Visual Diary of Joachim Falck-Hansen

This time around I want to get the spotlight on a friend of mine – Lars, a Norwegian singer knowns as Mr. Andresen. We have worked closely together over the last two-three years and it´s been one of the projects I´ve loved most working with. It´s been a nice mix of photography versus design work. Lars is inspiring to work with, he has much energy and passion in what he does; as I´ve learned him more I´ve been all the more immersed in his artistic world. It´s this reflective place where great songwriting is born.

Mr. Andresen released his first album in August 2009, and this is where we really got excited. For both of us, we wanted to create something special; detached from cliches and the shallow.

Over two different days, respectively January and March we had two shoots, there was snow on both occasions. The image above was the only 35mm used for the album art, as the majority was on the medium format front.

I´d been listening to the tracks a while before starting design work or the photographs. It helped feel the music for how to later portray the ambient and feel to the images.

From mrandresenmusic.com:

”A part of this puzzle” is a well composed record. It has a great flow, a large amount of catchy choruses and good guitarriffs, all accompanied by beautiful and melodic pianotunes. It is easy to get the vibe of years with perspectival development throughout this record, and surely this is something that Mr.Andresen will provide in the future. He is an out of the crowd-, interesting- and worth-listening-to – artist.

You can find the album ” A part of this puzzle” in record shops in Norway (platekompaniet), on spotify, last.fm and itunes. The music video for “Looking Back” is also online.

I promise you that you will hear his songs in a future not too distant.

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Finding music on the web is like going to a zoo as a kid – and wandering this universe by yourself. You want to hear/see every different kind of touch. Unguided you might end up with looking at the same animals for too long. I am doing this though for discovery. I have long wanted to share my taste, because you might as well discover something with me. What interests me as much as the music is usually how the visual language of the albums and material accompanied with it perform/act/speak. For this occasion though I might drop that and allow that more for single features. This time a variety of music that not necessarily is the freshest, but which simply is my discovery for the month of January. And if succesfully it fits the mood of this time. So let´s kick this off:

1. Bon Iver – Stacks (Thomas Barfod Remix)

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2. Lindstrøm and Christabelle – Baby Can´t Stop (Aeorplane Remix 128)

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3a.Lusine – twodots

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3b.Lusine – Still Frame remix 128

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3c. Lisine – Twilight

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4. Apparat- Komponent (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix 128)

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5. Vibrasphere- tierra azul

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6. The xx – Basic Space 128

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7. Casino Versus Japan – Blue Vacation Part 1

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8. Byrne and Brian Eno – Strange Overtones

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Further ado on this tracks

1. According to his myspace Thomas Barfod looks to be somewhat of a figure in Danish festivals and electro labels. The whole thing of posting music online is propelled/driven by the fact that people are remixing originals. Sometimes I think it goes overboard and there is a fine line between credit theft, but inasmuch as I cannot claim a big bite of knowledge on music production I will leave my hat off and appreciate the fact that music is being promoted, it should be credited and the more it gets appreciated this should aggregate the salesforce supporting the artist.

In this case the remix is of Bon Iver, a name that swims much around the music sea, some name I´d have connoted with traditional without having been an eager listener of him, but in this remix comination of danish ´pump refining´it falls of as pretty good stuff.

2.  Oslo fronting Lindstrom (short bio) twinkled with some Belgic Aeroplane culminates into this energetic track. Looks like Aeroplane is touring all over Australia the next months, it´s that summer hipster wave going on. This tracks has got attitude, swirling vocals, synth : a crossover between kid´s computer game world and fearless feminity fronting it.

via betterPropaganda

3.An impressive sound portfolio made this producer stand out. Lusine has played in Fabric London, and is currently working on the soundtrack for some feature film from what I read. If you are curious there is a short bio on the ghostly website, which is his label. Very pleasant!

4.  Berlin based Apparat opens up for a downtempo vocal infused track. I recognize his music from some GU labels, there is something about the vocals that is so desperate, yet so unworrying. I have a hard time to describe it, what I do know is that it is not cliche.

