Timo Kaukolampi’s decision to name his first solo album after the modest number 1 was, among other things, tongue-in-cheek. As a collaborator / initiator of the bands Larry & the Lefthanded, OP:L Bastards, and K-X-P the Finn and part-time Berliner has achieved a legendary international status, and one justified alone by his strobe-lit appearance with the latter outfit at Torstraßen Festival 2013, in the sweaty basement of White Trash Fast Food on Schönhauser Allee (R.I.P.). And, apropos gods, in Kaukolampi’s signature style his latest process of becoming-ego is closely tied up with the supernatural, the consciousness-expanding, and the transcendental. To this end, Kaukolampi has completely reinvented both himself and his work process. Hackneyed song structures are shoved overboard by the whims of analogue synthesizers and drum machines; the new sonic creations overlap like dignified movements of a magnum opus; a heavy sound carpet hangs over its listeners like the Berlin cloud cover, sentencing them to eerie, dystopian darkness and offering shimmering, enticing beauty as a consolation. “It’s a conversation between good and bad, beauty and brutality, and it’s most definitely my inner journey,” says the master himself, “like the dark side of new age music.” Anyone who’s experienced Timo Kaukolampi either on- or off-stage, knows that we’re indeed dealing with a fascinating character—with a veritable guru, even.

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