Blog posts
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Nov 16, 12:56 AMNew Free Ugress Single: Robot Army
Celebrating the new monthly Ugress concert series, download the free new single Robot Army.
I dream of world domination.
But I only have one tiny, friendly little robot. Thankfully, my trusty little robot friend also dreams of world domination, and our very own, unstoppable, robot army.
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Nov 16, 12:56 AMNew Ugress Live Concert Series
I am launching my own monthly concert series, at Kafe Edvard.
For some years now I have mostly been off the stage, in the cinematic dark, writing music for films and TV. Now I want to focus a little bit on my own: Write music, and perform it the way I want it to be performed.
How does one become a better artist? I have a mad scientific approach. Megalomaniac idea, concept, execution, trials, experimenting, failing, analyzing, correcting and refining a formula, having control of every element yourself, piece by piece building towards the inevitable failed world domination. At least on my route towards utter doom I will have a good time and loud beats.
Therefore I launch my own concert series, a monthly musical laboratory adventure at musical blackbox Kafe Edvard. (PS. Here are photos from the previous show I played there this summer.) The place has great staff, huge screens, friendly atmosphere, modern technology, it is digitally and culturally well connected, and intimate enough to afford smaller experimental performances. When everything goes wrong, it is easy to hit me with the rotten tomatoes.
For the first show I will be performing a little soundscape concert with dystopic Nebular Spool music and visuals, and a main concert with Ugress music and visuals, featuring both new tracks and old tracks in new clothes.
The shows will be streamed live right here on my website, hopefully with better sound quality than last time...Information
• Ugress Live, Saturday November 21st
• Kafe Edvard, Griegsplass, Bergen, Norway (map)
• Admission NOK 100, tickets presold at the cafe
• Age limit 20 years
• Doors open 2000 CET
• Nebular Spool starts 2100 CET
• Ugress starts 2200 CET
• Concerts are streamed live on www.ugress.comNext show after this, is Dec 19th, featuring Ugress and Ninja 9000.
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Nov 14, 12:06 PMThe Rise Of Digital Music: Graphics
Mint.com has a really nice and fancy graphical presentation of the growth of digital music.
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Nov 14, 12:06 PMMaking Of Kometkameratene: Travel
Kometkameratene Behind-The-Music: You can watch episodes directly from NRK or download official torrents. There is also a list of each behind-the-music entry.
Not much to say here except I am very satisfied with this one, I think it is a beautiful song and melody.
And I'll reveal a little secret, but suggest you listen to the song before reading the spoiler:
Kometkameratene - Reise / Travel by GMMThis song is actually a clever re-write of On The Road Again, by Willie Nelson. We took the feel and structure of this fantastic track, which has brilliant connotations to traveling, and made a slightly similar, but completely new, different song. Since I have an aversion towards major harmonies, I shifted it into my preferred minor system, and included some typical Kometkameratene major-minor shifts within the same key for those slightly jarring sci-fi elements.
You can hear the main melody ghosted in the chorus lead vocals, where the Captain wonder: "What's out there?" Only one way to find out... travel.
Production wise, I'm not too found of the country, but there are some country elements in the sound. I also included some gypsy elements, like the rhythmical brass and cymbals, hinting towards a roma life spent on the road. There's also a very neat pop-cultural reference in the last section, of which I am particularly proud, where the final banjo solo is a polite nod to the Dueling Banjos segment from Deliverance. -
Nov 14, 12:05 PMSpotify Reduces Piracy By 66.6 Percent
I am not surprised by the recent findings in the UK in a survey by moneysupermarket.com (allthough, how can one trust data from someone with a name like that?).
According to Hypebot, data from this survey shows that almost two thirds of people who pirate, says that the introduction of Spotify has reduced their illegal downloading.
I'm not jumping to any conclusions yet, except noting that this is in line with my general observation: Piracay is not happening because people are evil, it is happening because the music business aren't providing good enough solutions in the digital world. Spotify is an important step towards a better digial musical future, these data (if thrustworthy) confirms this.
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Nov 14, 12:05 PMKinsis: A Synth That Attacks The ADSR
Haven't had time to try this one yet, but I heartily applaud the effort by Progress Audio to revitalize synthesis control with their Kinsis synth.
