{"product_id":"mika-vainio-kantamoinen-2lp","title":"Mika Vainio - Kantamoinen (2LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003eA shining star in Mika Vainio’s dense microcosm returns to vinyl - and for our money it’s the most transcendent record in his revered catalogue, unfurling through an hour of disarmingly melodic romance and astral projection that never fails to bring a tear to our eye.\n\nFirst presented on CD in 2005 under Vainio’s Ø alias, ‘Kantamoinen’ became something of a sleeper gem, cultishly adored for its concerted embrace of extended melody and narrative tone within an ambient context, which made it stand out from his preceding decade of ascetic noise brutalism and minimal techno. \n\nOur first encounter, back at our Pelicanneck shop, left us utterly smitten with its soundtrack-like qualities, eventually prompting us to issue it on vinyl for the first time via our Editions label in 2016. Sadly, Mika passed the following year, which only made the material more precious as a lone, curious artefact in his deeply influential body of work. It now returns in this new edition, ready to flip preconceptions with a new generation of listeners through its exquisite carousel of tear-jerking soundscpaes where the artist’s most intimate, distinctive spirits endure.\n\nDedicated to Mika’s grandma, Laina Vainio (1913-1991), and adorned with a cover image of her garden in Artjärvi, Finland, the 16-part 2LP is the closest you’ll get to a type of nostalgia in Mika’s catalogue. Whilst recorded 1999-2004 at an early crest of his game-changing work with Pan Sonic, the album clearly manifests a quieter space for Mika to emote far more nuanced feels, from the wide-eyed vastness of ‘Galaxy’ to a breathtaking ‘Sound Picture’, transitioning from Hans-Ulrich Obrist’s snippet of Oskar Sala into icy bliss, and the rosy warmth of a ‘Summerland’ clearly dedicated to his nan’s garden. \n\nThe rest is better defined as ephemeral snapshots adding up to a broader picture, like a mind’s eye filling gaps in the memory from illusive vapours and sensations, generating all-time gems in the steepled choral synth voice of ‘In Wind’, or a sense of magic realism in the swaying organ of ‘Antenna-ant’, with the blooz folk wheeze of closer ‘To Home’ that could feasibly score the most haunting moments of a Bela Tarr flick.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 350px; height: 472px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1413883667\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=333333\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sahkorecordings.bandcamp.com\/album\/kantamoinen\"\u003eKantamoinen Ø (Mika Vainio)\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Sähkö Recordings","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49104958849283,"sku":"BKEDIT013","price":6089.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0285\/1694\/1956\/files\/a3582386246_10.jpg?v=1782963425","url":"https:\/\/meditations.jp\/en\/products\/mika-vainio-kantamoinen-2lp","provider":"Meditations","version":"1.0","type":"link"}