April 24 – Roadburn 2023
What an experience!
Expectations were high due to all the good times we had last year with « Final Light », but I have no problem to admit that this year’s edition managed to overpower that simply on all levels.
I specifically wanted to spend more than 24h on site this time, and my wish got granted in the best possible way: Not only did I get the chance to TM/mix Julie Christmas’s project (and through that rehearse on site), but I also got to mix two shows for Deafheaven (also with some grand local rehearsals), plus I stayed one more day to help deliver Ken Mode‘s sonic kick to the shins.
100% of the local and band crew I got to work/spend time with were a delight (be it back office, tech and/or production), all musicians were on point as well as all around great and fun hangs, some of the shows I got to catch were just stellar, and finally all people, friends, fans, teams I met/was I able to chat/have a few drinks with were wonderful.
Being able to have my own desk set up in the same spot for multiple days at the 013 and mixing into the massive Adamson rig was mad fun, the same goes for getting to toy with the DiGiCo Quantum and the killer D&B rig at the Terminal – plus the tech support I got on site was on point.
Honestly, Roadburn felt like a playground for my wildest live show dreams, I can’t thank the bands but also Walter and Becky plus their team enough for letting me live my best life within their marvellous little universe.
All the feels, all the love, and a few tear jerkers in between.
April 02 – Cult of Luna in the books
And there it is – Yet another project that finally came to fruition after being on hold for way too long.
Lengthy days and longer nights, a sweet line up, great human beings, half the shows sold out, nerding out with the Soundgirls participants, welcoming local crews, many friends in the crowds, and quite the step up in local catering made this run one to remember. Personally I would’ve loved to have a bit more time on hand for regular chit chat and actual hangs, but that’ll just have to wait until next time.
(Also, I need to re-introduce mid show bananas.)
Merci Cult of Luna, yet again it’s been a pleasure to provide tour management and mix these live shows. What a band!
Thanks to all the bands and crews, managements & agencies, promoters & reps, local staff, plus all the ~15’000 fans and friends who came out – More, soon!
January 23 – New GGGOLDDD tour!
Gonna be out in May with GGGOLDDD all over EU/UK, to play a few banging shows supporting mighty Mono.
Can’t wait, should be a good one!
May 6 / PL Krakow / Kamienna12
May 7 / PL Warsaw / Proxima
May 8 / PL Gdansk / Drizzly Grizzly
May 9 / CZ Prague / Underdogs
May 10 / CZ Brno / Fleda
May 11 / HU Budapest / Instant Club
May 12 / RO Cluj-Napoca / Form Space
May 13 / RO Bucharest / Quantic
May 15 / SI Ljubljana / Kino Siska
May 16 / IT Bologna / Teatro Perla
May 17 / IT Milan / Santeria Toscana
May 18 / CH Winterthur / Salzhaus
May 19 / NL Maastricht / Muziekgieterij
May 20 / BE Ghent / Dunk! Festival
May 22 / DE Aschaffenburg / Colos-Saal
May 23 / DE Munich / Technikum
May 24 / DE Dresden / Beatpol
May 25 / DE Dortmund / Junkyard
May 26 / FR Metz / Young Team Festival@ Aerogare
May 27 / NL Utrecht / Tivoli Pandora
May 29 / UK Frome / Cheese & Grain
May 30 / UK Brighton / Chalk
May 31 / UK Nottingham / Rescue Rooms
Jun 1 / UK Bristol / Trinity
Jun 2 / UK Norwich / Arts Centre
December 19 – GGGOLDDD in France
Last weekender of the year, happy to see these intense few months coming to a close in the wonderful company of GGGOLDDD at CCM/Limoges and Bataclan/Paris – We started out working together this year in Paris, so it’s a great full cycle type moment to high five in the same city to an even bigger crowd – merci, bedankt dat je me hebt!
Ps: all hail bumping into rad people. It’s the best. ❤️
#gggolddd #thisshameshouldnotbemine #taslafrite #windje
December 18 – Live recording session
Spent these last few days engineering a live session with Fall Of Leviathan – It’s a treat to be able to sit in the same room and watch things come together piece by piece. Congrats for the great work, we got ourselves a record!
#fallofleviathan #bikinitest #recording #livesession
November 21 – Norna in SE/DK
And that’s that for a weekender with Norna alongside Burst and Per Wiberg. Had a blast stomping Stockholm, Copenhague and Gothenburg into the ground – I truly believe the heavy was delivered, properly.
Ps: high five to all acquaintances we’ve bumped into along the road!
