One album, one compilation, three EP’s, one split and two gigs. One project sent to the grave, and another born.

It was a very idle year, for many different reasons. Work being the most obvious one. Anyway, in April my friends’ son was baptized, and my gift to him was a limited lathe cut with his own screams.

In the of May I travelled to Umeå with Manifesto and Audio.Warfare (RIP) to play at Noisebath. It went well and I managed to sell some records.

The first day of July saw the light of a split release with M. Zetterberg and M. Åberg.

A somewhat rainy day in August I played at Galleri 1 in Uppsala while a dancer performed.

September brought Reversed Obesity‘s Mourning Ritual, which was later followed by Dirt and it also marked the death of the project, after five years.

Gråzon was founded and will hopefully grow stronger during 2013.

And as usual my birthday tradition kept on living as I turned 29 only two weeks ago.

To-do list for 2012.

• Release vinyl crackling album
  Nope, but it was completed and at least sent to one label.
• Release of the Hjort / Zetterberg / Åberg split
  Yeah!
  
• Release of Reversed Obesity – Dirt
  Hell yes.
  
• Finish the escalator project
  Not even close.
  
• Complete the “secret” compilation
  Nope.
  
• Gig(s)
  Yeah, two.

What will hopefully be done next year:

• Release VNL (aka vinyl crackling album)
• Release of BDSM inspired EP
• Complete the escalator project
• Record and release the Gråzon debut
• More work based on field recordings
• Gigs

Finally I decided to make a 12-second track just for the hell of it, and well, I also ended up making an alternative version (which is really the same track, just with effects added on pretty much everything).

Enjoy.

12-12-12 (Original Version): Download or stream.
12-12-12 (FX Version): Download or stream.

Relevant: Jasper Fforde.

At the moment it’s at its second step and that will take at least three to four weeks, the third step will most likely take about half of that.

The project has no set deadline but I hope it will be out on deersound before the year is over. To get the most recent updates about Dust I’d advice you to check my Facebook or Twitter.

It should come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of Day of the Tentacle.

So it really made my day when the girl from UPS called and said that she had a package for me.

The beauty above is what came in the package, and I’ve been waiting for a while for it since the original design had a flaw.

Now I just need to figure out the best place in the apartment for it.

Also, this post is me trying the WordPress Android app.

The vinyl, or should I say vinyls.

Sadly, they had been abused by the postal service.

Inside the gatefold case was a poster.

A toetag with some information on, including my name missing the J in Hjort.

The toetag is on the totebag which holds…

… the evidence bag, which has…

… the t-shirt in it.

And when you unfold the t-shirt you find the stickers and pins.

For the first session I used a pair of really old PC speakers to hear what I was playing, but I wasn’t too happy with the result. On the second session, which was recorded yesterday, I used my earbuds. The downside of that was that I needed to keep the volume pretty low on both the digital recorder and the Monotron, in order to not damage my ears.

I’ll probably experiment more in getting the perfect volume, both for recording and playing. But in the meantime, listen to, and download, May 2nd and May 8th on SoundCloud.

I’ll most likely end up uploading “old” sessions to some cyberlocker, or even Archive.org, in the future since SoundCloud only allows 2 hours worth of sounds unless you pay.

Thanks to the alcohol I wasn’t nervous, or too impulsive. It was a real nice gig, though I wanted a bigger crowd.

And speaking of Reversed Obesity, I’ve previously mentioned that half of Definition was recorded while I was drunk. For better or worse, I don’t know. What I do know is that pretty much anything goes when alcohol and music making meets.

I remember one day in June of 2009, I had been out drinking with some friends and had gotten home around three in the morning. That year I was working on Year Of The Deer, and at the time I felt that the June track was missing something.

Why not add some drums to it, my intoxicated mind asked me. And that’s what I did as the alcohol was gradually wearing off and making me tired. I think it took me about an hour and a half to properly get those drums into the track, then I went to bed.

I woke up several hours later and had apparently forgotten to shut off the computer. It made me remember the changes I had made to the track. Luckily, it actually sounded good and it fit the rather eclectic track.

Other times I’ve poured myself a nice whiskey and made music, and it has sort of helped the sound I was going for, but then I wasn’t even close to being drunk or even slightly buzzed.

I don’t need to drink to get inspired, it only tends to garble what I’m trying to do. And as for playing live, I think I’ll stick to doing it sober. When I need to be in control, it’s just stupid to drink something that makes you lose control.

That said though, there’s nothing wrong with drinking a beer and listening to your own music.

Click image for full-size.