Remember when Anders and I used to do something called “Sub Delay Sessions” where we would take turns DJing, streaming tracks live over the internet? …No? Well, we did. And we’re doing it again.

Without further ado then, feast your eyes (and ears) on my pink-shirted self below, as I work through the 6th installment of Sub Delay Sessions recorded earlier today. I’m particular proud of the part where I manage to stop the track that is mixed in, or the other part where the camera changes and you can’t hear any sound for a while!

Sub Delay Sessions 6 on Ustream.tv

As always, we went through a couple of versions before settling on the final cover for the Low Ground album. Thought it might be fun to share them so you can see what the album could have looked like!

Version 1 – Airplane

The first version we experimented with was a picture taken by a colleague who is an avid amateur photographer in her spare time. The picture had a dark mood to it that I liked, but in the end we couldn’t find a version of the picture in high enough resolution to be printed, and also we weren’t entirely sure it suited the concept of the album so eventually we starting looking elsewhere.

Version 2 – People in the night

Anders mentioned that when listening to the album he got the mental image of a city with blurred silhouettes of people. Don’t ask. I didn’t. Instead I went on a hunt across Flickr and came up with the picture above, which I believe is taken somewhere in Germany? (I am sorry, I seem to have lost the username of the photographer…If any knows, write a comment!)

However, we didn’t feel completely comfortable using something that wasn’t more….”ours”, and so another couple of days passed as I began rummaging through my old photo archives.

Version 3 – Final

We finally settled on using a photograph taken by me on a trip to Kyoto in Japan, showing a view of the city, famously surrounded by mountains, right after sunset. The photo was taken from “Kiyomizudera”, a more than 1000-year old buddhist temple which itself is set on top of a mountain.

The temple is well known for having a large stage protruding out from the mountainside. It was traditionally believed that if you could survive the 13 meter jump from here, you would be granted a wish. The practice is now (obviously) prohibited, but in the Edo period more than 230 jumps where registered, of which about 85% actually survived the fall!

Anyway, we thought the atmosphere of the picture suited the music well, and were happy with the fact that it was something entirely of our own making, thus it ended up being the one we stuck with. Listen to the album here and judge for yourself whether we made the right choice!

Messing around in Traktor while trying out ustream:

Sub Delay – DJ Live (Test Run) on Ustream.tv

Taking advantage of a rare opportunity to actually be in the same room, Anders and I cooked up this little dub-like track during my visit to Copenhagen last year.

Copenhagen Jam Session by subdelay

Everything was basically improvised live on two computers running in sync (set up in Anders’ living room). Although we started out having lots and lots of parts playing together all at once, after a bit of weeding out we came up with this rather sparsely instrumentated version.

Since this was done on two separate computers, we ended up each taking home “half” of the track (like one of those spy movies where two people hold a master key in order to prevent the accidental launching of a ballistic missile), but recently I finally got a chance to merge everything back together (missiles away!).

Whether this will ever be developed into a full length track is yet uncertain…comments are welcome!

With the proof copy of Subsidence having just arrived this morning, all Sub Delay albums have finally been transferred to CD and are available for purchase now!

I find it hard to believe that we have actually been able to complete 4 full-length albums and are now working on our 5th! And all this without ever making a dime…:P Well, it’s been a fun ride so far. Who knows, maybe someday we will actually be able to play that concert at Wembley Stadium we have been planning since elementary school.

In the meantime, the CDs look awesome and are a great way to get a cool Sub Delay keepsake and support us at the same time, so head on over to the album section and grab a disc (or four)!

After 7 years of silence (well, disregarding the two side projects “Live at Enyen” and “Zonelet”) we have finally been able to release our desperate grip on 9 new songs and set them loose upon the world. Here is the track list for the new album:

1. Sleep in Secret
2. 100 Thirty Five
3. 67 Times
4. Hotand
5. Smile
6. Kiddo
7. Slide Off The Map
8. Surfing
9. New Skies

7 years is a looong time to work on an album, but I think we finally have the “how to make music while being separated by time and distance”-thing sorted now. Anders being based in Denmark and me (Jens) currently living in Japan, the making of this album involved a lot of digital data traveling back and forth over the internet web tubes and a lot of e-mail and skype-meetings. All vocals were recorded by Anders in Denmark and sent to me for further production, with the result that I haven’t actually ever met any of the vocalists in person! I hope I will have a chance to put a face to the vocals sometime.

On that note, many thanks to all the musicians who participated on this release:

• Jana Oberender
• Marie Raabye
• Anke Struve
• Karen Poulsen
• Joannes Holm
• Christian Meyer

The album is available as a digital download from www.subdelay.com now so go check it out! CDs are currently in production and links will be posted on the site as soon as they become available.

…and on a final note, we promise, PROMISE, that the next album won’t take another 7 years to see the light of day…:P