With this album we decided to record/sample the keyboard parts in Noiseworks (http://www.noise-work.com) studio Jyväskylä with Hannu Honkonen. One reason is that Aleksi Munter, a.k.a. Hippi, has been working with Hannu before when doing keyboards on previous Swallow the Sun albums. Another is that Hannu owns pretty good sample library and his studio is located Jyväskylä, which makes everything very easy logistically.
We spent total of 5 days working with the keyboards. Normally Hannu and Hippi started to work on arrangements around 2 pm and I arrived after work around 5 pm to have a listen what they had come up with. Hippi did again just an awesome job with keyboard arrangements and melodies. I had made some midi tracks to some of my songs but Hippi composed mostly all the keyboards on this new album. The overall feel is very atmospheric: when played alone the keyboard parts sounds like they were taken from soundtrack of some movie. So, basically we have lots of strings and choirs going on most of the songs but also some brass, mellotrone, hammond, and moog sounds here and there to spice it up properly. Simply, the keyboards are easily the best ones we have ever had and it was pleasure to work with such talented guys as Hippi and Hannu.
I’m sorry that all this is coming together for you guys in retrospective but I’ve been just so busy with work and all other stuff. The life just sometimes drains you dry. But don’t worry all stuff is coming here eventually. And yeah, I can reveal that the Mr. X is nothing else but our friend Jules Näveri from the band called Profane Omen (http://www.profaneomen.net/). Check them out!
Ville F. /INSOMNIUM
Desk
Hannu working
Masterminds
Some gear
Hippi landing with Enterprise
