Introduction

Esther Schipper is pleased to present Sähkö Recordings, a record shop devoted to the pioneering music label founded by Tommi Grönlund and celebrating over 30 years of its activity. As part of the artist duo Grönlund-Nisunen with Petteri Nisunen, Grönlund has had five solo exhibitions with the gallery. This is the gallery’s first focus on his work in the realm of experimental music.

Sähkö Recordings was founded in 1993 by Grönlund together with the pioneering, late Finnish musician and producer Mika Vainio, and has since been releasing one of the most distinctive and important discographies in electronic music. On view, and for sale, will be nearly 50 vinyls from its extensive output, alongside posters and ephemera documenting its history. Among the most well-known artists released on the label are Mika Vainio, an experimental electronic musician who helped define the genre and Jimi Tenor, an alternative jazz musician well-known in Finland and around the world.

Parallels between his work on the label and as part of his collaboration with Nisunen, which also began in 1993, are apparent. In both practices, there is often a straightforward reflection, or amplification, of a physical process. Their aesthetic experiences are not elaborately mediated for effect but stripped down to simple, direct experiences of light, sound and movement in their basic forms. Blurring disciplinary boundaries, Grönlund has referred to Sähkö as an ongoing "art project," and "an expression of elements that can be found in nature and in your surroundings."