Collaborations
Recently, a couple of unexpected opportunities for collaborations came my way.
It's been a minute since I did any serious music work with others, but hoping 2025 might be the year to change that. 🤞
Balvig-Lagerberg: Bling Export
Last spring, against all probability, I discovered that I live just 20 minutes away from a fellow Dane here in Japan, who, apart from sharing similar stories of moving abroad, also happens to collect vintage synthesizers!
Stepping into Jesper's home studio is like entering a mini-museum of synthesizer history.
Visiting feels like a treasure hunt, and Jesper, being an all-around generous cool dude, rarely lets me leave empty-handed, often casually passing me an obscure synth with a simple, "Here, take this home and see what you can do with it."
Soon after realizing we shared the same interests, we began exchanging ideas and the result of our first collaboration is a tasty stew of vintage synth goodness and analog nostalgia.
New Lenox: Reading Runes - Balvig Remix
My friend Chris is the kind of guy who composes music, shoots documentaries, animates music videos, designs iOS apps, and plays live concerts as if he’s got a secret source of liquid creativity on tap at home.
For the past 20 years, he’s upheld a tradition of creating a Christmas album every year with his band, New Lenox.
When I asked if I could remix one of their tracks, he responded in his usual meticulous way, sending over 95 individual audio tracks, perfectly labeled and accompanied by a detailed README explaining how everything fit together.
Sifting through it all was so much fun that I blasted through the remix in three days during the holiday break.
While my in-laws prepared New Year's dishes, I found myself hunched up in a corner with my laptop, absorbed in a gratifying swell of guitars and punk vocals.
