Residency:
Anton Friisgaard

Last week, producer Anton Friisgaard was the first to enjoy his residency at Strøm Studios – Kapellet.

What do you think about the studio?
“It has been truly special to have an entire week with access to all this gear. They are iconic instruments, many of which have shaped modern music history, each in their own way. And many of them are almost impossible to get hold of. Each of the machines has its own little personality, so it’s exciting to get to know them and learn what they’re good at and what they struggle with. They have so much character.”

Which one was your favourite machine?
“The one I’ve probably played the most is the PPG Wave 2 (West Germany, 1981-82), which I believe is the first mass-produced digital synthesizer ever. When people talk about old synthesizers, they often mention how warm and organic their sound is – but this one sounds very non-human – almost misanthropic. Sometimes it doesn’t even sound like an instrument.”‘“And I have to mention the Korg Prophecy (Japan, 1995). It has a really sophisticated way of emulating real instruments. It’s pretty wild how true-to-life it sounds. It’s also insanely corny. This silver-plastic-sci-fi-looking keyboard. You can really tell it was made for shredding. It encourages you to have fun with it. That’s very refreshing.”

How hvae you spent your time, and how are you going to use this week’s work?
“I have made a lot of improvisations, where I’ve ended up with some chord progressions that are now just fragments, waiting to be put together. I’ve focused on making a lot of raw recordings while I’ve been here without editing anything – and then time will tell how they will be used.”“I’ve also taken some sounds that I have been working on for a while and given them some new life by playing them through some old reverb modules and amplifiers. There are definitely some tracks that have come closer to being finished.”

All artists in the residency has been given the task to leave something for the next one in the studio. What’s your contribution?
“A series of IR reverbs that I’ve created based on the studio’s Lexicon Model 200 reverb. These are made by playing a tone that sweeps from the lowest musical frequency to the highest, through the reverb. A program then converts this into a file that can be loaded into a computer, allowing you to use the Lexicon reverb digitally.”