Projects: Panu M Savolainen (ex. DeadZone and DeadZone Music), Half-Normalized, LAkeuZ, Connection: Deviant, Kohina
I was born in Syri, Lestijärvi, Finland. Syri is a small village surrounded by fields and forests. It’s been one of the biggest influences on my music in the past. I have always made my own music since I was a teenager. Also sound programming has been an important part of the music and inspiration.
Musical history begins in 1992 with the Amiga 500, 8-bit sampler and MIDI keyboard. With the Pro Tracker sequencer you had a little over 400k memory and four channels to work with. It was very challenging but also very educational. There was some success in 4-track competitions, but the goal was to make tracks for Amiga multimedia productions. In the 80’s I got my first keyboard, so playing keys started very early. It was time to learn basic notes and chords.
During 1991 – 1996 I did some DJ gigs and was more interested in HC, gabber, everything fast. On the other hand I listened to a lot of house, techno, ambient and a lot of AC/DC, Anthrax, Sepultura, Metallica, Faith No More, Dire Straits – many kinds of music. At that time I started buying synths, drum machines and samplers and learning how to make my own sounds and soundscapes. Since -94 I have been listening to a lot of progressive rock & metal and fusion.
Around -95/-96 I got an Amiga 1200 with Turbo, HD and a better quality sampler. Tracker was still 8-bit but you could sample with better quality. I made sounds with synths and sampled them. I sampled Korg Wavestation EX, Yamaha CS1x, Roland D5, Roland XP-10 and Roland TR-707. The mixer was a Fostex 4-track and I also did some recording on cassette.
At the end of the 90’s the studio moved from Amiga to PC. Now there was some analogue synths (Roland Juno-106, Jupiter-6, Waldorf Pulse) mixed with digital synths (Yamaha AN1x, Roland JV-1080, Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309, Waldorf Microwave XT). PCs with more power and memory made 16-bit sampling possible. The Fostex was now retired and replaced by a Roland M160 mixer, which was quite noisy but sounded very warm. Album surrounded and bits of Mindfields were made with this setup.
Early time at Mp3.com was pretty successful and after it was closed I moved tracks to download.com. In short time, tracks were downloaded over 400 000 times. I started to get mails mostly from USA, since d’n’b scene was becoming popular in the millenium. In those days, I was making athmospheric d’n’b and managed top10 in the d’n’b charts and top3 in the atmorpheric d’n’b charts at download.com. Those times top names were Pendulum and Roni Size to name few. Sadly the site closed.
During the years 2003 – 2016 the tracks have been used in many video productions. DeadZone or DeadZone Music, the main project, is now called Panu M Savolainen and it’s waiting for new and fresh inspiration. During the album Silently in 2007, I finally managed to make some ambient tracks and get them played on my favourite radio programme “Space Junk” (Avaruusromua). Later I finally managed to make more ambient music with a combination of analogue and digital synthesizers. Many of them were played on “Space Junk”.
During these years I learned to play a little guitar, bass and drums. Combined with synthesizers, the project Half-Normalized was born in 2005/2006. I’ve made two albums and it’s been a challenge and a real pleasure to play all the instruments.
In 2011 a new project called Connection: Deviant was born. Now with a completely different style: EBM/Industrial. Markus Tavasti (from ZombieVomit and Incarnate) does great lyrics and vocals. We are slowly working on new material. Looking forward to it.
AmbientWorx was completed in 2016 and had mostly ambient tracks.
At the beginning of 2017 LAkeuZ was launched. Now with the legendary electronic music and synthesiser guru Ashen Simian. It was a completely virtual project. The music is a combination of ambient, techno and electro made with a large collection of synths and acoustic instruments. I’m really honoured to work with Ashen Simian, because his project “Nemesis” is for me one of the best electronic bands out there. The album called Oumuamua was born in 2019 and the CD is available on Bandcamp.
In 2020 Kohina released their debut album. I also finished two albums, Contorted and Syri.
In 2021 album Flow was released.
In 2022 album Uknown Orbits was released.
Panu M Savolainen – DeadZoneMusic.Com