Summary of our first recording session

Nearly a week ago around this time, I can honestly say that I was freaking out. I was afraid I'll fuck up everything. I was afraid that my nerves will get the best out of me and I won't manage to do anything during all three following days.

It all started about an year ago, when a conversation with Ratimus, the man behind Geist, Mucus Scrotum and numerous other projects, and the bassist of the now inactive Bartholomeus Night, spawned the idea of collaborating with an aim of putting all of Khaos's works into an official first release. Needless to say I was excited, but it wasn’t until now that we finally started to realize these plans of ours.

Me and my bass on the bus

The morning of the first day of recordings was somewhat of a hot mess. I had to carry a bass, in addition to my electric guitar through an ultra-packed train and two busses, the station of which I took me a while to find, which resulted in me having to march around the central train station in Tel Aviv for hours with all that load in both hands. I was already nervous so that, in addition to a slight issue with my day job which I managed to resolve on my way and an annoying waredrobe malfunction, in the form of my camo pants getting torn, didn't help ease out the situation. I was already mentally preparing myself for when things will go further down.

It was the first time I was recording guitars with someone else, so I was afraid I'd make a total fool out of myself with my self-acquired (and probably very unorthodox) guitar techniques, I was scared I'd totally let myself down by fucking up on all the takes we'd do before Ratimus, who kindly offered to help me with the recording process in his home studio, will finally give up on the idea of working with me and I'd lose this very special opportunity to record and release my music professionally and actually work with someone as special as him.

Time to boogie...with Mesa Boogie

Fortunately, things went far better in reality than I've imagined. After being initially wowed by the sound produced by a real mesa boogie vintage vacuum tube amplifier in his well-equipped home studio and by the idea that I'd actually be finally working in a professional environment, we've started the sound check during which I've managed to warm up and snap some pictures of the console rack and DAW.

The recording session on the first day was in hindsight rather inte

nse, though I only felt that after I left his place at around 10:00 pm and reached home at 2:00 am the next day and also on the second day in which my lack of energy and the sore that formed on my index finger were a constant reminder of yesterday's hard work. Indeed, the first day was way more productive than I've ever imagined, as I've managed to record rhythm guitars for all tracks but the last one.

The genius at work during our soundcheck.

As I've already mentioned, the fatigue brought upon us by the intense work of the first day slowed us down a bit on the second and I felt I could do better, but for the time being we didn't have much work to do anyway. Upon discussing the desired sound, we've decided to record the clean guitars using an actual acoustic guitar (12 strings if we're lucky!) in a separate session.

Overall, Ratimus's knowledge and skills as a sound technician/engineer truly managed to surprise me, especially given the fact that he has learned it all on his own. We had very interesting conversations during our breaks, in which more than once he managed to enlighten me with tips on the right work environment and techniques that can increase my productivity as a musician, stuff that I'm definitely intending to try at home. It was fascinating to hear his personal perspective on this whole musical genre called Black Metal that we both live and breathe and his interpretation from a sound guy's point of view of many releases we've grown up listening.

These were all over the pizza we had for lunch...Literally

In addition to that, his dog, two of his cats and his four foster kittens kept us company and helped us relax between the sessions and after we've finished our work. By the way, the fantastic four felines are really friendly and are all looking for homes now.

Overall I felt fortunate of having this opportunity to work with someone who has such a deep understanding of the true essence of this genre, both from a professional and a personal perspective and it's useless to say he was a great guy to work with. I'm certainly looking forward to our next recording session together!

The Aeolian guitar

As for now, I've taken my classic guitar to the woods to chase away a mild case of cabin fever that took over me this morning. Everything out there wore a greenish brown hue around this time of the year but the scorching heat of the passing few months wasn't there. A pleasant cool breeze has taken its place and shook the branches and the strings of my guitar when I wasn't playing. The wind on the strings produced an eerie, beautiful sound. Too bad I didn't have a sampler. I can only imagine that an Aeolian harp must have had a very similar sound. This is one of my favorite times of the year, and also the time which, many years ago I have written my very first serious poem. I can only hope for many more such years of creativity to come and that these recordings are only the beginning of something really great.

More updates on the progress of our recordings will hopefully come soon!