Desto is back! Even if he didn’t go anywhere. Photograph: TONY ÖHBERG/FINLAND TODAY
Desto, a Helsinki-based artist in the realm of electronic music, gave a rare performance after midnight on Saturday at Ääniwalli in the Vallila district.
The clock was close to one in the morning when I approached the venue, and it was as if the streets were signaling what was coming; the district was dark, and you could hardly see the contours of the few folks hanging on the street corners.
Desto performing his ‘Tears On Trash’ album live on stage at Ääniwalli in Helsinki on May 6, 2023. Photograph: TONY ÖHBERG/FINLAND TODAY
Ääniwalli itself is an old grimy industrial building turned club with a banging sound system—a perfect setting for an artist like Desto.
Desto had not been performing in the past five years, but he just came out with an album called Tears On Trash. And what an album it is!
It had been ten years since his last album release, and yours truly was not about to miss this chance of listening to the man playing it live.
Me and my fellow patrons, dozens of them, seemed to share the same determination.
Songs like ‘Beacon’ made the crowd jump and mosh with short hair. Photograph: TONY ÖHBERG/FINLAND TODAY
The crowd swayed to the sound of a hard, thumping bass drum, and Desto fiddled with the knobs of his equipment that resulted in filtered synth stabs to the delight of the spectators.
Desto described his album earlier like this: “It is an alchemic ritual to fuse disparate elements from noise to ’91 rave, (post) punk to techno, ambient to dancehall futurism for an increasingly caleidoscopic world. It is a study of memory and the loss of identity with memory loss.”
In simpler terms, at the gig, at times in the mind’s eye, it felt like observing the Mandalorian going against Moff Gideon.
The sounds, however, were nothing like from the old Star Wars movies, but I thought, perhaps, they gave a nod to the most recent movie composers such as Ludwig Göransson who has pretty much provided the soundtrack for every recent blockbuster. The Mandalorian series on Disney+ included.
“I thought your recent music could be featured during a fight scene where the Mandalorian goes against the Imperium,” I said while speaking with Desto after the gig.
“Interesting …,” said Desto.
“Have you seen episodes of The Mandalorian?” I asked.
“No.”
“Oh, well do you know Ludwig Göransson, the Swede who moved to Hollywood?”
“Never heard of him.”
“But some of your tracks could be featured in a movie!”
“Two of my tunes have been licensed for an upcoming Netflix series.”
Fair enough.
Desto has claimed international recognition in bass music circles. Photograph: TONY ÖHBERG/FINLAND TODAY