#norna #tourtolive #livemusic #starisway #wayiseye
November 19 – Studio update, Euclidean
Currently busy conjuring up extra dimensional black metal wormholes with Euclidean – keeping it simple & spending the spare time messing about with pedals and amps is really all I want in life 🎉.
November 10 – End of tour with Norna & This Gift Is A Curse
And that’s another two weeks of touring in the box!
Thanks to Norna and This Gift Is A Curse for having me, this round of north/eastern and central European shows had its fair share of mad highlights – Glad we got to end this with a few dope CH-shows on top.
It’s been a treat to spend such good hours in the company of these fine peeps, plus getting to catch Norna summoning the doom and TGIAC opening otherwordly portals to hellish nightmare worlds will be a cherished memory.
Ps: Bonus points for a month of mvp drumming to Mr. Augustin « But He Hits So Hard / Första », going from 90’ minutes of post metal to 50’ of black metal/sludge is an astounding feat.
October 29 – End of tour with Cult of Luna
And then there’s that – Three years in the making, and all of the sudden in the past already.
This tour was at least partially responsible for my mental and emotional stability during Covid, touching base with all involved parties every other month and trying to stay sharp with the potential of it all actually manifesting was part of the necessary silver lining in all of that chaos. So the first heartfelt thanks go out to @cultofluna for this project, not sure where I’d be without it – tack så mycket!
Of course many high fives to our crew, new and old – It’s been a treat, super happy this has worked out in the best possible way!
Same goes for our partners near and far, thanks for sticking to the project during this long and dire period.
And finally also a shout out to both supports Caspian and Birds In Row and their crews for being not only great bands and human specimens, but also good sports in many weird situations.
It’s been an adventure, and it felt like home quicker than expected ❤️.
August 21 – Motocultor with Cult of Luna
Motocultor properly punched in the teeth! That was that for the festival run with Cult of Luna – Tough to reboot after 2.5 years, but we made it happen. Much love to this band and the crew for going at it with all their might – More of this in October, all over Europe!
Also, glad to have bumped into so many wonderful people – many hugs & high fives were distributed, let’s make sure we amp this up next time!
#cultofluna #tourtolive #livemusic
August 19 – Arctangent with Cult of Luna
Massive show last night at Arctangent – not without issues, but we smashed it none the less. Also, so many good people around I didn‘t even get to high five… let‘s make the next count even more!
#cultofluna #tourtolive #livemusic #arctangent
August 17 – Cult of Luna and Norna in Finland
Quick weekender in Oulu/Finland with Cult of Luna and Norna at the North of Hell-Festival – Also bumped into some greats along the way, high five to @chrissyboyisinthehouse @mel_cleal @paulseideldrums and everyone else.
Special mention for all the crews who made these shows happen, not an easy one.
Next up: UK & FR!
August 10 – Myrkur live shows
A few weeks ago I got to do some shows with @myrkurmyrkur for the ‘Folkesange’ run – These were super tricky performances, due to the nature of the very fragile and seldomly easy to tune instruments, as well as some of the festivals having all gear set up to metal band standards… but somehow we pulled it off.
The highlight was clearly the last gig, as we got to do the show at the beautiful Taborkirche in Leipzig. Here, everything pretty much fell into place by itself, even with some last minute lineup changes – All hail the art of improv, great songs and a peak line up!
July 25 – First Cult of Luna festival-show
Went to Romania, did a show.
Definitely one for the books, as it was not only the first Cult of Luna-gig in forever with partially new/temp crew, but also proper flight cancellation/delay, luggage-, and local gear-issues.
That being said, it felt glorious – Being able to play a part in the grand culmination of a 2.5 years slowly creeping crescendo was powerful, and it’s a treat to be able to share this with great human beings.
Mulțumesc, team CoL!
Ps: a world where we can randomly/sporadically bump into great people, is a world I’d be down for. Can we keep this going?
July 18 – Les Georges in the box!
Back from a full week as stage manager at Les Georges Festival. Pulling off an event six days under the scorching sun with the current live music industry throwing eccentricities our way was no small feat – Nevertheless this team made it a smooth ride. High fives to everyone and all included, couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome!
Pick of best CH-artist goes to Kush K, best international act was Noga Erez with a tight follow up by Algiers – Bonus moments were the appearance of pronouns in riders, randomly bumping into friends & acquaintances from close and far, my marvellous hosts Marco and Flo/Ana, Star Wars themed stage deco, power nap and churros life. Let’s go again!
June 16 – Festi’neuch wrapped
Festi’neuch 2022, what an experience.
