Here's a recollection from our most studio session a few weeks back. Our blog is almost up to date, so the next entry will, once again, be in realtime! Yay!




Sunday 19th of October, 10am

This is our fourth day in a real, honest-to-god studio, and definitely a welcome break from my questionable bedroom crooning adventures. We reconvene at Dynasty studios...well, by "we" I'm referring to myself and our engineer Antti...Tuukka is having an early band rehearsal with Alamaailman Vasarat, and Pekka has decided to take the day off. This is understandable, since instead of adding percussions we're dedicating today mostly for to filling out the gaps in different songs, and also building from scratch this album's monumental art-house spectacle, "Rewind, replay".


11am

After getting some chow from the nearby service station and kicking back while discussing the daunting task ahead, Antti and I are set to begin. We start with "Seconds", which needs some ambient soundscapes to kick off and wrap up the song. Like on the demo version recorded years and years ago (found on our profiles player), we build loops and passages by doodling with the basic guitar tracks, adding space, delay and the occasional overdrive.

By the end of the first hour we're getting some very interesting results, and decide to have some passages humming away troughout the song, sometimes even following the chord structure. By the time Tuukka arrives, outer galaxies have completely taken over and we're on our fifth separate track of nigh atonal drone. Tuukka is excited about what he's hearing, though, as are we all – based on the results, we decide to have all basic acoustic instruments without much at all reverb or delay, and just let the ambient tracks create the space. Sounds pretty great.

However, since this is not "Selected Ambient Works III", we'll be recording some acoustic drones later on as well. There is an indian drone lute called tambura that is specifically made for the purpose; Tuukka's friend has one, so we're definitely going to borrow that for further sonic escapades.


2pm

After "Seconds" we turn our attention to "Rewind, replay". There's practically nothing recorded for that one, just some simple piano passages (that are sadly unusable due to my bad home recording quality) and MIDI arrangements I've prepared beforehand.

However, I've brought a secret weapon – Valpuri!








Valpuri is an old plastic toy piano that I came across a few years ago while at an art exhibition. She was brought there by her owner, a painter who she's named after. I instantly fell in love with the sound that is like nothing else – small, out-of-tune bells crossed with the chime of a typewriter. Luckily, Valpuri the owner kindly agreed to borrow her for our sessions, so I jumped at the chance when the recordings began.

Before that particular treat we're recording some basic pianos first. Tuukka proves to be the better piano player between us two, so we compose the basic loop that flows underneath the song from several simple melody lines played by him. Antti does a lovely job miking a slightly detuned upright piano, and although the result is going to take some tweaking to find the right balance in the song, we now have all the ingredients in place.

Some more simple piano melodies to "Seconds", and then it's a lunch break.


4pm

Leaving behind orthodox piano sounds, it is now the time to plunge head first into the world of Valpuri. Since the melodic range of this particular instrument is a bit limited, and the small, battered piano is quite difficult to get to sound good on every played note, we decided to go ahead and sample the entire instrument.

A couple of hours later we're thinking that maybe we got a little more than we bargained for – balancing a few sounds for an entire keyboard proves to be quite a painstaking operation. However, one we play my pre-made arrangements with the sampled Valpuri, everybody starts nodding their heads. Sounds incredible, and just right for the song. The part sounds like an insane baroque organist had been influenced by circus music. Priceless stuff.






8pm

Once we've gotten Valpuri to do her bit, we concentrate on putting whole song in a shape decent enough for me to sing with. We mic the performance room for Tuukka, as he tries his hand with the lowest cello lines of "Rewind, replay". "Easy stuff", I say, "just some long single notes". Little do I know that they're the hardest ones to get to sound consistent, especially since there's only a couple of keyboard lines with which to play. The key is not the easiest one, either.

After lots of swearing and many good but not brilliant takes we decide to come back to it another day – it's getting late, and we need to slap the bits together for a track bounce. In a couple of hours everything has wrapped up nicely and we're heading home.


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A weird day. Good weird. The first three studio days were 100% performance-centered, as we played through the songs how we've come to know them; this day was maybe 75% creativity, 25% hard work. Great fun – I can only imagine how it may be for some big, established bands, who can just rent a castle someplace and spend a few months or a year playing around with different instruments and ideas. Along with mountains of cocaine and supermodels, of course.

Next up it'll be percussion day. I'll be recording some glockenspiel stuff as well, which I'm very much looking forward to. Before that, however, I'm going to have to finish up some vocals first...about time, I'd say...



Here's a little something to demonstrate our exacting methods to find just the right sound:


~Markus