Øresund Space Collective Jam 20- Black Tornado Studios, Copenhagen 10-11/3/06

This is our 2nd studio session and people are very excited about it. As always we will experiment with a different set up. I arrived over to the MM rehearsal space place at about 16 and only Michael and Magnus were there (listening to our last session in Malmö). Magnus was packing up his gear and Michael, he already had so he was just smoking... At 16:30, we started to kick into high gear and to move the stuff out of the room and up to the Black Tornado Studio (which is just upstairs). Around this time, the Swedes sent an SMS and were leaving Malmo. We were pretty ready. I had bought 2 cases of beer, søren, 6 1.5 liter bottles of coke, mogens and kasper a lot of bread and Michael and magnus bought like 600kr worth of food for the night and tomorrow, so we would not have to waste anytime going out for pizza or something. Lars arrived a bit before 5 and we had just started to move stuff into the studio recording room. We have a lot of gear, even more than last time.

18:00- Lars is setting up the mics on the drums and decides only to use 4, which is 3 less than last time. (Kick drum, two snare mics, overhead and one more).

It is starting look like at a concert in a way with the drums in the middle and Michael and magnus on the left, Sebastian on the right and all of us synth players at the back. We set up the Mantric Muse PA in the studio so it would be much more like playing at a live gig and people would not have to wear headphones. Only, ola, kasper and myself got sound via headphones (and also the PA). Only the synths were coming out of the PA and it appeared only to be a problem with Kasper's mics on the congas (so they were moved closer) and maybe a bit in the drum overhead mic but the sound was fantastic in the listening room.

20:07

Soundcheck for most of the instruments is finished now and we are working on the synths and getting this into the PA at the right levels, etc... We manage with 24 tracks but we really need a few more as it would be nice to have more on the drums and also to be able to play the OCtave Cat but there are no more channels unless Lars does some reconfiguring of his system. He said we were the first band ever to need more than 24 tracks! I am sensing that people are getting hungry and now high, after a lot of joints have been smoked but only a few beers drunk.

21:00

We finally get to give it a try, after a cool Iron Man jam. Sebastian spent an hour playing guitar or more to break in the new strings and warm up, playing some great stevie ray vaughn like blues with mogens on the grand piano and jocke on the bass... quite cool. IT was not recorded.

Kasper is having a lot of problems and magnus is too high and then too low and it is damn loud in the recording room but overall it is going well. We hafvlike a 13 min jam and then come and see how it sounds and if Lars is having any technical problems. Jocke is just hanging out now and will play on the next jam. He and Michael will switch back and forth.

Now, we go for it and record for about 37 mins more and play a jam with some really heavy riffing and ripping solos and totally far out synths. I think the synth players need to smoke more to get into the groove. 51 minutes recorded so far.

23:00 It is now 11 and I am starving to death. We all eat some food and then we really want to play some more. Lots of beers, more joints (skunk and hash), the peace pipe, and some coca cola and we are ready to fly again. The stuff we have recorded so far is sounding really excellent. Lars is an amazing studio tech.. Wow...

23:45

Now, we go into the room and people are feeling really high from the music and other things and we play for over 2 hrs more with some people coming and going and the music is really Krautrock like with stoned and hypnotic grooves and amazing synths... I think Ola really has his system going and Mogens is playing cool stuff and I really am happy with the sounds I have found and am modulating on. Very intense stuff and about 2 hrs recorded at this time point. I have trouble hearing the guitars when I wear the headphones but the synth sounds are so good in the headphones. I switch on and off. Both Sebastian and Magnus are playing some killer intense guitar. Jocke plays very smooth bass lines.

00:30

This next jam is very long, like 41 minutes straight. We have another jam without the drums that is very hypnotic with great dynamics between Michael, magnus and myself. Sebastian, søren, kasper, jocke, and mogens are not playing. IT goes on stoned for a long time but then søren plays some of kaspers strange noise devices and congas before moving back to the drums for one last jam. We finally after what seems like a long long time bring it up beat and Sebastian is back and so is mogens and we have a heavy ending jam.. Spaced out.. What a way to end the night.

1:37

Now we sit and hear a lot of the pieces and lars is mixing some of it down to 2" tape it seems? No, this was a just a test of his equipment. We all agree that we have some amazing stuff and it is more stoned that we thought it would be. That is what we do, so I am not surprised.

3:00 I go home and ola and Sebastian are almost asleep on the sofa and things are winding down. We meet again at 14:00 to start again fresh. A very successful day. I am guessing we have about 75 minutes or more of very good material from this first day or recording.

