mika vainio was one half of the minimal electronic duo pan sonic from finland, (the other half was ilpo väisänen). before starting pan sonic in the beginning of the 90’s, mika vainio played electronics and drums as part of the early finnish industrial and noise scene in the 80’s.
his solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, were known for their analogue warmth and roughness. be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, vainio was always creating unique, physical sounds.besides his releases on raster-noton, he also released on labels like editions mego, touch, wavetrap and sähkö and collaborated among others with alan vega of suicide, keiji haino, chicks on speed, john duncan, bruce gilbert and stephen o’malley.