Biography
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Born
21 August 1945
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Born In
Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
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Died
6 May 2019 (aged 73)
Pekka Airaksinen (21 August 1945 - 6 May 2019) was a Finnish composer of electronic music.
Airaksinen formed his first band, The Sperm, in the 1960s. The Sperm mixed elements of avant-garde music with free jazz and psychedelic pop. Their concerts featured confrontational performance art, which resulted in two members being arrested for simulating sexual intercourse and screening pornographic films.
Following The Sperm's breakup in the early 1970s, Airaksinen turned to Buddhism and ceased making music. He returned to music in the mid 1980s with his album Buddhas of Golden Light, which mixed free jazz with percussion from a Roland 808 drum machine.
In the 1990s, Airaksinen founded the Dharmakustannus label, on which he released numerous CDs and CD-Rs. The music styles of these releases varies considerable, ranging from new age, ambient, house, jazz and improvisation.
Pekka Airaksinen passed away on 6th May 2019, aged 73.
Pekka Airaksinen started in the late 60s playing in an underground performance and theater group called Sperm. But very soon he went his own way. The synthesizers have always fascinated him. Vitamins is his first synthesizer record. It’s interesting to hear the synth sound of 1975.
The 80s were such a productive time for him. Although he could release only one LP, other releases were C-cassettes for a narrow audience.
The new CDR technique made it possible to publish individual music. The catalog of Dharma publishing (Dharmakustannus) is quite large: about 60 records starting from the late 60s.
There are many different styles in Airaksinen's music:
* The Art Music -like compositions. Check for instance Karmapa, 32 regards, Garden of Death, Klass 1-3 or Lake Vostok.
* Jazz idioms: Atom Jar & Alphaville.
* Techno: Paramitas started the mostly rhythm influenced techno period.
Datta, Anudhatta, Keskitie and all Bosonics titled projects.
* Ethnic influenced: Gamelan, Tents of thousands.
* Hits included among the more difficult tracks, e.g. Play With The Sun And Moon in Karmapa.
* New Age -type dream-like or meditative long minimalistic tracks: e.g. Avalokiteshvara or the Vajrasattva in Milk Sea.
* The arrangements of old classical music: Four Seasons, Classic hold, Classic hold on. Started in Inner Galaxies with 2 Bach's arrangements.
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