At Mesmerized, we welcome the unconventional with open arms. We thrive in the fringes. That’s why we are today writing about ‘life’, a conceptual and leftfield record that explores experimental electronica and ambient soundscapes, doing so with a certain courage and purpose. Composed and produced by New York-based sonic alchemist ko.valainen, the record collects eight pieces with cryptic titles, each one connected to a specific emotional imagery. The listening experience is immersive and partly disorienting; after all, this is not a comfortable record, this is a work of art that seeks to challenge perception and scramble outdated assumptions.
It’s intriguing to observe the diverse sonic character that populates ‘life’. The sonic sources used by ko.valainen are a modular synthesiser, a bass, and a guitar, here used as a blank canvas for generating sound. The output is then run through a plethora of effects and some custom-built Lefa Pedals, and moulded to perfection. Sometimes there’s an underlying distortion, and the overall mood is gloomy. Other times, we are in celestial territories.
Delving deeper into the album, ko.valainen explains: “It is built around the idea of translating human emotion into machine language. The album divides a human life into 8 different states. birth, childhood, desire, isolation, emotional fragmentation, decay and death, represented through coded chess movements instead of emotional titles.” We appreciate how such a rich leftfield offering is then balanced with an overarching purposeful ethos.
Recommended! Discover ‘life’ now: