Es (Finland)

 


“I think melancholy is a good feeling, the most beautiful feeling in the world. To quote, a bit ironically, the late Kurt Cobain, this is about the ’comfort in being sad’. All the movies that have inspired my music are sad. In them, art kind of suffers for you and comforts you.”

Two things seldom associated with each other meet in the output of Sami Sänpäkkilä a.k.a. Es: sweeping, melodramatic feelings and experimentation - or “structured chance,” as he puts it.

Last year, the Belgian label (K-RAA-K)3 released Es’s debut CD, an amalgamation of electric guitar and vinyl record loops, and invited Sänpäkkilä to perform in Brussels. The same concert featured two other experimental turntablists, Janek Schaefer (who will perform at Avanto as half of Comae) and his great role model Philip Jeck, who started playing old battery-operated turntables in the early 80's. Seeing Jeck was a momentous experience for Sänpäkkilä. The next Es CD, A Love Cycle, was produced wholly by looping and restructuring old vinyl records. Many have found its nocturnal feel fascinating, and the visual imagery of Sänpäkkilä’s record sleeves and live projections support his music discreetly. Even his live set-up reveals a kind of retro attitude - Sänpäkkilä covers his effect equipment with colourful fabrics “so they don’t look so digital”. AN

Friday 9.11.2001 - Gloria
21:00-3:00 - Avanto-Club: Pekka Airaksinen and Es