To rebound from two years of uncertainty at this level of awesomeness was beyond expectations, being surrounded by wonderful human beings sure made it all the easier. Managing a 9000 cap tent stage is a feat that I couldn’t possibly have imagined myself doing just a few years ago – but here everything fell into place so quickly that there wasn’t even any room for doubt. We just made it happen, and it was glorious.
From the back office to the front of the stage, these fine people made all the difference in the world. Beaucoup d’amour sur vous!
#festineuch #festineuch2022 #chapiteau #tourtolive
May 22 – ’tis the season!
Alright, the festival season is official on!
Gonna make a bunch of noise and/or TM with Cult of Luna, GGGOLDDD, Myrkur, Norna, Psycho Weazel and more all over Europe and beyond, plus wreak some local havoc for Festi’neuch – Neuchâtel openair festival, Les Georges, and more.
If you’re around, high fives are in order. Potentially hugs as well. Also, espresso before/during/after?
Let’s go!
May 11 – Hook, Line & Sinker residency
Last week I got to sit down and fine tune Hook, Line and Sinker’s live show over a few days at le Nouveau Monde in Fribourg, and on Friday night the whole thing cumulated in a massive record release-show – It was a true pleasure to be able to work with all these fine people towards making sure the show was gonna be a success (incl. nerding out over amps & pedals, finding the gong sweet spot, and so on), plus heaps of fine peeps I hadn’t seen in a few years unexpectedly popped up as well. Merci for having me, all hail rough jazz!
April 30 – E-L-R & Abraham
Weekender No2 with @elr_band and @abrahamband is in the pocket, what a blast!
Coming back to regular shows with the help of such great people is just all around the best, thanks to @treibhaus / @bikini_test / @bergmalfestival for providing the platform we all needed. Bonus points to Beurre for joining saturday’s lineup, what a stunner of a show.
Next up: @iscbern this Thursday – Come on out!
Ps: I love mixing intriguing bands. Total privilege.
April 25 – James Kent & Johannes Persson at Roadburn 2022
Even though I only got to spend a very limited amount of time there, it’s been a true pleasure. I only realised later on that this was my first larger scale event in over 2.5 years, as on site the unending cathartic avalanche of great people from all over the globe, including well deserved high fives and deep felt hugs drowned out everything else – A solid reminder why we spend weeks, months and sometimes even years trying to make cool shit happen.
Hail team La Chaux-de-Fonds, Delémont, Martigny, Fribourg/Bulle, Bern, Olten, Zürich, Lyon, Paris, Brussels, California, Rotterdam and so on, all the personal friends, biz acquaintances, and everyone in between!
Of course this experience wouldn’t have been possible without the chance to mix @perturbatormusic & @howlwood ’s «Final Light» (Feat. @sinistre.abscission & Mehdi on double drummer duty) on the main stage, what a ripper of a show. This thing came together so organically, I don’t think I ever played such a small part in a live sound experience, and I’m completely fine with it.
Props to the rest of the live crew (@urb1234 and Quentin) as well as all further parties (@alexissevenier @thomaspetit_ @romlink @seb_reznyck ) for making this a very palpable thing – And of course Walter for the invitation, @beckylaverty and Koos for turning this into reality, and everyone else at Roadburn and the 013.
Only love.
Pic of me by @rubenfuchs
April 20 – E-L-R & Abraham
Finally got to get these E-L-R and Abraham shows on the road, what a blast!
More than two years in the making, glad to see these bands absolutely being worth every ounce of commitment all musicians, crew and venues brought to the table – Merci Caves du Manoir and Ebullition for being great hosts!
Next up: @treibhaus / @bikini_test / @bergmalfestival / @iscbern
April 12 – Yrre on the road
Finally got to spend some more quality quality time with the fine peeps in Yrre – These folks & this project are making the transition towards a world with live music quite a bit more magical. Thanks to Ebullition and SAS for having us!
📸 No3 by @anaplastie / No4 by @naser.ardelean
April 2nd – Rounded up!
Last month I was holed up with Abraham for a few days, working on their live show/making sure all phasers were set to stun, and we ended up celebrating the new album with a hefty release show at the Casino du Montbenon.
I think we’re coming up on twelve years of collaboration… What a ride! Even though a lot of times I get to wear multiple hats, it’s rare that I get to work on the album production, do live audio and also book the shows for the very same band. So far it’s a delight, can’t wait to take this thing here on the road – Thanks for having me!
Check out the routing for the upcoming CH-shows with E-L-R – Caves du Manoir, Ebullition, Treibhaus, Bikini Test, Werk21 and ISC will all be punched in the teeth. Let’s go!
