Features » Track By Track » Blomfelt – ‘i’m interested in apathy’

Blomfelt – ‘i’m interested in apathy’

Blomfelt takes us through his album ‘i’m interested in apathy’.

Beyond the music, Blomfelt also co-founded Resolution, a production team and a research collective delving into audiovisual music and intricate soundscapes through surround sound diffusions and multichannel visual setups.

The group has hosted everything from acousmatic music listening sessions to customized surround sound performances, panel discussions, and warehouse club nights. A highlight for the group was when they produced a stage at the RedBull London Music Festival in 2019, together with Object Blue and Aya. The group also promoted events which featured the likes of Loraine James and Minor Science.

It’s no wonder Blomfelt takes a very thoughtful approach to his music, in particular the sound of his music. In his following Track by Track, the Finnish native, via Switzerland, provides a wealth of valuable production insight.

A New Form

I started the idea of this track back in 2016. Last year, I came back to it and decided to finish it.

I started with the drums, using one-shot breakbeat samples, which I dissected and put together again at a slower tempo. I wanted to have the feel of a breakbeat pattern but dissected to fit a slower tempo. Retexturizing elements at a different tempo can be quite fun as it gives you a new perspective on the sound, especially if you’re pitch-shifting it as well.

My favorite part of the track has to be the synth line, which comes in later. It’s a synth sound from Omnisphere that has been velocity-mapped to the cutoff of the filter. It’s a simple but fun way to humanize and add movement to your synths, especially if you record yourself playing it manually.

Usually, I use Omnisphere for strings or more orchestral/cinematic sounds, but in this case, this synth sound had me hooked. If you’re using Omnisphere, I highly recommend playing around with The Orb SFX to give your sound some organic movement.

Second Life

This track started with the rolling high hats in the background. I then paired that sound with the main synth melody, which stays throughout the track.

I layered the beginning with a field recording with my Zoom H5n of myself walking into a cafe in Lapland, Finland. I tend to slip in field recordings into sections of tracks as a sort of easter egg. It’s a great way to add something personal, as well as a layer of depth to tracks.

My favorite part of this track is the breaks before the “drop”. I used strings from Omnisphere to create a cinematic feeling and open up the track in that section before bringing it back together quickly thereafter. I find playing with the opening and closing depth dynamics to build and release tension very effective. A good way to explore this is by playing around with your reverb mix in sections of your track.

The piece also starts in mono, and as the piano playing settles, it slowly opens up into stereo - I really love the contrast that playing around with mono and stereo can provide.

A Vision

I began working on this right after watching the film “Paris, Texas” drawing inspiration from an image of Travis standing in a green-lit parking lot.

Initially, I thought it would be an ambient track. But it evolved quite a bit as I changed the tempo and added percussion. Ultimately, I was a bit uncertain whether the final outcome truly captured the essence of the initial imagery.

I wanted to make a track that moves and evolves constantly, using small breaks and pauses. Ross From Friends is a real champion of this.

My favorite part is the ending. I created a melody of a pluck sound, which I made using Xfer’s Serum. I then duplicated it and ran one through GRM Tools Freeze, GRM Tools delay, and added some filter automation. The end result is a nice layered effect.

Swim

This one was all about exploring texture with my Sony TXS-580V Stereo Cassette Recorder. It also features one of my favorite plugins of all time, Scrubby by Destroy FX.

I took a piano and xylophone recording of a friend and recorded them both onto a tape cassette, which I then resampled into Ableton and ran through Scrubby alongside some other SFX.

The piece also starts in mono, and as the piano playing settles, it slowly opens up into stereo – I really love the contrast that playing around with mono and stereo can provide.

Eira

For Eira, I wanted the drums to be the main focus, with the synth more in the background. I was massively inspired by the track “The Bot” by Shed, which you can definitely hear!

The drum bus on Eira runs through multiple iterations of Soundtoys Phasemistress, all activating at separate instances, which gives the drum’s movement.

I use that plugin a lot on drums as a send and find it to be a great tool to give your drums some added grit.

Apathy

This was the first track I made that made me want to develop a more complete body of work to accompany this type of sound, hence why it references the album title.

It started off with the drum loop, which I made referencing Overmono’s track “Yell0w_Tail” on AD 93. I was really inspired by how upfront, compressed, and dry the drums on that track sounded and wanted something similar. It developed into something a bit different, which I am glad about, but that track was definitely an important initial inspiration.

Release

This was the last track I made for the album. The main synth sound is made using KV331 Audio’s SynthMaster, one of my favorite plugins. I really love the sound engine and use it a lot. I can’t recommend it enough.

A fun thing I did on this track was make use of my Korg Kaoss Pad KP3. Although it’s really fun to use live, I also tend to use it as for SFX in the studio. In this case I took my whole drum bus and ran it through my Kaoss Pad and recored a long take, jamming with different effects.

Afterwards, I listened back over the take, picked out small sections, and placed them back into my track. It’s a really intuitive and fun way to add SFX and depth to your drums.

An Ending

This one is a really simple two-chord progression loop I made using Arturia’s Solina Eminent BV Solina String Ensemble emulation. I wanted people to be able to experience the full album in an organic way from beginning to end, so it was important for me to find a fitting way to end the album.

My goal was to make something very stripped-back and simple that would loop. I find there’s a real art in creating a simple loop that doesn’t get boring over time and stays interesting. An example I always think of for this is Daniel Avery’s “Visible Gravity,” his ambient track, which samples Hiroki Kikuta.

It’s one of my favorite tracks of all time – a short loop that repeats but gradually evolves over the course of 48 minutes. It’s definitely worth a listen and a great track to fall asleep to!