Cloud 99

This song was played a lot at rehearsals with my band Woo, but we only played it live once.

This was at a live event in Ørsta . When I did research for the song (listening to loads of tapes and recordings made over the years) I found many versions of it that I had completely forgotten about. But it is an "instinctive" song. No big complex arrangements.

This release is based on a recording from one of these rehearsals.

Guitars and drums were re-recorded on top of the rehearsal tape. 

Funnily enough (in retrospect) I developed a heavy ear infection when I was about to mix the song, everything sounded distorted, and off pitched. It hurt so much that I had to lie still, and turn off everything that made the slightest sound. I've never experienced anything like it before.  I didn't want to change the release order in the project, so I quite simply didn't mix it. Relying on the rough mix from preproduction, and that it was good enough.

I haven't brought myself to listen to it afterwards either. 

Maybe I never will.

Drums: Geir Arne Ose

A Million Ways To Put You Down

I started on this song when I was about 15 years old.
The melody came to me years later, about 5 years. 
The rest of the production was done just months (and weeks) before the release.

For rhythm, I used several things. I was working on so many sessions at the time that I actually don’t remember that much. But I recall that I used some kind of softcover catalog for the main pulse. It was one of those moments where I’m running around hitting things with other things, to find the sound in my head. 

There are several shakers and tambourines tuned to different pitches, a timpani and a snare drum, recorded from 4 meters distance. This snare drum was also captured in our «echo chamber» and heavily distorted after the fact.

It is quite normal to throw even the kitchen sink at some productions, and I have witnessed many strange things used in the studio, over the years.
If you have any stories or cool instruments used in music before, please share it with me in the comments section. 

First year concluded

The first year is now concluded in this project.

I have managed to release 28 songs, 28 pictures of art, and 28 posts about it all. I'm  looking forward to the next 4 years. 

This year has been fantastic! It has been a lot of fun, and it has given me many new friends and loads of great experiences. 

Especially, I would like to give all the visual artists a very big thank you!!!!!

Without your wonderful art, this project would not be remotely the same:

Torje Sæbø
Christian Bøen
Håvard Legreid
Robert Høyem
Vilde Salhus Røed
Vegard Vindenes
Neoyookai
Arne Bakke
Aurora Cornelia
Magne Sandnes

Also, I'd like to thank all visual artists that have contributed with art that will be released in the years ahead. They’ve made some incredible art, and I cant wait to show it to you! 

This year has also been a challenging one, and at times, pretty difficult. 
I have worked day and night, all year, including all weekends and every holiday, to be able to do this. 

When I started out (a week from 2015) I had written down many plans and guidelines for the project. On new years eve, I wrote one thing down, as a kind of new years resolution: «The year after the next will be easier". 
That means that I still have a lot of hard work to do!  And after that,  I hope I'll be able to "improvise" a little more, and be less tied when working. And maybe take a vacation or two, and start doing more shows. 

I wish you all the best for the new year!
I hope your expectations are met, and that you find time to be happy. 

Regardless, you're always welcome to my site and listen to my music. My philosophy is to write about all situations, and hopefully you'll find something that suits your mood. And please feel free to write me a mail, or comment. I love to hear from you, always! 

Take care,

Geir 

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Part Of Your Compilation

When I'm composing, I often write a bunch of themes, songs, and often full albums or concepts. 
This song is the only song that I’m going to release from its original album concept (I think).
Ironically it is called "Part Of Your Compilation" 

If you ever wondered, there are several albums or collections of songs, where I’ll only be able to squeeze in one, or maybe a couple of songs from, into this five year project.

It would just be impossible to release music on a higher pace, as I’m literally working day and night to get everything ready. 

The song was written in three stages. 1996, 1994 and 2015 (as with many songs, it was concluded for this occasion).

By the way, have a great weekend! 

Escaping Ixtlan

«Escaping Ixtlan» was born on a 16-track recorder, around the turn of the Millennium (couldn't resist describing it that way), with an electric 12-string guitar (Gibson Eds 1275), a mandriola (12-string mandolin), and an unintuitive drum machine/sampler (Yamaha Su-700) .
The mandriola didn't make it to the final release, and the drum machine lost the battle against real drums (the mandriola part was cool though).

It was the sound and concept that was conceived at the time. The rest of the song was completed for this occasion (as with so many other songs in this project).

As usual, there are no samplers or keyboards on the final release. This is not a principle for me, I love synths and keyboards. But as an arranger and producer, I like to look elsewhere  for ingredients. Making my own «sauces» is more gratifying than going for «prepared food».  
It's also pretty boring to use the same sounds that everyone else can use. 
Especially since everyone and their mother can make something plausible with samplers (and even apps these days). 

It's no wonder that the music industry has lost some of its mystique and appeal, (even though this argument, surely plays a rather a small role in it's demise).So, for me, it's part of the music making process, to develop your own sounds. 

And luckily, for many people, music still is a highly developed form of art and craftsmanship. For many artists it’s the adventure of a lifetime, a spiritual journey, a way of expressing things not possible with words. But it is also hard work and self- discipline.  But most of all: it’s about spontaneity. 

In some ways you can compare music to good wines (or whatever you want, for that matter). You might not like the wine, but it counts for something, when the « winemaker» has put a lot of thought and effort into it, maybe decades. At the very least, it adds to the atmosphere. 

Evolver

«Evolver» was composed in 2003, but some instrumental parts came from another song I wrote (and performed) in 1995 with the band «Woo»
The original song was a Norwegian folk-inspired song, arranged for acoustic instruments,  quite different from the version released now. 

The final version (as with most of my productions) was recorded with real instruments and later distorted and "warped" with effects. Mostly outboard effects was used at the time (hardware boxes with buttons and wires, that required no computer).

It was one of those sessions that went on for days and nights, and it was finished on a Monday morning around 7 am  (we usually call it a day around 05 am).

On the recording with me: 
Geir Arne Ose: Drums 

Do It Again

"Do It Again" was composed around 2007. However, the production for the song started out while listening to some samples presented to me by (producer/mixer) Andrew Scheps. 
I ended up using some of the sequences with african drums and drones. It was fun.

This production was made "in the box" (or on a computer), which is pretty unusual for me on my own compositions. I usually like to have microphones all over the place, for vibe.

The song also accelerates in tempo, and the instrumentation changes over the course of the song. 

I remember that I lost the original draft for the song at some point. And I had to rewrite parts of the chord structure, simply because I didn't remember all of it. At a later date I found the original recording, and so this release is based on the second version of the song. 

Andrew is a great guy, very smart, very generous and very good at his work. His input is pretty valuable to me. 
When he speaks, I'm all ears. 
So I hope he likes it ;) 

There are no other musicians on this session,