic (known as Panasonic before legal issues took away the letter A) was two guys (Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen) project from Finland, who started out with long-term, low-frequency, high-decibel experiments and organizing rave parties in the country where "hardly anything happens ever". The minimalistic music of Pan Sonic is composed "from a forbidding array of pure tones, sinewaves, pulses, electronic squelches and ultrasonic waveforms," and a humorous attitude, "skilfully arranged into an accessible rhythmic package" mainly taken from the bowels of custom-built sinewave generators.

Given songs titled "Kurnutus" or "Rutina" (that is "Croaking" and "Crackle"), the environmental buzz, crackles and hums emanating from the speakers are hardly a surprise. Despite suggesting a harmless set of natural (sounding) frequencies, Pan Sonic have built up a reputation for fearsome live volume levels and atonal indulgence.

1993
2010