Who says that mermaids are always the nice creatures that sit on a rock and smile at you? Humans have their dark sides, maybe mermaids do too. Who knows what goes on in the depths of the sea?

This is one of the first tracks I started working on back in May 2020 when isolation hit and I decided to take up music production. Inspired by Lydmor's livestreams, I bought a keyboard with Ableton Live and began my journey.

Mermaids started with me following a tutorial on how to make your own Shimmerverb effect. And that is the backbone of the track. Three tracks with each their own sample taken from a sample pack by Luftrum. Would you believe me if I told you that the mermaid voices are actually a music box sample?
Later I added some effects and some chords here and there - sometimes just one a day. A process that was very liberating even if it meant longer time until final release.

Mermaids

303 meets soft pads. This track basically started with me sitting one Friday afternoon with the ABL-3 VST from AudioRealism loaded up in Ableton. I made a simple melody, mapped the filter cut off and resonance to my controller and then just jammed away, hence the name.

The spoken words are from a project Lydmor did with her fans in the spring of 2021. A patchwork of poetry everyone could add to but also remove or alter what was already there. I decided to give a new life to the paragraph I had contributed, with the alterations Lydmor had added.

The meaning of the words is basically that at the point of writing, it looked like the (first) lockdown was about to be over, the dull picture regaining it's colours. It was spring, I sat in my garden listening to music mixed with the ambience of nature and - as Lydmor somehow caught perfectly on to with her words - I mixed in and out of that state of mind.

303JAM

Imagine walking through a field in the summer, looking up to the sky both physically and mentally. Those light fluffy clouds and those that are a bit darker, maybe with a small rain shower in them. You let go of thoughts that trouble you, as you start running freely. That is what this track is supposed to convey. I hope I managed to succeed in that.
It started as a simple dub techno track, and has quite a bit of mid-low end and darker tones. The addition of the arp tries to balance this out, making the track more cheerful and uplifting. Chill-dub if you like.

Thanks to my friend Mirjam for suggesting the title. It fit right into my mindset of the track :)

Head in the Clouds

Head In The Clouds

When I finished my previous track Head in the Clouds, I felt I wasn't quite done with it. Especially the arpeggiator I added at the end of the proces, I kinda fell in love with. At the same time I started looking into a genre I listened to a lot back in the mid 90's: Psytrance.
I felt that it would be fun to create a remix almost completely different to the original. And here it is. I hope you like it :)

Head In The Clouds (PsyMix)

My take on a remix of Lydmor's song Soft Islands, originally released on the 'I Told You I'd Tell Them Our Story' album in 2018. Then re-imagined on her 2022 album 'Nimue' which featured a choir of Norwegian singers.

Lydmor herself has made some wild live mixes of both versions and I always wanted more of that. So when I got the chance to play with the Nimue version, I dove straight in.

It ended up a bit different than originally intended, mostly because of the choir and the differences in the vocal rhythm.
But still I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you agree :)

Soft Islands (Nimue version) - Obbekjaer Remix

Lydmor - Soft Islands (Nimue version) - Obbekjaer Remix

Music is my muse. I love listening to music as well as adding my own little sparks to the universe.

obbekjaer

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