 

Day 2

1:30 I arrive at the MM rehearsal room and all the guys are sitting outside gettting fresh air and they had just taken a long walk and everyone is feeling great and psyhed up for today. We hang out in the MM rehearsal room and SMS Lars... He will be on time, so no problems. We have a little fun with a digeridoo, that no one can play quite right but makes great farting noses in the large echoy hall and Sebastian sings some swedish folk songs and plays the acoustic guitar.

14:00 Lars arrives and we are all hungry as all the food was left in the studio. People go straight for coffee and make some oatmeal and sandwiches and we hang out and talk while Søren and Sebastian are in warming up, playing for a while. It only takes about 30 mins before the first joints are rolled but everyone is ain a super mood and high about what went down yesterday and ready to step it up to the next level today! A little blues jam is going on with mogens on bass, kasper on congas, soren on drums and sebastian on guitar... cool... no being recorded.

15:00 We are almost ready but Lars is trying to set up a few new channels (we have used all 24 that he has and he has to do some special rigging to make more than 24 channels (we are the first band to record in his studio that has ever needed more!).

15:20 Still many problems with getting the grand piano mic talkingwith the computer. We have sound into the desk but not into the new channels created. Strange problem.. It is really too bad as this first morning chill out jam with the grand piano was really really cool and should have been recorded. SHit!!!!!!!!!!!!! Magnus is playing the coolest dreamy outerworld guitar! Oh well.. what can be done..

15:40 Now, we are set to start recording again but with out the grand piano channels. We spent almost an hour on this...

16:41 We just had a very cool jam that developed into two quite heavy parts and it was very hypnotic. IT took the guitars a long time to decide to take off but they did. Magnus totally ripped it up while Sebastian played all the rhythms. Jocke played awesome bass lines.. as always.... ¨We sit and hear 25mins of this jam.. SOund is amazing.. Thanks Lars!

18:16 Wow.. THis was the coolest jam that we have ever had with a long heavy part at the end and mogens rips off two killer lead synth solos. Wow and both guitars were on fire.... but...but..... the fucking ProTools shut down and Lars fell asleep, so the last 10 minutes or more of this jam was lost.... fuck fuck....we are pretty pissed as it was so amazing..... what the fuck can you do.... lets get stoned...

18:30 We decide we will have two more jams, one with Jocke and the last with Michael .Lars has fixed the software now so that if we play longer than an hour it won't shut off..We have recorded a bit over 5 hrs at this time point. We waste perhaps 30 more minutes as mogens, søren and ola are trying to get it figured out how to synch to sørens midiclock so the synths will play at the same speed. Did not get it to work, sadly... More joints now... and the peace pipe....

21:53 Wow... I am totally blown away as I was just transported to another galaxy during that last jam as michael played the most amazing bass lines and we played heavy, hypnotic and spaced out.. The best combination possible..... My head is in another place after that...... That is the end of the session. 6:53 min put down on 24 tracks...!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes.... 6 hrs and 53 minutes...

22:00 SOme of us are sitting with Lars and he has been mixing the last two jams down while we play and so we decide to make a rough mix of everything now as it is a hassle to not at least have this with us now as it takes 74.6 GB of space and Mogens will have to come by with the external hard disc and put these files on it so magnus can mix the pieces we decide are the best.

12:15 I am totally wasted tired band have been sitting mixing for 2 hrs, now I will go help clean up and pack up my gear, as the recording room is pretty much cleared out except for me and mogen's stuff. Looks good. Magnus takes over the mixing now.

2:00 We are finished with the rough mixes and now will burn the jams down to CD. Here is what we have:

CD1 Mix 1 12:47, Mix 2 51:04 (Michael)

CD2 Mix 3 36:36, Mix 4 14:40, Mix 5 12:44 (Jocke)

CD3 Mix6 11:28, Mix 7 33:20, Mix 10 26:07 (Michael)

CD4 Mix 8 44:59 (jocke) , Mix 11 24:25 (Michael)

CD5 Mix 9 47:22 (jocke)

CD6 mix 12 48:40 (michael)

6 hr 13min

I have made some notes of who played bass on what mixes... Hope this helps.. it was one of the most amazing weekends. I feel so privledged to live in this time and to make music with such wonderful people. We enjoy each other company so much and laugh and have a great time but most important, we are serious about trying to capture the coolest grooes and music that can be made at this moment in time. I think we succeeded and this new material will blow peoples minds....