Erik Norlander is a well known synth player, he performed several times on our Alfa Centauri festival, and it was a pleasure to read about his work for the Bob Moog foundation: “A stalwart of support for the last 15 years, synthesist and sound designer Erik Norlander hassteadfastly provided us with both valuable technical counsel and advice on industry matters. From serving on the Bob Moog Foundation Board of Advisors to performing at benefit concerts to donating his KORG DW-8000 to our new Reverb shop, Erik has made a lasting impact on our foundation. A professional musician who has toured with ASIA Featuring John Payne, Erik has performed at no fewer than three Bob Moog Foundation benefit concerts. His generosity also includes donating sounds to Spectrasonics’ Bob Moog Tribute Library, spearheading the sampling and mastering for the MOTU Encore Soundbank benefit project, and even lending us his “Wall of Doom” modular synthesizer for display and exploration at our NAMM booth.
And for the special occasion Erik Norlander’s created a track ‘The Princely hours’ in which he skillful use of five Moog instruments provides upbeat, ethereal song to benefit the Bob Moog Foundation.
Listen to this track here.
Erik takes many of the classic riffs and phrases from his various influences and reinvents them with highly emotional pitch bending, vibrato and authoritative phrasing. This technique combines brilliantly with Erik’s mastery of sound and production.
Erik has personally led sound design efforts on several major brand synthesizers, and his knowledge of synthesis and audio engineering are second to none. Erik’s live use of vintage instruments — Moog synthesizers in particular — give his concerts a depth and authenticity of sound seldom seen in modern stage productions.
“The Princely Hours” is an original all-Moog composition donated by Erik, available exclusively through the Bob Moog Foundation. Here’s Erik’s description about the instruments involved in the song:
I composed ‘The Princely Hours’ as a special piece for the Bob Moog Foundation using only Moog instruments. Even the percussion is Moog! The leads come from my Moog Voyager and my ’70s Minimoog Model D. The stereo bass is from my modular Moog system, and some of the sound f/x come from the modular as well, of course. For general textures and atmosphere stuff, I used my Moog Rogue, a real favorite of mine for that sort of application. The low bass drones are original Taurus pedals. The tracks were recorded using MOTU Digital Performer with reverbs courtesy of Universal Audio (Plate 140, Dreamverb) and IK Multimedia (CSR). The echoes are provided by the Moogerfooger MF-104 Analog Delay.