Pan Sonic & Martin Rev

There's been talk for quite a while now of a farewell tour for the Finnish duo. It seems, however, that the adventure of Ilpo Väisänen and Mika Vainio will come to an end with the release, expected next January, of their final effort. Anticipation for the duo's live show was already running high back in October when, for unspecified health reasons – easy enough to guess at, given the little vices Vasanen is known to indulge in – the Rome and Bologna dates were cancelled at the very last minute. The promise, though, was that they'd be back.

On the evening of November 28th, they thus made a stop at the Locomotiv in Bologna with a very special guest: Martin Rev of the Suicide. The set from the sprightly old man, more cyborg than human at this point, is a blast of electronics laid out with no holds barred, all keyboard-jabbing elbows and backing tracks straight out of an ebm style playbook.

With his gaze hidden behind a pair of improbably square white glasses, Martin Rev mutters phrases rendered unintelligible by the effects on his microphone and thrashes about with little grace, at first stirring the curiosity of those present but, over time, wearing thin. After forty-five minutes of set, amid furious spasms and insane volume levels, the ex-Suicide man lays down his arms in favour of Pan Sonic.

What the duo delivers is a genuine sonic experience, extreme in its very unfolding. Fifty minutes of contractions, of intersecting microcosms, of thoroughly grating glitches that weave together to build a "melodic" wall.

Alternating between terrifying emotional standstills and moments in which the rhythm section takes shape and rises to the level of art, Pan Sonic let the audience touch a celestial paradise – fully digital, devoid of emotion, and yet beautiful and tangible. A continuous emotional climax envelops the packed venue, amid poorly tuned radios and colliding noise microcosms. Algebra elevated to art moves, fascinates and captivates.

Despite the short duration and the overly low volume, the concert proves to be a "total" experience, one that goes beyond any perception of beauty, coming across as alien and alienating and yet, paradoxically, deeply empathetic.

P.S. Thanks to Elena Leone for the photographic contributions.

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