Retrospective: 3 years of BØLT.

With my very first Instagram and YouTube video dating back pretty much exactly 3 years, I figured it’s time to take a moment to reflect on what’s happened.

In early 2019, less than a year after I arrived in the US, I developed a keen interest in little hardware sequencers and groove boxes. I pulled the trigger on the tiny PO-33 sampler by teenage engineering and quickly found my creativity rekindled and my mind set on focusing on music production much more than I’ve ever had.

With formal jazz education finally behind me, I felt the need to re-think how I approached music making as a whole and wanted to establish a new moniker for my musical endeavors. The name BØLT came to me on a whim, and – after spending 15 minutes in Photoshop and making the logo – I kinda fell in love with it… Hence why I’m still going by the name today.

Pocket Øperator

Upon getting my first Pocket Operator, I immediately started cooking up little ditties and making short videos just like the one above. I quickly fell in love with this magical little sampler and it’s hardware limitations which create a very inspiring balance of requiring musical ingenuity and a bit of problem-solving when trying to squeeze as much sound out of it as possible.

ØP-Z

With the teenage engineering bug thoroughly embedded in my mind it was only natural that I eventually started eyeing the OP-Z as well. Feel free to read this article on exactly how that went… It nothing short of turned my creative process on its head.

Something about the display-less and very tactile interface paired with quirky-yet-powerful synth engines and the ability to import your own drum kits were exactly what I needed in order to rekindle my passion for music production like never before.

In 2020, only around 8 months into owning the OP-Z, I decided to participate in jamuary for the first time ever. The challenge, originally established by @truecuckoo, has participants post one original piece of music (usually between 30 and 60 seconds) for each day of January. Participating in this challenge religiously helped me streamline my creative process immensely and provided ample material for the EPs that followed.

Check out my JAMUARY playlist below! Many of my contributions from 2020 can be found at the very beginning of the playlist.

Mødular

A couple of other little pieces of gear followed, namely the Pocket Operator Modular 400 and Korg NTS-1 DIY digital synth and FX processor. Armed with the ambition to exhaust every last ounce of the OP-Z’s sonic capabilities, I produced a total of 2 albums, and 3 EPs using nothing but these three little gadgets.

The combination of the OP-Z serving as a sequencer and drum/bass/chords-machine while sequencing additional voices on the modular synth and the NTS-1 – which also served as the FX processor for the modular at the same time – resulted in what are some of my favorite musical creations to date.