Lackluster

Lackluster

Background information
Birth name	Esa Juhani Ruoho
Also known as	Lackluster, Esa Ruoho, HLER
Born	(1978-10-26) 26 October 1978 (age 45)
Origin	Helsinki, Finland
Genres	IDM, ambient, downtempo, tracker-music, chiptune, chillout
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Computer, laptop, synthesizer, tracker, sequencer
Years active	1994–present
Labels	deFocus, Merck Records, U-Cover Records, SLSK Records, Psychonavigation Records

Website	www.lackluster.org

Esa Ruoho (born 26 October 1978 in Helsinki, Finland), better known as Lackluster, is a Finnish electronic music producer and performer from Kontula, Helsinki. He is also known as Esa Ruoho, XLLV, Can'O'Lard and Kökö and the Köks.^[1]

Ruoho has lived most of his life in Helsinki, Finland, but has also, since 2000, travelled to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada for six months in 2000–2001,^[2] and also spent time in Dublin, Ireland.^[3]

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Transcription

Musical career

Esa Ruoho started composing electronic music in the mid-1990s and, after 2000 has been releasing recorded music (remixes, compilation-tracks, original work) on many labels, full-length CDs on such labels as deFocus records (Great Britain), Merck Records (Miami, Florida, US),^[4] U-cover (Belgium),^[5] Psychonavigation Records (Dublin, Ireland), New-Speak Records (Stockholm, Sweden).^[1] He has since 2007 worked with SLSK Records from San Francisco and Nice And Nasty from Ireland, the San Francisco-based netlabel TwoCircles Records and the Argentinian netlabel Igloo-Rec, and the American label JellyFish Frequency Recordings.^[6]

Lackluster was formerly known as the chiptune musician, Distance, part of the demoscene groups Orange, Monotonik, Calodox, The Digital Artists, The Planet of Leather Moomins (TPOLM), FLO and Satori.^[7]

Esa also ran a Bulletin Board System, Cloudcity, from 1992 to 2000 – utilizing HectoBBS (1992), SuperBBS (1992–1994) and PCBoard (1994–2000) BBS Software.^[8] The name Lackluster is taken from "Pyramids" by Terry Pratchett (Discworld series), encountered 1996–1997.

Collaborations

Esa has collaborated with Heikki Lindgren since 2018, forming a duo called HLER (Heikki Lindgren, Esa Ruoho), creating fully improvised Ambient Drone music using a rare Peruvian monophonic synthesizer, the Atomosynth Mochika XL.

Live performances

Since 2000, Ruoho has played numerous musical performances as Lackluster, Esa Ruoho and as a part of the ambient-drone duo HLER in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, England, Austria, Poland, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine.^[6]^[9] Ruoho has also played as warm-up support for numerous electronic musicians, such as Biosphere, Petri Kuljuntausta, The Orb, Mixmaster Morris, Brothomstates, Aleksi Perälä/Astrobotnia/Ovuca, Cylob, Wevie Stonder, Machinedrum, Jimmy Edgar, Move D, Jimi Tenor and Bad Loop.

