Vladislav Delay - Musical Style

Musical Style

Ripatti's music is renowned for its sophisticated textural qualities. His sonic approach relies heavily on a semi-random element, and many undulating, complementary and sometimes conflicting layers interplay throughout most of his music. A de-constructive element is sometimes detected within the music as Ripatti makes comment on established genres within his various releases.

Characteristic traits within Ripatti's music are sometimes a deep or bubbling synth-bass line, fractured and syncopated percussion - often placed freely within the music, long delay repetitions of various sounds, syncopated use of vocal samples, and complicated digital effect processing techniques. Generally, the music has a very spacious and organic sound, and albums such as "Anima" feature a very simple theme repeated with an array of musical and rhythmical interjections.

Ripatti releases under different names have conceptually varied, but have sonically related qualities; this may be due to Ripatti's different composition techniques. Uusitalo releases are often anchored by a house beat and highlight rhythmic variation (see 2007's Karhunainen). Vladislav Delay releases, on the other hand (see 2000's Multila), explore rhythmically sparse, experimental and ambient techno-dub soundscapes. Works under the Luomo name feature uncommonly wrought dance-floor ready vocal house.

Sasu Ripatti often references himself within his music. The "Vapaa Muurari" album, for example, has an instrumental track ("Social Selection") that was re-mixed or re-recorded as the track "The Right Wing" on the "Vocalcity" album. Similarly, the track "Tessio" on the "Vocalcity" album was re-recorded for the "Present Lover" album in 2003. He was chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that they curated in May 2011.