In 1994, on an album called Minimal Nation, Detroit’s Robert Hood stripped Motor City funk to its bones. In addition to many solo and collaborative albums under his own name, Vainio released eight albums as Ø until 2017, when he plunged from a cliff in France. He had been at work on a ninth Ø album for three years at the time of his death. Working from notes he left behind, Tommi Grönlund, his friend and founder of the Sähkö label, and Rikke Lundgreen, Vainio’s former partner, compiled the material into Sysivalo, his final album. (According to Lundgreen, Vainio had already decided upon the album concept, title, track order, and even cover art.)