All eyes were on Janus Rasmussen when he announced he was going solo last year. The Faroese had, after all, made a name for himself in celebrated collaborative endeavours, most notably for his output as one-half of the duo Kiasmos, alongside Ólafur Arnalds. Rasmussen’s solo debut, Vín lived up to expectations and proved to audiences just how much Rasmussen is a composer in his own right. One year on, Rasmussen gifts us with another solo release. Single, Jörð is perhaps some of Rasmussen’s finest club material, the elegantly crafted beats in the track are not only suitable for the dancefloor – they were made for it. Recorded from his studio in Reykjavík, and released via Christian Löffler’s Ki Records, Jörð definitely draws on Rasmussen’s experience with Kiasmos, except this time, rather than having Ólafur’s classically informed contributions, he fills in the gaps with his own piano experimentations. Janus Rasmussen shares some of his top production tips with electronic groove straight from Iceland.
Janus Rasmussen‘s ‘Jörð’ is now available on Ki Records and you can get it here.
1. Work smarter
We always hear that we should work hard to get ahead in this business. But that’s not entirely true. Working smarter is a better and healthier way to get things done without burning out. Try to streamline your workflow by reusing loops and sounds that you spent ages to create and also to keep everything organised so that you’ll always find whatever you’re looking for when you need it. It’s crazy how much you can get done in a short amount of time if you don’t need to stop to go search for what you’re looking for every time.
2. Sample yourself
One technique that I love is to sample myself. What I do is that I open up a few channels on my DAW and start to record without any set plans. Sometimes I open up a stereo pair of mics and begin to play all sorts of percussion, sticks, or whatever I find around the room to no metronome or anything. Later I put the recording into a slicer and start playing around with all the sounds like that. It’s incredible what pleasant surprises you can get out of this.
3. Field recordings
Sometimes I bring my trusty Zoom H4 field recorder out for a walk to record unusual sounds I can find. I then take the recording to the studio and go through the parts I like and try to make small percussion loops out of them. It’s amazing how our brains will pick up on anything as a loop if we hear something more than two times in a row.
4. Collaboration
After spending years and years in the studio alone, I’ve come to the realisation that I want to collaborate as much as possible. There’s honestly nothing more inspiring than working with talented people in the studio. It’s also the best way to get better as you always learn something while working with someone else. Seeing their approach to writing and production is truly the best way to use your time.
5. Have fun
Having fun is the most important thing for me and honestly something I tend to forget about way too often. Music should be fun and giving. Try not to overthink things too much, go with the flow and have some fun with it. The music will get better that way, I promise.
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Photo credit: Tom Hannay
