Finnish producer Aleksi Perälä is one of the most singular figures in modern electronic music, a former Rephlex stalwart whose personal ‘colundi’ tuning system has given him a sound that is instantly his own. Midnight Sun 2 A is the tenth instalment of his Midnight Sun series — and the opening salvo of a brand new cycle — arriving in December 2020 on his own AP Musik imprint.
The colundi system remains a wonderfully elusive concept: a scale derived from numerology, built note by note over the past decade, that lends every one of Perälä’s records a strangely familiar warmth. Here the coded track names — FI3AC2037010, FI3AC2037020 and so on through ten variations — offer no narrative crutch whatsoever. It’s music stripped back to pure feeling, and all the better for it.
The extended opener FI3AC2037010 is a fine entry point, unspooling soft, sun-baked pads over a gentle four-to-the-floor pulse as a liquid acid line curls through the warmth. It’s unhurried, almost weightless, yet the drum programming keeps things moving in that quietly insistent way Perälä does so well. The brief FI3AC2037030, all two and a half minutes of it, works as a lovely interlude — a sketch of melody that evaporates before you can quite grasp it.
The middle stretch contains the record’s strongest moments. Both FI3AC2037040 and FI3AC2037050 lean harder into the rhythm, the bass pressing forward whilst reverb-soaked keys hover above, and the way Perälä lets his acid lines breathe around the beat is a masterclass in restraint. There’s a playfulness to the sequencing too — long, patient tracks sat alongside compact vignettes, each one given exactly as much space as it needs.
Closing track FI3AC2037100 rounds things off beautifully, folding pads and percussion back into one another until only a shimmer remains. It feels less like an ending and more like the sun dipping, ready to come back up.
At a time when ambient-techno can feel like a crowded field, Midnight Sun 2 A is a reminder that nobody does it quite like Aleksi Perälä. A record of remarkable warmth and patience — and a very promising start to this new cycle.
