Vladislav Delay “Tummaa” Review
Published by Buzzin Music Blog. Written by Terry Lane.
Under the guise of Vladislav Delay, Finnish composer Sasu Ripatti releases his follow up to his critically-acclaimed electronic 2007 album Whistleblower with Tummaa. This new album is his first for the evergreen pioneering Leaf Label.
Tummaa is open, spacious, atmospheric and infectious experimental music which is best categorised as electronica experimentalism though in essence it is not electronica based, but relies on acoustic instrumentation heavily influenced by electronica and freeform jazz. The result is phenomenally powerful music that would sound as perfect for an art installation as it does filling my living room space.
Away from the confines of popular music structures, the music of Vladislav Delay explores sounds and emotions. Tummaa opens doors, leaving them ajar just enough for you to make your own explorative path, not leading you by the hand from start to an end. It is this open expansiveness I like about electronica music, and in particular Vladislav Delay once again has produced an expansive album in Tummaa full of colourful sounds and thought-provoking tracks.
Trained as a jazz drummer, Sasu Ripatti abandoned his instrument ten years ago. “I quit mainly because there wasn’t really a platform for me to do what I wanted and it’s naturally very rewarding to be able to do that now, coming at it from totally different angle as my playing and concepts have been strongly influenced by the electronic music as well as other urban music styles.”
Tummaa essentially features a live trio – Sasu Ripatti on percussion, Argentine musician Lucio Capece on clarinet and saxophone, and Scottish soundtrack composer and arranger Craig Armstrong on piano and Rhodes keyboard. Ripatti explains: “With this project and these sounds I try not to let any outside influence come through and just fully trust my instincts to make the music I really need to bring out and hear. I try not to think or analyze, I just go at the moment and play as I feel. It’s the introverted and slightly darker side of me, the anti-pop persona that comes out on this project.”
The album was created while Ripatti and his family were living on a remote island in the Baltic Sea within the Arctic Circle.’Tummaa’ means dark or darkness, which Ripatti suggests “reflects the music on the album somehow but also the fact that I worked on the album during ‘kaamos’ time of the year in Finland. Kaamos time really gets dark from December to February where you only have few hours of light per day. I really liked that and the whole winter enormously.”
Sasu Ripatti is considered a genuine musical maverick; the devotion inspired by the depth, innovation and emotional volume of his music is passionate in the extreme. While he has largely shunned the limelight since emerging as a producer in Helsinki in the late 1990’s, his prolific output (as Vladislav Delay, Luomo and Uusitalo, as well as collaborations with partner Antye Greie (AGF)) speaks for itself.
With a wide range of experience with record labels throughout his career (from major labels with the Luomo project and the cream of the underground via Mille Plateaux, Chain Reaction, Force Tracks, BPitch Control among others), Sasu Ripatti has for the last five years released works on his own Huume label. Tummaa marks the beginning of a new chapter in the music of Vladislav Delay. “I wanted to take a new direction with Vladislav Delay, with more acoustic sound sources,” he explains. “I avoided as much electronics as possible, wanting to bring myself closer to my background as a drummer and percussionist.”
Tummaa’s compositions are engaging and engulfing, whole worlds of sonic wonder and journeys into the deep that will leave you gasping.