Album Review: Vantaa by Vladislav Delay

It's been more than a decade since Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti, under his Luomo alias, redefined expectations for vocal house with his micro-masterpiece Vocalcity. In the years since, as vocal house has made a comeback in more full-throated, traditionalist terms, Ripatti's kept Luomo shifting, his productions growing increasingly crisp and functional, gradually sweating off the liquid murk of his early releases to emerge as cold and bright tech-house. While Luomo's evolved, Ripatti's other best known alias, Vladislav Delay, has remained devoted to a singular vision of ambient techno and cold digital dub.

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A new record from Sasu Ripatti, regardless of which guise he's currently operating under, is always a cause for celebration. As a designer of sound, the Finland-born Ripatti is second to none: he's possessed of a rare ability to pack a stunning amount of textural and compositional detail into ostensibly minimalist pieces of music. More than that, though - and this is the factor that's remained at the heart of his entire recording career so far - he's repeatedly put those technical skills to the service of some of the most sensuous, intricate and emotionally engaging electronic music of the last fifteen years.

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