Track By Track: Olaf Stuut – Run

The music of Olaf Stuut is often intriguing and hard to place. It transcends genres, captivating an audience with intricate melody and a dream inspired haze. His latest album titled 'Run' is a reflection of a sound developed and crafted over years of performance and composition. Synth wharps, rough echoes and a night time escapade soundtrack the release. We caught up with the Dutch producer to talk through the record track by track. Read his interpretation below:

Maze

The track started with the arpeggiated synth playing the triplet melodies. I started tweaking around with the pitch from the 2nd oscillator and tried to manually create a melody this way. This is how the track became so dissonant at times. Marlon’s part was to be the steady voice to follow through the hectic background and keep you company until the eruptive part. To come back eventually, released a bit from the claustrophobic surroundings. 

Pareidolia

This track started of with the rhythmic, I wanted to try all kinds of different sounds and make a tribally loop which sounds new every time around. After that the biggest thing happening is the synth, actually a very simple synthesis from Sylent1 but processed pretty heavily. I wanted to create an organic feeling within the synth to make it sort of speak, hence the name Pareidolia.

A Scape Reality

A day I was making a soothing pad, trying to make it as lively and relaxing as possible, it became to be 3 different pads layered on top of each other. Soon after I came up with this transposing progression and tried to make it go full circle. Along came the bass which follows the melodies of the pad.

Lush

Actually this track is made in a couple of stages. I almost certainly knew from the beginning this was going to be an album track. The track was previously released as "Lus" on the Atomnation "25" compilation. The track's essential stayed the same, but mainly the sound differs. I re-recorded most of the drums and replaced the strings with a mellow pad.

Ty

This track was one of the tracks that just came to me and emerged in just one day. I remember I was filled with calmness and had total faith in life. A state of mind which brings the best inspiration and total creative freedom. The sample/hold synth was the first thing I started with including the chords, from there it was like seeing someone else do the work. I knew exactly what needed to be done, It was only a matter of time.

Run

The chords were the start of this track. I thought they were beautiful and have something mystical about them. I made most of the arrangements already before we recorded the vocal. The funny thing was, Marlon sang in the track just holding one pitch, later on we made the full melody and harmonies manually which creates the eerie sound of the vocal on the track.

Gravity Assist

This track actually came to be when I pressed stop while making a different track. The synths on my DSI Tempest we’re still running because of the LFO on the VCA. I started jamming with the sound and recorded almost 30 minutes of material. I cut out the most interesting parts of the jam and made a track out of it.

Extended Travels

Extended Travels originated from the piano. It was a sort of minimal music piece I could really zone out with. Piano became synth, and I stripped the melodies a little bit. I wanted to be a gritty hypnotic track that evolves and tells a story and makes your mind travel.

Buy the release HERE. Olaf Stuut will play at Farr Festival this summer, buy tickets HERE.