The Snake Decides - André Kassen / Jørn Erik Ahlsen, featuring Jan Bang and Erik Honoré

Aout - The Snake Decides feat. Jan Bang & Erik Honoré

Title song from a theater play for children called Måne & Stjerne (Moon and Star) made by Anette Askvik and Jørn Erik Ahlsen Alkanger. Photo: Lars Opstad

Måne & Stjerne

The 3rd Sunday Etude has been a pleasure to make! I have been working all week. It started with determining which sounds to use together with the ice delay on the Strymon Timeline, and then to make a musical piece with that colour, or flavor.

I use this sound a lot when recording to make soundscapes and add flavor to all kinds of music, and this week I have been working on making this sound stand alone and as the base for a short composition. It has been really fun researching this sound all week. Mostly I've been trying to make a free compositional form based on the musical flavors and colours.

I hope you enjoy it!

Check it out on youtube!

Pedals used this week: Strymon Timeline and UAD Reverberator. Amp: Fender Vibro Champ. Guitar: Vidar Moen Tele style.

DM me if you want to get an email every Sunday with some more explanation around the project!

The 3rd Sunday Etude

Already at number five of these small etudes. Sweet and simple melody with Electro Harmonix Super Ego as main effect to make the synth sound.

Guitar: Fender Telecaster, Amplifier: Fender Super Reverb, Pedals: EHX Super Ego, UAD Reverberator, Strymon Timeline, Lovepedal Kalamazoo.

Let me know what you think! :)

DM me if you want to get an email every Sunday with some more explanation around the project!

The 5th Sunday Etude

This week has been real busy. Monday was a day off, so crazy times at home, Tuesday I launched my podcast series Jazzfluenseren. A Norwegian podcast series where I interview musicians in jazz, and off jazz. Well, so I thought it would be a good idea to do something I'm already good at, since time was limited. So I came up with the idea to make a piece of music with a bow. Boy, was it hard... I have had at least one session every day, but when recording I found out that this was the hardest one till now. It's a nice sound, and it melts easily in with other musicians or actors, but on it's own was a huge challenge for me. And that is good. Hopefully I learned a lot of new things this week and I hope you enjoy!


The 6th Sunday Etude on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hqIPQ4O5t6Q
Talking The 6th Sunday Etude on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Gfl2VKllhGA

The 6th Sunday Etude

Here is the 7th etude in my project of making one etude every week. It is absolutely getting harder coming up with the ideas, I can really feel the path is getting more and more narrow, but I have a feeling it will open up and I will find a huge creative field after a while. We'll see... This time the main focus was to work with the guitar sound itself, and keeping the piece musically within pretty conventional limitations. Doing it like this exposes you and therefore it is a great way of working. Let me know what you think!

Find it on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzzgNgh_cgs8EyX2Wq9COcSgfhKF_Zm8n

The 7th Sunday Etude

For the eight week I have been working on using the whammy bar together with mostly natural harmonics. A lot of energy that needed to get out. Worked on the dynamics and structure. For more on that and hearing a black bird singing Giant Steps outside my house go to the Talking The 8th Sunday Etude video  here: https://youtu.be/3RIX4R3CNTQ

The 8th Sunday Etude

This is the 9th piece of music in my The Sunday Etudes series. My middle finger where hurting so bad that I had to cancel, or postpone my grandois plan for the etudes during summer.
But this was fun! Thanks to Markus Born for saying "Maybe it would give your injured finger a rest if you plan a slide-etude?", so I did. Together with the "Mud slide" I was using the reverse delay from Old Blood Noise and pitch mode in the Red Panda Particle pedal, using the freeze mode there.

Amp: 70s Vibro Champ. Guitar: Vidar Moen Tele style

The 9th Sunday Etude

This one is a special summer edition playing a totally composed piece of music. I sometimes get this dream of just sitting outdoors at a Swedish sea side restaurant playing nice melodic pieces on acoustic guitar while people are enjoying the summer and the music. So now and then I compose music for this dream, and this is one of them. Originally written for acoustic guitar, but it works great on electric, I think.
The 10th Sunday Etude on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j5-3t0cEW-8
Talking The 10th Sunday Etude on YouTube: https://youtu.be/58H6DfxkzV0

The 10th Sunday Etude

The 11th etude is continuing the dream of the Swedish west coast. I have taken a small detour from my electric solo album and recorded a small piece for acoustic guitar. I think it's a song, it might become a song one day.

The acoustic guitar is sometimes the most beautiful instrument in the world, and other times it feels completely useless, you know, when the note just dies and can't be heard, when it's impossible to tune, all the frustrations, but when it starts to sing there is nothing like it. It is like heaven made a sound. Haha, I don't know.

Guitar: Martin D-28, Capo: G7th Heritage

The 11th Sunday Etude

Here is an old one for you. This is a composition I made in Bohuslän in Sweden, inspired by the red granite islands, the ocean, the wind and people there. This is recorded in the heart of Bohuslän, and I am looking out at the scenery as I record this early in the morning.

The melody is kind of in the bass line, and in another version with fiddler Tuva Færden you can hear how she highlights the melody and in the most beautiful way how she develops the melody. You can hear that one here: https://soundcloud.com/jornerik-com/demobohuslan-wind-ocean

jornerik.com

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