"If I do not finish something in one session, it will most likely remain just a pattern."

Binary Echo is full of specific geography: Lake Ladoga, the Karelian Isthmus, place names you've cycled through. How much of that is conscious, and how much just seeps in?

I simply like how the place names from that region look and sound. Saimaa, Ojala, Tervu all have a musical quality on their own. At the same time, these are places I love. My family and I spend time there, cycling around lakes and pine forests. It is a very beautiful area and it stays with you. So when I manage to find time for music and something turns into a finished piece, I often give it a name from that region. It is not something I plan in advance, it just happens naturally.

You describe some of those tracks as live jams, more about feel than accuracy. Does that mode of working sit alongside more meticulous stuff, or are they the same process at different speeds?

In my case it is mostly about whether I have time or not. I make music on the kitchen table when it is free and my family is asleep. I do not have a dedicated space, so everything has to be set up and then put away again. Because of that I cannot really afford a slower or more meticulous approach. If I do not finish something in one session, it will most likely remain just a pattern. I do not know when I will get back to it or whether I will still be in the same mood.

Ojala started with FM synthesis, multiple parameters evolving at once. What pulled you toward FM for that one, and how far do you let it run before you start shaping it?

At that time I had just bought Glänta by Fors (Max for Live FM Synthesizer) and was completely absorbed by it. I still like it very much. I mapped a number of parameters to an external MIDI controller, added a few LFOs, sketched a loose hip hop rhythm and a couple of melodic ideas, and then spent time exploring the sound.

The Binary Echo notes read like they were made in fragments across different situations. Do you ever set out to make a cohesive body of work?

I would like to create a cohesive, conceptual body of work with a consistent sound and setup. A step in that direction was the material that became the Northern Cache EP, released by Clean Error. I arranged to take a couple of days away from family life, went out of town to my mother-in-law’s place, and worked there with two Elektron machines. I stayed in one room and focused almost entirely on music, with breaks only for sleep and coffee. My wife’s mum makes excellent coffee, which definitely helped. That kind of focused time made a big difference.

Remixes are a big part of how your releases reach out: Lackluster, madebyitself, Ambidextrous on the recent ones. How do you pick who gets to touch a track, and what makes a remix worth putting out?

The idea of releasing singles with remixes actually came from the Local Gods label. I had not really considered it before. I tend to be quite protective of my material, but this time I decided to let go a bit and invite musicians I know to reinterpret my tracks. It turned out to be a very enriching experience. It also helped connect artists who had previously only been aware of each other from a distance. At the same time it can be quite difficult, because sometimes you receive a remix and realise you have to say no. That part is not easy.

What kit are you actively using right now? How did you land on your current setup?

My setup is simply what I can quickly place on the kitchen table, connect, and then quietly put away at night without disturbing the family. Most often it is a pair of Elektron machines such as Digitakt II or Syntakt together with Digitone II, or sometimes Fors instruments inside Ableton. I work in Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones. It is less about building an ideal setup and more about having something that works within my situation.

Your work gets compared to Chiastic Slide-era Autechre in the Ojala notes, and fans mention Ochre and Roel Funcken in the same breath. Who actually got to you early, and do those reference points still mean anything to you now?

If we are talking about the classics of electronic music, the heavyweights, I would probably name artists like Plaid, Bola and Two Lone Swordsmen. I think the music a person listens to and loves in their youth stays with them forever as the best kind of music. I certainly love the early albums of Autechre. For a long time I rather categorically rejected everything that came after LP5. Harmony, melody and overall mood are very important to me. At the same time, quite recently I discovered Treale from Oversteps, with its absolutely incredible melody, and realised that I had finally grown into being able to listen to and understand their later, more experimental material. So yes, I suppose I am a bit of a slowpoke in that sense.

How do you know when something's done? Is it a feeling, or do you give yourself a rule?

The rule is very simple. I try to finish it while there is still time and space on the kitchen table.

That quality people keep describing: tender but fractious, warm but glitchy. Is that something you're steering toward or just what comes out?

I do not consciously aim for that. I simply make what comes naturally and what I find interesting myself. It is good when it resonates with someone else as well.

What haven't you tried yet that you want to?

In terms of music, I would like to spend more time with Max and try sequencing my Elektron machines from it. I would also like to work in a small studio with proper monitors rather than always using headphones. And outside of music, I would like to have a dog one day. I am very fond of Hungarian Vizslas.

Listen to Binary Echo and order the NOIDED cassette here