March 24 – Incoming shows
A lot of things are brewing, most of all I’m happy that regular live shows are somewhat a thing again.
I’ll be out and about with fine peeps in GGGolddd for a few selected shows supporting Amenra in Europe, check out what they’re up to now:
I’ll be mixing the following shows:
SA/02. 04., Elysée Montmartre / Paris
MO/04. 04., Rockhal / Esch-sur-Alzette
TU/05. 04., Tivoli / Vredenburg
WE/06. 04., Essigfabrik / Cologne
TU/12. 04., Astra Kulturhaus / Berlin
February 21 – Norna in Oslo
Spent the weekend with Norna in Oslo, trying to make sure their first ever concert was up to expectations – Had a blast being back at the saddle of a loud show, can’t wait for this whole thing to pick up!
Thanks for having me Chris / Marc / Tomas and thanks to Vinter Records for setting this up.
January 10 – Meh Suff! Winter Festival
Had a blast working this festival in Zurich the past weekend.
Live shows, and especially festivals are hard to come by these days, so being able to dive in to the full 360° of joyous metal heads and quite some familiar faces under the current circumstances was all the more appreciated – Also, and as always, working with this team is just splendid all around.
All hail the pirate folk death grind ethno thrash black true metal gods, y’all are a mighty bunch.
Shot no2 by Gorka Photography
January 7 – New release: YRRE, ‘The VVitch’
The ciné concert thingy we did last year has turned into a very limited triple colored Vinyl, and it’s coming out on Hummus Records by the end of January – with a first track out now already!
Recording/Mix/Master by me, can’t wait until we bring this to the stage.
Ffo: Oranssi Pazuzu, Terra Tenebrosa, horror/thriller/supernatural vibes
(This has got to be the quickest turnaround of any production I’ve been involved with as of late – Three months in between the recording of the first note to the physical release!)
Check it out here:
And find the band on Instagram
December 10 – New project incoming
Last month saw another great project come to fruition: what started out as a one off thing/ciné concert for a movie-festival, appears to be becoming a full band – They basically re-arranged some tracks they had originally written for ‘The VVitch’, we tracked almost the whole thing live in a two day-session, Anna added her chaos on top, the album got mixed/mastered in three days, and it’s already off to the pressing plant.
Some of this music might see the light of day quite soon, now let’s cross our fingers that we get to do the ciné-concert a few more times – Follow @yrre_noise for updates!
Nerd-bonus: First time bringing out my LV1 rig to the studio, made both recording & monitoring heaps easier.
November 26 – New Promethee track!
The lads over in Promethee just released the second song featuring their new singer.
I engineered/tracked the drums on this, tracked the vocals, edited the whole song, did a fair amount of production work, and then Raph over at MyRoom Studios mixed/mastered the whole thing. Phasers set to kill!
October 11 – Second song from Abraham & Emilie Zoé
The second track of this great collab is now out too, definitely my fave – This beast just follows its own rules. Check it out!
Recording by Abraham and Emilie Zoé, some engineering by me, reamping by me and Jacques/Abraham, mix by me, master by Magnus Lindberg. Play it loud!
October 4 – Flashback
Randomly stumbled over these two pictures that I didn’t get to post on here before.
On August 20 I was at Venoge festival close to Lausanne/VD with Kadebostany, the after I was at Pitz Palü festival close to Geneva/GE with Future Faces. Two wildly different bands and concepts, but both equally intriguing to mix in a live setting. Plus, the synths need to be upfront, which is always fun.
Live music is the best.
September 17 – Reamping session for Herod
Spent a few days figuring out the guitar sound for Herod‘s upcoming album together with the band & Raph my and Félix‘s place – We ended up picking my trusty old 5150 for the basic sound, plus my ‘74 Carlsbro Twin for the B/‘end of the world’ rig, plus of course we wrangled everything through some darn crazy pedals.The result was steamy with a fair amount of nastiness in there, so that’s a ten out of ten.This album is going to rip your face off… just sayin’
September 15 – Last festival of the season
Took care of monitors at Meh Suff!-festival last weekend, twenty bands over two days – what a treat!It’s been exactly two years and one week since the last edition, so we made sure an extra ball was had.
Bumped into many wonderful folks for the first time in ages again, unfortunately missed out on a few as well – But we all got to witness astounding performances by the likes of Asphyx, Nifelheim, Rotting Christ, and many more, so who am I to complain.
