Premiere | ÅNDfØLK – Climbing Walls (Caramel Records)
Having their previous singles currently placed on 239 Spotify playlists including Best Techno 2024, Melodic Techno 2024, and Miss Monique Selections 2024, we premiere the cryptic dance music duo ÅNDfØLK’s brand new track ‘Climbing Walls’, out via Caramel Records.
A lesson in lean production and visual storytelling, ÅNDfØLK forges a solid harmonic bond between male vocalist and LFO-enhanced arpeggiator set against the vastness of miragelike soundstage, giving a melodic techno track a unique twist.
‘Climbing Walls’ was set in motion by one of those mundane, passing moments in life that has more to it than meets the eye. “It is the sensation of the moment you get on that airplane,” the duo describes. “You’ve taken off, it’s night-time. You look out the window, and there’s just the lights, the sky, and the fact that you’re going somewhere different.” Leaving out the finer details of the story and the characters amps up the dramatic element of the song. “That could be two people traveling together. Or it could be two people separating.”
‘Fear none, steer towards the sun Far away from these walls that we’ve been climbing She said: I’m done with this place. And I’m down to leave no trace behind us.’
While the original concept may sound straightforward, the way to get there was anything but, that much is clear. “This f***ing track is the most frustrating thing we have ever worked on,” ÅNDfØLK goes straight off. “We started this about two years ago and we made 51 different versions, probably even more than that. We’ve done ethereal, we’ve done progressive, and what’s been interesting about it has been that we been on a journey of education within production, and we’ve been applying all our learning to this track.”
The most critical turning point of their journey was the decision to build a harmony around the vocals using an arpeggiator. “We did a lot of work with the LFOs and the melody within the arp, and that’s what gives you the stutter effect across the note changes,” they explain. “What it did was add a melodic and a groove element we were lacking, and because of that bring out more of the vocals. It’s really interesting in a musical sense how sometimes all that it takes is switching one instrument and you get so much more out of every melodic in the track.”
Well-known for perfectionism, ÅNDfØLK’s way of working is labour-intense yet highly productive. “The other versions were very good. They were much smoother and continual as a whole but didn’t give the voice the power. We realised that where we’d gone wrong with the other versions is that the voice should be the protagonist. So, it took us a very long time to get there,” they conclude, laughing.
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