September

The songs "Gravity Hold" and "Serenade Saudade” are from a work called “September”.

The latter was originally called “Serenade to the lonely”, but I felt that the Portuguese word “Saudade” gave a clearer description.

"Gravity Hold” was called “Gravity don’t fail me” and refers to trying to keep "both feet on the ground”. I write this because I also wrote lyrics for these songs, but decided to release the instrumental versions, mostly because it felt kind of right..

I've always found the autumn to be of great inspiration. In the small town where I grew up, the nature was in itself a huge inspiration , and together they were kind of spiritual. 

I find myself both reflecting and looking forward, at this time of year. As a musician, I'm usually pretty busy in the autumn months, but right after summer, things tend to be quiet for just a moment, and I kinda get the feeling of the calm before the storm. 

Many songs have been written around that time . These two songs were not only composed in September, but also recorded mixed and released in that month as well, but in different years. And funnily enough, it was not planned at all. So there's a kind of gravity, or mystique going on in that month, at least for me.

Some trivial facts: 

I wanted the mixes to be untraditional (won't bother you with the details). 

Both songs have been shortened and rearranged slightly to work as singles, as well as working together as a whole with the rest of the songs presented around them. 

The Algorithm Of Hell

As usual, this song is part of a larger work, and is the successor to the song Xenophobia. I don't think I'll  release more parts from these compositions (though I'd really love to give you the part succeeding this one as well).

By now, the brightest readers may realize that this project could be far longer than five years.  Thank God it won't be.

The title refers to the first part of the work, so together they make the sentence: "Xenophobia, the algorithm of hell". 

I did use quite some time on layering up the arpeggiated line going though this song. It was recorded with about 10 different string instruments, mostly acoustic guitars, a sitar, baritone etc, and further distorted and filtered. I wanted it to have a synthesizer vibe to it, without using one. 

Another funny fact: we used some time to make sure that the song was exactly 3:16 long. 

Xenophobia

The song "Xenophobia" is about (well, needless to say) xenophobia and prejudice.
It is once again a part of a larger work, and if I'm lucky, I'm able to present the succeeding part next Friday. 

It was a pain to conclude this song, even though the arrangement was worked out in good time before the production stage. 
Several keys, tempos, guitars and acoustic spaces were tried out on different sessions. These sessions had to be worked on extensively before taking the decision on which one should be the master version. 

Sometimes it's pretty evident how these elements should work together, other times it's a nightmare. 
 

Rationale

"Rationale" is a song that was originally composed and performed with acoustic instruments. And I was pretty young when I composed it. But I always envisioned it for electric instruments, and after a time I could realize this vision (while still being very young). 

So prior to release,  I was quite unsure, whether to go for an acoustic or electric version of it,  

As I’m not going to make it a habit of  releasing several versions of a song, I ended up on the electric, which is (on this version), kind of more “agressive” than I originally had planned. But I fell for the energy, and the fact that it was usually played pretty hard both on acoustic and electric instruments, after some play-throughs. 

Turnaround

This song was originally composed for, and rehearsed with my band "Woo". It is another example of a time (while) playing hard hitting live shows, it was nice to do something entirely different at rehearsals.  

As always (really), this song proved to be a challenge as well. Mostly because I was suffering from a particularly bad bronchitis, that never seemed to end, which made it almost impossible to speak, not to mention sing. On the vocal sessions I ended up sounding more like a drunken pirate than anything else (some will say this is always the case). Anyway, this was quite annoying, since the song was supposed to be one of the easier songs to sing.

Since I'm releasing a new song every fortnight, I'm pretty exposed when these things happen, and it's important to work on many songs way ahead of it's release time, in order to make it. So needless to say, this wasn't the only song, that got affected by this. But sometimes, all the hard work and planning in the world, can't prevent you from having serious problems.

So let's remember to enjoy every day we have in good health, and be mindful on those not so privileged. 

Eos

As mentioned in the previous blog post, “Exo” is the last part of a larger work. 
The whole “work” has several themes, and parts, that are not included in this project.

Sometimes I get questions about my lyrics, and how they are written. Usually this question is geared towards, whether the lyrics are describing events in my personal life.
The simple answer here is: no.

Most lyrics are written along with the music, and they’re never about personal experiences directly. 
I’ve always found it fascinating, and most natural to think "outside myself”when I’m composing. 
I am, like so many others, quite curious, and I love to philosophize and analyze things. Everything from dark, and frightening thoughts to bland and funny stuff.  

I like to reflect this in my lyrics, but I easily find it boring and predictable if all lyrics were to be serious and complex, in the same way that music gets boring and predictable if it’s always simple or always complex.

 
I like to analyze my own moods and feelings, and see them from a distance. Find circumstances where these feelings can arise in other peoples lives. Build a framework of it. Then I start to peel the layers off, until I get something that I feel represents or wakes that feeling. A mood is often more abstract than a pure feeling (in this context).
The end result gets further influenced by my usual pondering (at that given time), and that’s the fun part with creativity, to let the mind wander!

 
So, to write about my personal life would be incredibly uninspiring and boring to me (and I guess everyone else). 

Exo

This song is part one (well, actually part two) of a larger piece of work, which I’ll be showing here, over two Fridays. 

I’m only going to present two parts of this work though, but those two parts have been rearranged specially for the occasion so that they stick together as one piece. 

In doing so, I have shortened parts, cut out sequences, and even whole themes, that would else have been appearing all over this “work”.

The "whole piece", may be released sometime in the future (but I won't guarantee it).