Biography
Gagarin Kombinaatti, also known as Gagarin and the Cosmonauts, operated briefly as an industrial outfit whose lineup included Mika Vainio alongside Janne Koski, Tapio Onnela, and Wici Wikström. Drawing from the harsher edges of pioneering acts like Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Test Dept., the group produced raw and often turbulent pieces throughout the 1980s by mistreating drums, synthesizers, electric drills, and scrap metal, yet none of this work surfaced while the band remained active. Vainio later earned widespread respect as an experimental figure through his role in Pan Sonic and via various additional projects and solo releases during the 1990s. The Puu label, Jimi Tenor’s offshoot of Vainio’s Sähkö Recordings, issued 83-85 in 2016, a collection drawn from Vainio’s personal cassette holdings that gathered Gagarin Kombinaatti material. Earlier, the track “Raskas” had surfaced on the compilation More Arctic Hysteria/Son of Arctic Hysteria: The Later Years of Early Finnish Avant-Garde.