Blog | Fogelberg.com

New timeless synthesizer music from C-Jay

An unexpected piece of synthesizer music was released on Replug today in the form of a brand new album from dutch producer C-Jay.

Adem is clearly inspired by the synth masters of the 70 and early 80s. It is a great sounding collection of synthesizer compositions, full of swirling arpeggios, sweeping pads and mysterious melodies. The first thing that comes to mind while listening is Tangerine Dream, but this album thankfully manage to stand on its own legs with its own identity. Adem sounds completely unlike something I would expect to be released in 2019 and I love it. Put on your headphones, lie down and get ready for a long journey.

January 11th, 2019|Blog, I recommend, Music|

Synthwaves from Thorsten Quaeschning & Ulrich Schnauss

Beautiful warm analogue melodies with a bit of retro feel. I have been listening to Ulrich Schnauss for 20 years or more. Thorsten Quaeschning is a new sonic acquaintance for me. Love what they do together. Love this album.

January 10th, 2019|Blog, I recommend, Music|

Finished another modded Game Boy DMG-01

Check out this Game Boy that I modded recently. It’s an original red Play it loud shell with new yellow buttons and golden screen. All the usual mods of course: Backlight screen, Bivert chip, Prosound, Less noise and new silicon parts. I enjoyed doing one that really looks like a 90s toy

January 8th, 2019|Blog, DIY, Gameboy, Retro|

Lyseric techno from Blondes

In my little blog series with music that currently inspires me I continue with Blondes and their album Warmth. It was released in 2017 but I just recently found it through Spotify’s excellent recommendation engine. The duo is from New York and consists of Sam Haar and Zach Steinman. Warmth has of 10 tracks of lysergic techno fused with their characteristic synth-work and atmospherics.

January 7th, 2019|Blog, I recommend, Music|

I’m building the BASTL Cinnamon State Variable Filter

This lazy Sunday I’m building the DIY kit version of the BASTL Voltage Controlled State Variable Filter for Eurorack.

It’s one of the missing pieces in my Eurorack system since I don’t have any good stand-alone filter. Actually I bought it about a month ago but I have been setting this aside until the new website was finished and launched. I expect this build to take around 2-3 hours.

Here is a video from BASTL where they demonstrate the Cinnamon.

January 6th, 2019|Blog, DIY, Hardware, modular|

Proper Electro Acid from Stefan Gubatz

The album Mono from Stefan Gubatz shows that all the hardware you really need to make a great sounding Electro Acid album is a Roland TB-303 and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. Add some reverb and delay to that and there you have it. Masterfully programmed groovy beats and trippy basslines. This one goes straight into my saved albums library on Spotify.

Originally released in 2015 but now available for streaming on Spotify as well.

January 5th, 2019|Blog, I recommend, Music|

Retro-modding old Game Boys to look good and sound great

One of my little past time hobbies for the last 6 months or so has been modding old Nintendo Game Boy DMG-01. Here are some of the nicest looking ones that I’ve done.

They all have similar internal mods, which usually are: Better visuals in the form of a backlight device and a bivert chip. Better sound with the so called Prosound mod, Bass mod and power strip capacitor mod to reduce noise and hiss.

I also always replace the internal silicon parts and the screen that covers the LCD display. Last and probably most important is to make the shell look cool which is either done by modifying the shell in some way or just finding the right combination of original shell color, screen and buttons. I gave also done some experiments with spray painting. The finish of the Game Boy at the top of this post was done by spray painting real aluminium spray two times. Two layers of coating was then added to make sure that the color stays on with use. It was a lot of work but I think the result was really good. The aluminium particles made it glitter in sunlight.

The result of my modding is something that you can use to plays the old classic Game Boy games and actually see what is happening on the screen without being in direct sunlight or under a lamp. Also the sound is of course much better: bassier and clearer.

January 4th, 2019|Blog, DIY, Gameboy, Retro|

A list of what I’m listening to at the moment

Three embedded albums from Spotify follows below, so if you can’t see anything you might need to approve Spotify in your ad-blocker.

ASC – Trans-Neptunian Objects 2

This is a great piece of Deep Space Ambient with a mysterious aura that permeates all of the tunes.
Best listened to with headphones, lying down on a comfy sofa.

Worriedaboutsatan – Blank Tape

Can’t believe I missed this one when it was released in 2016.
There is a slight distorted retro feeling to many of the sounds that I like a lot. Also a reminiscence of Moderat on some tracks, only a bit trippier.

Underworld – DRIFT Episode 1 “DUST”

Wow, what can I say.. Underworld is back. This is the best thing I have heard from them for almost 20 years.

January 2nd, 2019|Blog, I recommend, Music, Spotify|

A new beginning

Yet another year is coming to an end and what a better way to celebrate that than building a brand new shiny temple for oneself.

Yes! Fogelberg.com is b(j)orn again. I think this is the 6th major version of my site I’ve done since its conception in 1996. Let me tell you, it was well overdue. For the last 2-3 years the site had become like the old tale of the shoemaker’s children who goes barefoot. My website was a pretty bad representation of somebody who has been working as a professional UX Designer for over 20 years. So I tore it all down and rebuilt it from scratch.

My main goal when I started about a month ago was that it had to have a unique look, kind of glitch meets Outrun. Big bold and colorful. Also it had to be fully responsive and looking good no matter if you are using the smallest mobile phone up to a 4K modern monitor. Some other goals was I would have to find ways to fit all my stuff in there without it getting too cluttered.

For anyone interested in the techy stuff, fogelberg.com is built in WordPress using Avada, with a lot of custom made CSS.. and I mean A LOT.

Anyway, I hope you like my new site and come back once in a while. Oh and of course I’m also on Facebook and all the other normal places, except the puss-hole called Twitter.

December 30th, 2018|Blog|

Top 10 movies of 2018 according to me

December 26th, 2018|Blog, Movies, Review|

Underworld – DRIFT Episode 1 “DUST”

1. Roma

2. Annihilation

3. Mandy

4. A Quiet Place

5. Dogman

6. Avengers: Infinity War

7. Sorry to Bother You

8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

9. The Death of Stalin

10. Leave No Trace