Most traditional synths, and contemporary digital ones, employ a typical ADSR + LFO system for controlling the sound. ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release) is an easy way to manipulate events that happen once (like for each keypress), and LFOs are tpyical for repeating effects, like vibrato or filter wah or things like that.
This is good and all, and kind of a standarized way of doing synthesis, but it is an old method, and based in hardware. WIth digital tools there should really be new options, and I am happy to see Progress Audio challenging this. Kinsis employs more of a timeline approach modulating stuff, which is familiar to most persons working digitally. Looking forward to investigate this.
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Nov 14, 12:04 PMThe Cloud - But What Is It?
I blab about the cloud all the time. But what is it, really?
Ars Technica to the rescue. Great article on what the cloud really is, and some background history.
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Nov 14, 12:04 PMMore details on the OP-1
I'm kind of intrigued by the fancy little OP-1 sample-synthesizer and tiny MIDI controller from Teenage Engineering.
There's an interview with the engineers over at EM411 revealing some more details and philosophies.
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Nov 14, 12:04 PMMaking Of Kometkameratene: Music
Kometkameratene Behind-The-Music: You can watch episodes directly from NRK or download official torrents. There is also a list of each behind-the-music entry.
The Music episode!
What is music? This is a subject I suggested to the producers; i hoped thye would write and episode with this theme. I also had silly ambitions to what I would do, if there ever was to be one.
Finally, there was one, and I stumbled over myself in enthusiasm and megalomanic plans for how to investigate the music phenomena.
This is probably my only nemesis; my own ambitions, I want too much, try too much, wish too much, and I ask too much of myself and my ideas. For the music episode, I had so many plans and ambitions they all killed each other out in an implosion of time, budget and resources. Of course it was bound to crash. Thankfully this show is produced and directed by very competent and smart people, and they steered the direction into something manageable. I think the success of this TV show very much lies in the skills and execution of the producers and directors.
Nevertheless my imploding and misplaced ambitions, this episode did become something special after all.
I wrote two songs, one a-cappella where the characters themselves generate a song from the sound of themselves, like a Kometophone played by the scientist, and another industrial track where they generate a mechanical sounding song, by performing their regular routines in the spaceship in musical rhythms and patterns.
For the first piece, I had a brief unusual moment of clarity, enough to sample each actor during an earlier recording in Oslo - I asked each of them to perform their typical character sounds, in various tones and energy levels, and built a sample library of each character. From there, I built several songs and variations for the producers to pick from. They eventually picked one, scripted it, and after shooting the video there was actually very little post production, the sampled version worked well enough for most of the characters. I only had to replace some actors which they had swapped during shooting.
Here is the voice-based character song:
Kometkameratene - Music - Kometophone by GMMBoth of these tracks really need the video to work. The second piece, the spaceship-routine-piece, was great fun to build. And I think perhaps it is a neat "oh" moment for regular viewers, who has subconsciously learned the routine sounds of each character during the show. The foley editors sent me regular character sounds, and I built a percussive piece, where they all perform their routines in a quasi-melodic percussive fashion. There's a tribal feel to the track, enhancing the percussive effect of character operations.
Here is the spaceship-sound song:
Kometkameratene - Music - Kometophone by GMMI also wrote a number of smaller cues and snippets to be used throughout the episode.
Conclusion; it became a great episode, and once again I learned to limit my ambitions, they tend to run off with themselves. I am very lucky to be working with very smart people who can steer everything in the right direction, and manage my sometimes wild creativity into something very realizable. -
Nov 11, 02:43 PMMe On The Cover Of A Magazine!
OK, so it's not a cover picture, only text, but the text IS the first text on the cover.
I was interviewed for the biggest magazine in Norway for musicians and artists, Musikkpraksis, by eminent music journalist Per Christian Frankplads. We met and had a great talk, followed up by emailing and texting each other. The result is a very flattering and beautiful 6 page documentation of how I work, how I use my digital tools, and my methods and efforts towards being as mobile and flexible as possible.
There is also a step by step production journal of how I created the It Was Great Year track. (You can also grab remix kit stems of this track and look inside it.)
The article is for the time being only available in the current print issue.