Bonus points for the first circle pit in years, plus all the bands that sounded like their records from the very first note played with minimal technical intervention – Absolute bonkers to watch this happen right in front of your ears/eyes.
August 30 – New release, Abraham ft. Emilie Zoé!
This has been in the making for a while, one day maybe the peeps involved will tell the whole story of how this track came about, for now all I can do is provide technical info…
Drums tracked at Bikini Test, G/B/V/ODs by the band and EZ, reamping by me and Jakk, mix/additional chaos by me, master by Magnus Lindberg Productions.I distinctly remember importing these tracks, bringing up the faders, and being floored by the song. Sometimes things just make sense.
Video by Sandrine Gutierrez Grise.
>> Out on Instagram | Facebook
August 29 – New release, Operation Blockhead!
Let me see If I get this right:
– Song & performance by Jim / Jonathan / Andy
– Drums tracked at Studio De La Fonderie / Fribourg
– Overdubs: Percussion by Félix / Rhodes & Organ by Antoine / Improvised three part harmony violin solo by Mélodie / Guitars by me
– Engineered / Produced / Mixed by me
– Master by Serge Morattel / REC Studio
– Clip by Brunelle Gerber
July 31 – New release!
One of the first projects I had the pleasure to work on during the early weeks of the pandemic last year is now finally out: Murge’s new EP.
If you’re into nasty, HM2 oriented death, this might be your thing. Jam it louddddd!
This one was a bit tricky, as the original tracks needed quite the additional flavoring to get to the right spot. I ended up also reamping the guitars/bass, and then mixed & mastered the whole thing.
(Available on Bandcamp)
July 24 – First show with Kadebostany
We finally managed to bring Kadebostany’s new show to the stage – And fought the weather and other unnecessary surprises along with it. Good times in Bienne!
July 19 – Les Georges festival packed up
Still feels like a parallel universe experience, but we just packed up Les Georges 2021 – The first « larger scale » outdoor event in almost two years for me.
Not sure I’m finding the proper words here, but the joy of rolling cases and risers in and out, building up touring kits, figuring out last minute kinks, bumping into friends from near and far, and of course collectively experiencing live music, that still beats most things that there are – The universe made sense again for a few days.
Merci l’équipe, es isch super gsi, when is the next load in?
July 18th – New release!
What Aleph Said just released their new album over on Fluttery Records – Check it out if you’re up for instrumental post rock type shenanigans. Bonus points if the live vibe is your thing.
The whole album was tracked live over four days, edited, re-amped and mixed by me, and then finally mastered by Magnus Lindberg – I’ll always love enhancing live-sessions with subtle stuff, we invested quite the detail work into tweaking pedals and amps. Check it out!
July 5th – Tours
Cult of Luna finally announced what’s going on, can’t wait to be back on the road!
July 2nd – New Promethee single «Spirits Fall» out now!
.April 21 – Live residency
Spent a few days in Geneva, trying to make sense of Future Faces‘ live show – pretty sure we succeeded, better come out this fall to make sure!
Also, check out their brand new album «Euphoria» while it’s still hot.
Bonus points for finally being able to simultaneously run Mainstage and multi tracking over Dante, digital networking is the best.
February 26 – Ciné concert
I heavily enjoyed starting work on a ciné concert that some crazy people around la Chaux-de-Fonds put together a little while ago for 2300 Plan 9 – Hopefully we get to do this live soon!
February 22 – Drum rec
Last week brought about another full circle moment: after almost ten years of mixing Abraham live, I finally got to chuck microphones at Dave‘s kit in the studio – it turned out to become a super smooth session with an adequate amount of mayhem thrown in here and there. Bonus points for finally going for the Tune Bot as well as a Drum Dial, happy to report these actually make life easier when used right. Tone for days!
January 05 – Reamping
This weekend, Jakk and myself spent a few soothing hours figuring out delightfully mischievous tones for Abraham‘s upcoming sonic assault.
Next up: Overdubs!
December 12 – Reamping fun
Spent the last ten days or so reamping with What Aleph Said and Malewicz plus tracking some additional vocals with Peace is Just a Break and just generally making a bunch of overall very weird sounds.
Of course the ever so important HM2 was brought up as well once or twice, so we basically keep ticking all the correct boxes here.
Next up: Recording overdubs, and a whole lot of mixing!
November 4 – Studio time
Heaps busy at the studio, the last few weeks were all about re-amping and tracking vocals for Peace is Just a Break and Operation Blockhead – I still found some time to shuffle files and prep new sessions for incoming projects, so not complaining.