Discography

1999 – Album – "CDR#2" (CDr) Monotonik
2000 – EP – "FOC349" (LP) deFocus
2000 – Album – "Container" (CD, LP) deFocus
2000 – EP – "R U Oho?" (LP) deFocus
2000 – EP – "Rikos005" (LP) Rikos Records
2001 – Album – "Spaces" (CD) U-Cover (as Esa Ruoho)
2001 – EP – "Spaces" (LP) Inc.US (as Esa Ruoho)
2001 – EP – "Zealectronic Purple" (LP) Zeal
2001 – EP – "One-Offs" (NET) Monotonik
2002 – EP – "A Lackluster Sampler" (LP) Merck
2002 – EP – "Wrapping Album Sampler" (LP) deFocus
2002 – Album – "Wrapping" (CD, LP) deFocus
2003 – Album – "Showcase" (CD) Merck
2003 – EP – "None of That" (NET) Binkcrsh (as Can'O'Lard)
2003 – LP – "None of What" (NET) Corewatch (as Can'O'Lard)
2003 – EP – "Not An EP" (NET) Corewatch
2003 – EP – "You Are on My Mind" (NET) Monotonik
2004 – EP – "Showcase Sampler" (LP) Merck
2004 – Album – "Remixselection_one" (CD) Psychonavigation
2004 – EP – "R U Oho?" (LP) Merck
2005 – Album – "Slice" (CD) U-Cover
2005 – Album – "What You Want Isn't What You Need" (CD) Newspeak Records
2006 – EP – "Lax EP" (NET) Digilog
2007 – EP – "Repulsine EP" (CD) SLSK Records
2007 – EP – "The Stationary Trout" (NET) Part2 Records
2008 – Album – "Places" (CDr) Grundruck Records (as Esa Ruoho)
2009 – EP – "Aeration" (NET) TwoCircles Records
2009 – EP – "Cold Trail" (NET) Acroplane Recordings
2009 – EP – "Proof of Concept" (NET) Yuki Yaki Recordings
2009 – EP – "The Flows" (NET) Part2 Records
2009 – EP – "Portal" (NET) Cornwarning
2009 – EP – "Scattered Harvest" (NET) Format-Noise
2011 – EP – "Remixed" (DIGITAL) Nice & Nasty Records
2011 – EP – "Detro" (DIGITAL) Nice & Nasty Records
2011 – EP – "Kaneel/Lackluster Split 3"" (CDr) Awkward Silence recordings
2011 – Album – "The Invisible Spanish Inquisition" (CD) Igloo Pop Records
2011 – EP – "Riversmouth" (3" CD-r) Attenuation Circuit
2012 – Album – "On The Hangar of Spaceship Earth" (NET) Mahorka Net-Label (as Esa Ruoho)
2014 – Album – "Moments" (DIGITAL) Igloo Pop Records
2014 – Album – "Lexicon of Goods" (DIGITAL) JellyFish Frequency Recordings
2015 – Album – "Merck Package" (DIGITAL) Lackluster Bandcamp
2015 – EP – "Parched Throat" (CD-r/DIGITAL) Attenuation Circuit (as Esa Ruoho)
2015 – EP – "Swansong" (NET) Kahvi Collective
2015 – Album – "deFocus Package" (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp
2015 – Album – "PSCHNVGTN K T H X" (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp
2016 – Album – "Moonbears on Planet Earth Soundtrack" (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp
2016 – Album – Esa Ruoho: KVA-015 (Cassette) Kaukana Väijyy Ambient (as Esa Ruoho)
2018 – Album – HLER (Cassette) HLER Bandcamp (Heikki Lindgren & Esa Ruoho = HLER)
2018 – EP – Yep, I'd Certainly take a Roland D2 for free (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp
2018 – Album – "Hydroton - a model of Cold Fusion: Original Soundtrack" (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp
2018 – Album – Collage (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp (as Esa Ruoho)
2019 – Album – Avaruusromua Special 2016 (NET) Lackluster Bandcamp (as Esa Ruoho)
2021 - EP - 100606 Kosmos8 Sinuus Sina

Media collaborations

Utopias of Helsinki, a web report for Helsingin Sanomat "What would Helsinki be like now, if all of the grandiose city-utopias of the 1960s had come to fruition?" (composition)(2001)^[10]
Pauli Ojala (a Finnish graphics artist) on "13/10/99", a short music video which was presented at the Assembly 2001 Wild demo competition, placing 4th.^[11]
Wilma Mehtonen (a Finnish choreographer) "Ulottumaton Symbioosi" (2002).
Halcyon (demogroup) DVD, providing in-menu composition (2002)
Wilma Mehtonen "T.43" modern dance-performance (2003).
Teemu Niskanen (a Finnish photographer) on a web-slideshow project (2006).^[12]
Thuyen Nguyen: "The Most Powerful Person in the World" – 16 May 2007.^[13]
- Synopsis: A love letter to video games.
Luca Barbeni (designer) on "dune.8081", a flash website, 2007.^[14]
Mari Helisevä (painter) on "Luontaisenkaltaisia", an art installation featuring a musical mixture of kitchen-recorded materials, displayed at Maa-Tila, Helsinki, Finland, from 9 to 20 January 2008.^[15]
Thuyen Nguyen: "Same as it ever was" – 29 February 2008.
- Synopsis: Video game critics use the same arguments against gaming as they did for movies, television, comics, books.^[16]
Jonatan Söderström: Retro 4, 2008 ^[17]
scheltema/van beem NEPCO/ILC: "Headfooters", 2008 ^[18]
- Synopsis: Cutesy headfoot monsters jump around to the sound of "Hugytrak" off of Lackluster: Slice (released on U-Cover)
Antti Mutta/Pelaaja-Lehti (Journalist) on "Korg DS-10", a review, Pelaaja-Lehti September/2009 (2009)^[19]^[20]
Toisissa Tiloissa: "Suuri Koralliriutta" – 21 April 2018, 29 September 2018.
- Synopsis: An improvised dance performance open to the public organised by Toisissa Tiloissa and Kontula Electronic, held at the Youth House of Kontula - re-run at Kanneltalo. ^[21]