Okay, this week I’m being selfish; I’m programming an entire show of music by someone that I think should be well-known to the electronic music community, whose music I also happen to enjoy the hell out of. That someone is my very dear old friend and musical colleague Otso Pakarinen, the Helsinki-based composer and producer who currently publishes albums under the name Ozone Player. (Currently? Yeah, he’s been doing this for a while, with band and projects like Tapa Paha Tapa, Visual, and Project Catherine.)
Otso is the quintessence of a crazed musical genius. He’s an expert arranger, a thoughtful composer, a master of technology, a great keyboardist and guitarist (and drummer!), an audio engineer whose productions are in demand for clients all over Finland, an organizer of fabulous musical events, and a gentle, soft-spoken, certifiable nutbar – and that’s coming from me.
His music is the antithesis of much of today’s electronic music, which aims for a near-ecstatic fugue of mindless dancing or a deep descent into sleepy contemplation – it’s melodic, vibrant, intricate, and overflowing with emotion, whether it be dread, sadness, introspection, or (as is most common) simply overwhelming joy.
Whenever life is getting me down, I pop in one of Otso’s many albums and get my smile back. His music just does that for me, and I think it will do that for you too.
Come join us tonight at 9/8/7/6 PM E/C/M/PT for a full playthrough of two of Otso’s less-known albums. We’ll start with Long-Range Influence, his audiovisual collaboration with graphic novelist Matt Howarth that depicts a titanic struggle between strange lifeforms on a distant planet, where the alien heroes receive unexpected help against overwhelming odds in the form of the Jolly Rolly, a visiting spaceship from Earth. Then we’ll listen to É, perhaps Otso’s most unrelentingly psychotic recording: one continual slab of weirdness from the rib-tickling “My Name is Bond – Jeeves Bond” to the escalating madness of “Saurus”.
So raise a can of Longdrink and join us tonight in Slack chat or in Second Life as we get Ozone Played. Kippis!
