26 April 2023 - 0 Comments

Karl Sölve Steven is a composer and producer, currently based in Pārāwai (Thames).

Steven's output is a collage of organic and electronic sources, synthesised down into an ambitious and enigmatic sound. While working mainly with music to picture, Steven has also been a part of groups Queen Neptune, The Drab Doo Riffs, Heart Attack Alley and Supergroove.

Today Steven shares Cold Day Light (Dream Chambers Remix), from his upcoming album All Of Human Emotion On Microfiche (The Remixes) (out digitally on July 6 via Sunreturn). The album of remixes by key personalities from Aotearoa's experimental electronic scenes. Steven also announces the release show for the album, with the majority of the contributors performing on July 21.

STREAM KARL SÖLVE STEVEN - Cold Day Light (Dream Chambers Remix)

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Dream Chambers is the musical project of Jess Chambers, a synthesist who splits their time between Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) and Nashville, Tennessee. Her version of Karl Sölve Steven's Cold Day Light strips back the original, beginning with gentle analogue arpeggios that escalates to distorted dizzying heights.

"I immediately loved the song's meditative quality," says Chambers upon hearing the original version of Cold Day Light.

"I took Karl's bass synth progression as a jumping off point and created some arpeggios over top using my modular synthesizers. I expanded the chord sequence to have a Dream Chambers-esque melodic build. Added some more synths cause I love them and it's fun to layer melody on melody. Then added Karl's synths and drums back in for extra vibe and a nice crescendo at the end. I also added my voice to create a duet with Karl's spoken word and some backing harmonies in the chorus."

Reflecting on the remix Chambers says "I'm really happy with it! When I was working on this track last year I had a lot of uncertainty in my life and being able to accentuate the optimism of the song and make it into a positive mantra of sorts was really soothing for me. As the song says 'It will all be a whole lot clearer in the cold light of day.' I interpreted that as 'Tomorrow is a new day and everything is going to be ok.'"

Steven responds "I love the Dream Chambers adaptation. It's sort of grown the track into another dimension that makes the original feel like a roadmap while this is the actual terrain. It's pretty magical to hear it brought to life in this way; it's like going to sleep having sketched the first sentence of a novel in a notebook and waking up to find the whole thing written."

Karl Sölve Steven's All Of Human Emotion On Microfiche (The Remixes) features remixes and reworkings by Dream Chambers, along with Liam K. Swiggs, Sonya Waters, Proteins Of Magic, Stef Animal, Grecco Romank and Gayblade (the collaborative project of Amamelia and Baby Zionov).

To celebrate the release of All Of Human Emotion On Microfiche (The Remixes), Sunreturn has collected collected Liam K. Swiggs, Sonya Waters, Stef Animal, Grecco Romank, Gayblade and Karl himself to perform for one night only. This kind of local line up is a rare feat, and not to be missed.

Karl Steven - All Of Human Emotion On Microfiche (The Remixes) Album Release Party
July 21 / 8PM Start
Wine Cellar / Backroom
Tickets are available now from Undertheradar.co.nz

Photo Credit: Geoff Steven

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