For the geeks, he works with his own tool created in MAX/MSP framework. Effects are controlled by midicontroller.

5. Uppsala duo vibrasphere deliver some trancy but interesting tune here.6. I could not find much info on these guys, but they seem to have a crazy world tour in front of them.

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Fuji Provia 400. January 2009. Photoshoot with my friend Lars. A prolonged entry with his album and the work soon.
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Visual artist Scott Hansen is balancing his talent out on his soundscapes; this track is just beautiful and good for your soul.

Coastal Brake by Scott Hansen

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There is not that much time for blogging this week; and maybe not next but I do hope to share small bits and pieces of inspiration and scans that I can get done as soon as possible.

Now if you haven´t heard of Scott Hansen / Tycho jump on over to his blog. I go there for inspiration or just finding good soundtracks to drive my day through. I´m late again for making this entry :p

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This Monday my team and I took off to Switzerland for project matters, and stayed in lugano 2 nights. We were met with a mild snowstorm on the roads of switzerland, just as we crossed from Austria all the way through San Bernandino, until the tranformation became the less favourable rain. The whole snowfield slowed us down, but it was adventurous nonetheless. The weather did get much better though and specially this morning was perfect. I woke up at 7ish, to go out for a morning jog by the lake, and figured I might as well do a little recording of the moment the sun was rising behind the massive mountains that really are the border to Italy.

Ulrich Schnauss playing subtly from the mac. This is Switzerland, probably the country with the highest standards globally, and also such captivating sceneries. I felt very lucky waking up to this. Might be sorta lengthy, i might make a speeded up version. And sorry about the stupid alarm clock :/

Lugano Dawn from Joachim on Vimeo.

For a case of few, electronica is presented with nature (only), and I find that very interesting. I think, that to feel the relation you should listen to the song (below artwork). So I don´t know if this song is part of this album, but I found some belongers here: Oder der letze grun and aurora.  Ironically these still feel very industrial, whereas I will put my faith in the other tracks that have a ´broader specter of happenings´. Hot Chip is quite good, thanks to the vocals and lucid touches.

From what is possible to find on Dominik, he grew up by the Rhine in southern Germany, and is supposedly a park ranger in his spare time. He looks strikingly similar to Bruno, or shall I say it´s the other way around?

Hot Chip – Dominic Eulberg

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It is honestly quite exciting to be able to share sounds via this space other than a little bit bulky soundcloud, and a much narrower library. I´ve found discodust and big stereo to be nice sources for browsing some quality sounds. So for a Friday being, treat your ears :)

This track reminds me very much of Spring 2008, when Anna and I were fascinated with air and it´s mood for just mindtravelling. Light and pure.

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06 My Time

By Au revoir simone, these girls have some very nice vocals, and it is an all round pleasant experience. Something for the courtyard on a hammock. Or a winterday in umeå ;)

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Another Likely Story (Social Disco Club Version) (Take 3)

Sweet transitions from dark to light moods; funny how this makes me think much of Pepe from ixd, i think he would like this progressive house quite a lot. The piano sounds brings it more to the surface I think.

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02-roberto_bosco-dub_piano

James Murphy from LCD Soudnsystem brings out a teaser for their upcoming album in March 2010. The track is a cover of an Alan Vega song from his 1981 debut album. I feel like it´s music with attitude, street style with the renaissance of ray-ban flavour.

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Bye Bye Bayou

Even having not been in Berlin at night, I can feel what this could do there.

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09_Paul_Kalkbrenner_-_Mango_Special Berlin Calling Edit

You can´t be without french electronic music! For me it is still somewhat of a new venture, my friend Rocky has inspired much with his musical taste; and what´s just as interesting  (in this age where production tools are basically based upon only having access to the internet, with a few tricks) is how these artists  represent themselves. There is something going on with basic polygons in this industry. The cover is quite elegant; makes you expect some trippy bass. Alan is an in-demand mixer it seems, and has done work for Royskopp and Justice, among others.

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Mix by Alan Braxe (former member of stardust – know for Music Sounds Better with you).