The record was a great pleasure to mix and I was given the time to fully delve into extending the sounds and creating rich and dense sound stages.

Richard originally planned to release another EP, but soon realised that he had plenty of material to fill albums and so he went off to Wales with producer Snorre Bergerud to track 11 songs. The diary of the sessions you can follow here.

Snorre’s work on the album let to colourful arrangements of Richard’s songwriting, which includes pop-rock and singer-songwriter aspects and a track inspired by electronic artist Fennesz.

Lightly played cymbal patters and exploding drums, lyrical and scratchy acoustic guitars and muted and distorted bass lines build the backing to Richard’s main vocals and harmonies. All harmonic sounds of the album are recorded using guitar sounds, largely extending the range of the ‘typical’ electric guitar sounds used in production.

I found myself creating sounds out of the source material, which would push the individual parts of a song further into their intended direction and see Snorre’s production vision to the end. By reamping nearly everything I was able to introduce a nice depth and harmonic ‘gel’ to the mix. I also continued with my new passion for reverbs, which already emerged when mixing the Alice Klar album.

Hopefully I will be able to put a few sounds of the record into this post very soon. Once again, I have been at Whitewood Recording Studio to mix the record, where I have setup all of my mixing and recording equipment as a residency for the foreseeable future.

The question of how and where to mix Alice Klar’s Record comprising 12 songs was more difficult to ask then what may usually be the case.

A vast range of ideas from different periods of songwriting was to be put together and the responsibilities of family life had to also take priority. It so proved as an advantage to some that the producer’s family got stuck in holidays because of an erupting volcano!

Mixing requires a lot of attention and I prefer the producers to be in the room if possible. Email, Skype, Server technology and the likes are great, but when the producer and/or artist is in the room, suddenly the arrangements get refined and added to, parts re-recorded and changed and everything is instant. That I think is really fun when mixing and this was the case with my close friend, producer and songwriter Christian Badzura of Alice Klar.

We started the mixes at The Chairworks, but ran into time constraints and the mixing process was put on hold. Meanwhile the songwriting continued and the break was actually of advantage, because some of the best songs were written then.

When it was finally time to finish the album, Chris Badzura and I thought long about how and where the budget would be spent best and the logistics of mixing it on a large frame console such as The Chairwork’s SSL.

Mixing at Whitewood

We wanted great flexibility and it needed to be happening in Liverpool for above mentioned reasons. It was then that I suggested to equip my own mixing setup to gain the ‘SSL-Sound’ and lock ourselves into Whitewood Recording Studio, located right next to Badzura’s production and songwriting room and 5min away from our homes.

I was confident that the results would be great and it indeed proved to be the best solution – with, well, great results. This sparked an ongoing working relationship with Whitewood, which is run by Rob Whitely and Danny Woodward, hence the name. You can read more about this here» .

The sound to the Alice Klar record

Moving on from the technicalities I would describe the sound of the Record as electronic synths pop including electronic synths pop ballads, which were a particular favorite of mine in the mixing process. My newly found love for reverb emerged mixing tracks such as ‘Don’t Turn Around’ and ‘Pagoda Red’.

Throughout the album I followed the concept of glassy or icy vocal sounds with clear reverbs accompanied by round Moog bass sounds and drum programmings. To state the obvious: it’s all about the bass!

We developed a steady workflow and Chris Badzura was able to improve the arrangements on the fly by adding and changing synths sounds, mostly discretely but with great impact. Mixing reveals those moments in a song where small additional parts can help the energies that influence the listener so much.

Hopefully I can add some tracks to this post soon.

“Breathtaking and moving” … The Youtube community feels this version of the New Moon Film Theme by Alexadre Desplat, combined with Lykke Li’s song ‘Possibility’. Interpreted by Alice Klar during a recording session for their debut album. We are delighted with the large response and comments from all over the world.

Irish rock band Gorbachov has finally unleashed the debut album “Can’t start the Machine” onto the net-world stage. It can be listen to in full using the Soundcloud player above.

I’m really into all the sounds and ideas we’ve put onto the record. Keeping it straight forward, but every song has its nuances. My favorites are Friends, Mr Fahrenheit and People Skills, they make such a great middle section of the album. But the more you listen to the album the better all the tracks get. I also really like Brandan’s lyrics, which are all about places, people and situations.

I mixed the track Sophia of the eagerly awaited album 4hero presents Extensions, which can be heard below. The original track is from 4hero’s Play with the changes album. The Liverpool Session Orchestra performed the strings with Christian Badzura’s arrangement being dynamic and soulful, keeping the sweetness of the original but with a 1970’s funky disco groove driving the rhythm section.

This is what 4hero says

“4hero present a compilation of original previously unreleased cover versions of their music, reinterpreted by a selection of hand picked artists. When presented with the idea of doing another remix album they felt a need to do something new and fresh, rather than calling up the usual remix suspects and getting dance floor club mixes 4hero have put together an album that would happily sit on the shelf of a 4hero fan.

For this project they’ve sought out a range of forward thinking outfits, orchestra’s & producers including some new discoveries to cover their music. 4hero played their part in the music supervision including some recording, mixing and co producing tracks on the album making the project that much more special to the 4hero fan base. The result is cinematic and dynamic in structure and styles. 4hero are well known for pioneering new electronic music genres including Jungle/D&B, Broken Beat and Nu Jazz. The “Extensions” recordings are the best way to define Nu Jazz.”

Reviews

• Read the BBC review here»

Preview the 4hero Extensions album

The album release is on 26th October 2009. 4hero kindly provides a player to share so you can listen to excerpts of the entire album below including a nice animation. A very orchestral and open sound provides a breeze of summer freshness, ideal to get you through the winter times of 09/10. ! So Hildebrand suggests…

1. Universal Love – Sonar Kollektiv Orchester
2. Why don’t you talk? – Nu Tropic
3. Conceptions – Landau Orchestra
4. Planeteria – Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson
5. Third Stream – Robert Mitchell 3io
6. Give In – Ayanna Witter Johnson
7. Blank Cells – Luke Parkhouse with The Sharkfood Orchestra
8. Sophia – Christian Badzura & Liverpool Session Orchestra
9. Cosmic Tree – Andre Zimma vs YeSolar feat Oezlem
10. People Always Criticize Us – Vince Vella’s Cuban Collective
11. Humans – The Sub Ensemble
12. Star Chasers – RE:JAZZ

Listen to the original 4hero albums on LastFM

Recommended books … Additional reading

From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz

Mark Cotgrove, 2009