Where to Start with Vladislav Delay, Finland’s Shape-Shifting Ambient-Techno Auteur
Vladislav Delay’s triumphant new album Rakka, his first in six years, marks the Finnish electronic musician’s return from the wilderness. Well, technically, Delay (real name Sasu Ripatti) is still out there: In 2008, he moved from Berlin to the tiny Finnish island of Hailuoto, population 952, just south of the Arctic Circle. Until then, Ripatti had been a fixture of the European techno avant-garde, releasing a steady stream of records under a variety of aliases—along with Vladislav Delay, there were Luomo, Sistol, and Uusitalo.