Plus, and that one is definitely a bit unexpected: Working on 6+ projects at the same time actually helps me to focus, and also keeps perspectives fresh.
October 15 – Live performance
Got to do a great project at the Nouveau Monde last week – The Burden Remains celebrated the release of their new album/film with a ciné concert, and I went and made a few additionnal noises.
Being holed up at the studio all the time is fun, but the venue, staff, friends and the concert experience itself made me realize how badly I had actually been missing all of this.
I just love live music.
October 07 – Reamping session
Spent the last few days shuffling around a crazy amount of data, cleaning edits, exporting stems and what not, thankfully it led to what became quite the intense reamping-session for Operation Blockhead – Sculpting tones with all these toys available is equally fun, intense and rewarding, as long as a proper work vs. espresso balance is respected. I think we might have gotten that just right…
Next up at the studio: More files, and then palm mute galore with Peace is Just a Break!
September 31 – A live show!
Great to be back at the desk last night, at a festival none the less – Merci Promethee for having me over!
Ps: Saw quite a few faces I hadn’t seen for months. Y’all are beautiful.
September 24 – New The Burden Remains album
The full album just dropped, you can give it a spin right below, plus buy you digital or white vinyl-copy over on Bandcamp.
August 29 – New The Burden Remains clip/single
This one is an intriguing project… These guys wrote a full soundtrack for a 50′ movie, and it somehow turned out quite more post metal typ-ish than what they were up to in the past. I got to track drums, re-amp all guitars/bass, track a ton of overdubs, and finally also co-produce and mix the whole thing.
The first single/clip is out now, the full album will follow in a few weeks.
Check it out!
August 27 – Next drum recording
This week I got to track drums for Peace Is Just A Break’s upcoming new EP. I’ve already had the pleasure of working with these gents on their 2017 album «Little Boy», so launching up this project was easy.
We did proper pre-production work, I got listen to various stages of demos, and we made sure all things were as tidy and efficient as possible before even heading to the studio – An absolute fun part of the production work, and I’m always intrigued by how we can transform songs into possibly more intriguing versions.
For this recording, we used the band’s Pearl Export kit, Remo Emperor skins helped a great deal. Since this production is going be a little less roomy, I had a lot of spot mics in place, just to make sure all details got picked up in their full glory.
Check out the following pics!
August 22 – Live studio sessions
This week it was all about What Aleph Said‘s new album – Quite early on after having done some rehearsal room demos, we decided on a live-approach. Of course we had to do this at La Fonderie studios, the multiple rooms there helped making this much easier than anywhere else.
We tracked the drums in the big room, and while we also mic’d up bass & guitars for listen back-purposes, the main goal was to keep mostly the DI-sounds, and then re-amp these later, once some basic editing had been applied.
Very much happy with how the recording has turned out, here’s a few shots from the sessions:
August 11 – About last week
Things are moving on at a steady pace over here… Spent the week tracking vocals, gangshouts and strings with Operation Blockhead, while at the same time also looking after Abraham working on their next release.
We finally managed to link up Felix‘ downstairs creative space with my room, so now I can track remotely… Very cool upgrade indeed!
Here’s a few quick shots:
July 28 – A bit of insight: Promethee
While we’re still working away at this upcoming piece of heavy machinery, here’s a bit of insight into the drum-recording…
We took the extra half day to set up properly & make sure things were in place & sounded great, before we came into track – That way we could focus on the tasks at hand separately, which is always nice.
We ended up using Baptiste’s main live kit, with a homogeneous set of Zildjian cymbals. Since this time around the band wanted to go for a more atmosphere/ambient type sound, instead of the standard super tight & clean drums, the big room of the Blend Studio was a great choice – And we made sure to honour that with no less than six ambient mics… More on that down below, here’s the full list:
Kick: B91 / SM52
Snare: M201 / Neumann 185 on top, Shure beta57 on bottom
Toms: MD421s
OH: Coles 4038, ribbon love ftw
Hat/Ride/Splash: Mix of small diaphragm condensers
Ambi kick: AT4040 (Half a meter away, angled to the floor)
Ambi close/center of kit: R121
Ambi stereo far, front: C414
Ambi mono far, front: Misc. large diaphragm
Ambi mono ceiling: R121
So far, super excited about the combo of the Coles on overheads (Insanely detailed sound), the 121 at the center of the kit, and the C414s further away, plus the kick ambi mic is just super great to have.
There’s heaps of possibilities in here, and thankfully with a nicely tuned kit and a steady drummer, even the sound we have just for the production-stage/further recordings is already transitioning well, and also super close to what we were shooting for in the first place.
