Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Dream in the Pipeline + Making of…

One of the things I try to do when I make music is to only take in a minimum amount of what goes on in the genre I’m currently delving into. I listen to something to get a feel of what house is like these days, find something I like and get inspired by, avoid listening to it for some time and then get to work.
Instead I tend to draw my influences from other genres, like trying to combine various things from a variety of genres into something that’s not exactly like any of it.

Right now, I’m working on new material, both for a more personal organic album under my own name - Jonatan Bäckelie - but also new material as Ernesto, not unlike that album may be an Ernesto & The Infiltrators album. For this I’m letting Nils (Krogh) and Alex (Berg aka Cloud and 1/2 of Tennishero) do the main bulk of the beats work, while focusing myself on the vocal part. For this project, I’m letting my main inspiration come from ultra-slick r&b singer The-Dream. His album is very synthethic, very melodic and very un-organic sounding. Far from any neptunes guitars and real drums. But the synthesized feel of this album, including the feel over the vocal arrangements, have sent me writing and teaming up with new voice abusing gadgets in the studio. At some point you’ll hear some results here.

I thought I’d demonstrate what I talked about above aswell - with a compilation CD I put together as a christmas present for a friend. I call this CD “The Making of ‘Where Did You Go?’” and is basically the musical universe from which I conjured up that song for my Find The Form album.

1. Bill Evans & Claus Ogerman “Symbiosis 1st movement”
2. Bill Evans & Claus Ogerman “Symbiosis 2nd movement”
3. Chet Baker “My Funny Valentine”
4. Lewis Taylor “Bittersweet”
5. Squarepusher “I wish you could talk”
6. Boards of Canada “Dayvan Cowboy”
7. Everything But The Girl “Before Today”
8. Flying Lotus “Tea Leaf Dancers”*
9. Michael Jackson “Beat It”
10. The Postal Service “Such Great Heights”
11. Burial “Archangel”*
–
12. Ernesto “Where Did You Go?”

* = I hadn’t heard those two when I wrote the song, but they sit well with the entire “musical universe”

Bestest!

/Jonatan, 106 days from being a father

Posted by Jonatan at 10:55:13 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Best of 2008


A little early for summaries of the year past, you say? Well, I agree, but I just gotta write a few lines about my last tour in Poland, and my gig in City Hall in Sczcecin in particular!


Brick ceiling, not unlike my Nefertiti in my hometown.



This time around (my eights time perhaps, I’ve lost count) I was in Sopot, Warsaw and Szczecin (now there’s a world record in consonant right there), and I have to say; the club City Hall in Szczecin was no doubt the best gig I’ve done so far this year! The crowd was absolutely fantastic, enthusiastic, open, smiling, dancing and singing along. I simply can’t wait to come back.


(Nordic Voice; Aparently I have specific scandinavian tonsils.)


Architechs in Sopot sometimes work without a spirit level. (The photo has not been manipulated, just look at the flags, the door and the tree!)


Congratulations, I’m still in the running towards becoming Warsaw’s next top model.


Also, I must not forget to mention the small Italian restaurant I went to (with a destroyed Robert Busha) in Stargart (close to Sczecin). It doesn’t get much more Italian than the chef himself!

Thanks Tomek, Robert, Kris & co for bringing me over. I can’t wait to come back!

/Jonatan, 116 days from becoming a dad.

Posted by Jonatan at 14:50:23 | Permalink | No Comments »

Friday, May 2, 2008

Salmon, Saffron & Dill Risotto

Today I made one of my signature dishes. It was a long time since I did it last. It’s a salmon, saffron and dill risotto.

A pretty basic breakdown - serves aprox 4.
is one chopped onion, two garlic cloves, sweat it down in butter
add 3 dl arborio rice and fish stock to cover.
add saffron, dill and tomato puree and a splash of white wine.
cook it until about half time (10 minutes), constantly adding more stock and white wine when needed (use aprox 3 dl wine and 5 dl stock in total).
Add the salmon. Stir constantly and taste contiously to see when the rice has softened somewhat but not completely.
When this happens, add about 2 dl of grated parmesan and some black pepper.
Once the cheese has melted (takes about 30 seconds) you’re done!

Be careful not to season with salt beforehand as the stock is salty and the parmesan adds a lot of salt in the end. If you want to add salt, wait until after you’ve added the cheese!

I rarely give a detailed description of my dishes like this, because I do a lot of it just by feeling my way - but this I’ve done so many times so this is probably an pretty accurate account.

Hope you like it.

For dessert I did, together with my girlfriend Miriam, a walnut infused chevre (goatcheese) icecream with honey glazed pears.

Posted by Jonatan at 21:38:25 | Permalink | No Comments »