Conspiracy theorists, go ahead and make the leap now: beginning this year, the American government has actively tried to prevent the touring of electronic musicians, under the supposition that their perverse digital beats will hail a wave of cult-followers worshiping an omniscient Korg. I thought it was unusual and downright disappointing when, back in July, I received successive emails notifying me of cancelled/postponed shows from DJ Krush and Venetian Snares, both of whom cited visa issues. Now I’m about to don my tinfoil duster at the discovery that Vladislav Delay (real name: Sasu Ripatti) had to cancel a tour himself earlier this year, citing — you guessed it, because I’m being pretty deliberate in my lead-up here — an unexplained denial of a US visa! I might be outraged if following the system hadn’t imparted floor-level expectations.
But by contrast, Ripatti took the denial in stride, or at least toward an efficient channelling. What could’ve been a dramatic series of angry tweets (the modern outlet for expressions of frustration) instead turned into the album with the relevant title, Visa. It was written in two weeks that Ripatti suddenly found free, and it’s said to be his first truly ambient album in over 10 years — a possible reference to… well, I’m not quite sure. He describes his mindset at the time of Visa’s creation: “a valve broke open… I collected what came out the pipes.”
Ambient music does tend to be more fluid, doesn’t it? Look for Visa in November on Ripatti’s own eponymous imprint. Here’s a preview:
Visa tracklisting:
01. Visaton
02. Viaton
03. Viisari
04. Vihollinen
05. Viimeinen
• Vladislav Delay: http://www.vladislavdelay.com
• Ripatti: http://www.vladislavdelay.com/site/projects/label
More about: Vladislav Delay