Guitars, bass and a few overdubs are already in the box as a type this, shooting for vocals now. More to come!
June 22 – New release: Norvhar
Hey folks,
Been quietly chiseling away at a few projects, and doing equal bits of recording, editing, tuning, mixing and mastering for some bands – So there’s that.
A new release has just seen the light of the day, Norvhar unveiled their first ever videclip for «Skyline of Fame» – The song has been partially tracked, and then edited/produced/mixed by me. Check it out here:
March 24 – New release!
Menura just released some live videos of the live show we recorded last year at Brasserie La Meute in La Chaux-de-Fonds – We tracked this show through an X32, and it was one of the first projects I mixed in my new room. Check it out!
March 20 – Post tour
Just came back from a 2.5 weeks trip over the big pond with Cult of Luna, incl. all the hot spots, and a one off in Mexico at the other end. Covid-chaos started to be a thing at the very end of this run, and we sort of surprisingly easily made our way out without any shows being cancelled, and/or flights being too chaotic.
Check out a few crappy shots!
February 24
Finally wrapped production on The Burden Remains’ upcoming album – This monolith of an album saw it’s conception over a year ago as a commissioned work for a festival, the band handled DI- and vocal-recordings, and I did everything else from drum- and overdub-recording, to re-amping, editing, production and mixing. What an absolute blast this was!
Off to mastering now, fingers crossed!
February 23 – Live shows
Finished a solid short run of shows with Herod just the other day – We had a blast playing at the Caves Du Manoir/Martigny, SAS/Delémont, Complexity Fest/Haarlem and Usine/Genève.
Here’s a few shots from those shows:
January 7 – Studio update
The last few days and weeks I‘ve been busy tracking drums, overdubs and reamping guitars and bass for the upcoming The Burden Remains albums, we managed to capture quite the proper range of mayhem over at both La Fonderie/Fribourg and Blend Studio/Lutry – Super excited about how this album is shaping up so far!
December 11 – Cult of Luna post tour
One month further down the line, one more tour over in this very busy 2019. Took Cult of Luna for a 2.5 weeks spin all over Europe, both TMing and handling monitor sound duties this time around. It was a great experience, seeing these calm Swedish gents absolutely crushing it every night with a great setlist, and an intense performance was the highlight of quite the easy going tour.
Bonus-points: Sold out shows at epic venues such as le Trianon/Paris, etc.
Here’s a few sidestage pics:
November 1 – Eluveitie post tour tech-recap
Back for a week now from this quite epic US tour, just in time for a short tech recap…
This was the first time out with a Waves LV1 desk, and I couldn’t be happier about the outcome – Thankfully this tour was super smooth with a great and dedicated crew, so it was easy to make sure the band was not only firing from all cylinders, but also that all sources sounded as great as they could, and tweaks could easily be applied when necessary. Which in turn meant I could go full mayhem with the desk right from the start.
I only had time to do half a setup day at a local studio before the tour, thanks to Antoine / Blend Studio and an older multitrack recording from Sven / Baum Haus Audio – So setting the rig up the first time two hours away from the soundcheck made me a little nervous, but it turned out to be a breeze… I actually had to call the rental company to figure out how to boot up (!), and everything worked seamlessly from there on – No configuration or network issues, drop outs or freezes, as it usually happens with new rigs or tech. The first show went down without a glitch, and within the next three gigs I was off programming snapshots, changing/tweaking plugins during the show, doing multitrack recordings, and fiddling around with virtual soundcheck, so that halfway through the tour we stopped doing soundchecks all together.
My worst experience was two temperature warnings (Hello there, Dallas and Ottawa!), but a bit more network buffer solved that issue quite quickly. Other than that I got to say… tech of the future, right there. Can’t wait to see where this is going from here on!
Ps: Of course also thanks to João and Alexander for all the info & talks!
#waves #lv1 #wavesemotion #waveslv1 #eluveitie #ategnatos #tourtolive @ New York
September 15 – Aaaaand goodbye summer!
Can’t believe this ride is already over, what a blast it has been.
Did another two festivals with Eluveitie, got to work at the annual Meh Suff! in Zurich (Mostly running monitors, but also mixing a few bands at FOH… Aborted coming through there was fun!), then did my last show with Aborted at Doomstar’s Bloodshed Fest in Eindhoven, and tracked drums for an upcoming single release with Norvhar. Times are flying, but I thoroughly enjoy all of this!
August 29 – New video premiere!
The gents in Akantha just release a new video through HxC World Wide, check out the clip to the song «Welcome To Hell» right here:
The upcoming EP was partially tracked by me, plus I did the reamping/mix/master. Killer project, glad to have been involved!
August 28, 2019 – Where did the summer go??
Geez, it’s been a month already since my last post? I see a pattern, damn!
Not like I haven’t been busy, so at least there’s that. Festival/Club-shows with Eluveitie, Cult Of Luna and Aborted went down, from Oya/Norway, over Wacken/Germany to Sylak/France and back again… Can’t complain, and it’s gonna come to a full stop pretty soon. Until then, here’s a batch of pictures from these shows!
July 29, 2019 – Off-shows w/ Aborted
Freshly back from a few off-shows with Aborted, plus a festival on Saturday – This was a sweaty week under the sign of no-AC-venues, can’t believe this is a thing in the summer… Plus we finished the quick run with a show at what has to be one of the worst festivals ever, Stonehenge in Steenwijk/NL. What matters is that we made it, but good lord… The amount of work that had to be put in it was definitely overwhelming.
July 22, 2019 – Rock Maraton/HU (w/ Aborted) & Les Georges-Festival/CH (Fribourg)
Another then day or so into this summer, and the speed of things just isn’t dropping:
Spent a day or so in Hungary, doing a one off with Aborted…
FOH after the very last blast beat. Good times.
After that, I spent a week at Les Georges-Festival in Fribourg/CH, overlooking six days of great shows in quite the unique spot.
Almost the full tech/stage crew (Pic by Diane Deschenaux)
July 7, 2019 – Resurrection Fest/Viveiro, ES (Cult Of Luna)
A single show for a weekend is a slow rhythm by any standards, but we managed to squeeze some proper beach time out of it, plus the show was killer.
View from the monitors, Johannes on the front subs
July 1, 2019 – Finland conquered!
Two shows from Cult Of Luna’s Finland-weekend, especially Saturday’s Provinssi festival was highly enjoyable…
Monitors at Tuska-Openair, Helsinki
FOH at Provinssi-Festival, somewhere up north.
June 24, 2019 – And it’s on!
Here’s some quick shots sort of summing up the last few weeks:
Festi’Neuch 2019/CH: Stagemanaging the «Chapiteau» mainstage for five days
Aborted live at Graspop Metal Meeting/BE, FOH & TM
Cult Of Luna at Hellfest/FR, Monitors
June 01, 2019 – These are two of the runs I’m doing this summer:
Cult Of Luna / Festivals
May 18: Park Sounds 2019 / Huskvarna, SE
June 1: FORTAROCK 2019 / Nijmegen, NL
June 21: Graspop Metal Meeting / Dessel, BE
June 22: Hellfest Open Air Festival / Clisson, FR
June 28: Tuska Open Air Metal Festival / Hellsinki, FI
June 29: Provinssi Festival / Seinäjoki, FI
July 6: RESURRECTION FEST / Viveiro, ES
August 7: Brutal Assault / Jaromer, CZ
August 8: Øyafestivalen 2019 / Oslo, NL
August 16: Rock Altitude 2019 / Le Locle, CH
August 17: ArcTanGent / Sommerset, UK
> Mainly doing mons on this run, but helping out on all ends. Stoked.
Aborted / Festivals & off-shows
June 14: Rock The Coast / Malaga, ES
June 20: Graspop / Dessel, BE
July 13: Rock Marathon / Balathon, HU
July 19: Bade In Blut / Weil Am Rhein, DE
July 20: Circolo Svolta / Milan, IT
July 22: Randal Club / Bratislava, SK
July 23: Rockhouse / Salzburg, AU
July 24: Free & Easy Fest / Munich, DE
July 26: From Hell / Erfurt, DE
July 27: Stonehenge / Steenwijk, NL
August 09: Brutal Assault / Jaromer (CZ)
August 10: Vagos Metal Fest / Vagos (PT)
August 11: Bloodstock / Derbyshire (UK)
August 12: Kulttempel / Oberhausen (DE)
August 13: Schlachthof / Wiesbaden (DE)
August 14: Kleiner Club / Saarbrücken (DE)
August 16: Summer Breeze / Dinkelsbühl (DE)
August 17: Frantic Fest / Francavilla Al Mare (IT)
August 18: Motocultor / Saint Nollf (FR)
August 22: Deathfeast / Andernrach (DE)
September 07: Meh Suff / Hüttikon (CH)
September 14: Bloodshed Fest / Eindhoven (NL)
> FOH & TM time, bring the blasts!
FIREANTMUSIC 