Ess Mattisson is a sound designer, developer, and (together with Felisha Ledesma) the co-founder of Fors.fm, an independent developer of software instruments known for its innovative Max for Live devices and plugins. Prior to founding Fors.fm, Ess honed his skills at Elektron.
What is your name and where are you currently based?
My name is Ess Mattisson and I'm currently based in Malmö, Sweden. It's Sweden's third largest city and only a stone's throw away from Copenhagen, which makes it very international and lively. Despite the constant windy weather it's a nice place to call home.
How did you get into playing synthesizers?
When I was about 14, I got introduced to the chip music/chiptune scene, which propelled me into an obsession with electronic sound in all of its shapes and forms. It started with making music on a Game Boy using Little Sound DJ and nanoloop, which then turned me onto synthesizers. I ended up buying a very cheap and somewhat broken Korg Poly-61 — and after playing it for probably 9 hours straight I was completely obsessed!
What inspired you to start developing Max for Live devices and software instruments?
I had used Max and Max for Live for a while, both for my own music and for prototyping at Elektron. It turned out to be not just a good tool, but also a fun format in itself. As with many other Live users, I really like the way the native device rack feels. It's very immediate and playful compared to jumbling around a bunch of different plugin windows — not to say one is better than the other though, just different.
What I really like about the Max for Live format is that it's open, anyone can take one of our devices and see how it's made and we've always tried to keep that in mind. I know that people are going to open up our devices, so I try to keep them pretty neat and organized so others can learn from them. I think it's important to nurture different communities and subcultures — it breeds creativity and new ideas that everyone, including the end-user, will benefit from.
Do you follow a specific design philosophy when creating your products, or is it more of an organic process?
I definitely have some kind of unformulated design philosophy, but I think the process is pretty organic. A lot of the time a product will sprout from various sources of inspiration. Sometimes I'll think of some kind of synthesis or musical approach I want to try, and then that just kind of snowballs into a product. Felisha [Ledesma] plays a lot of shows and we both listen to a lot of music and work with synthesizers, so we get a lot of ideas and inspiration just from our day to day life, talking about what we're excited about or what we feel is currently missing out there.
Our latest device Dyad actually got started when I was in my home office looking at my Boss DR-110 drum machine. I've always thought its LCD interface is really cute and when I thought to myself "I wonder how this would look as a piece of software" it started a long process of what became the final product.
I think if there is some kind of red thread through my design philosophy it's that I do everything by gut feeling. So in a way my design philosophy is to follow my instinct and subjectivity.
What makes Tela’s approach to modal synthesis unique?
I don't know if it's unique, but it is a little different compared to most modal synthesizers I have tried. It puts its focus more on the synthesis method itself, rather than using it for a specific application like physical modelling. It has this strange alien quality to it when you stray away from any physical references and this is what Tela embodies.
Tela parametrizes everything to the point where controlling a large quantity of oscillators (partials) is more like it would be on a traditional synthesizer, rather than having discrete control of each partial. This makes it very explorable and a bit more happy-accident prone, which is unusual for this sort of large underlying structure.
You just released Dyad, a two-voice percussion synthesizer. Can you say something about it?
Dyad is a distillation of different things I love about analog hardware instruments and sequencers. It tries to be very immediate and non-technical in how you use it, without many labels or numbers and so on. It's more touch and go and less analytical.
It presents two identical synth voices, each with their own sequencer that trigger and modulate on two separate tracks. The two voices are interconnected via thru-zero linear FM, which can create all kinds of interesting timbres. This is really fun when you have the different sequencer tracks running with different lengths and time divisions. The voices dance around each other and occasionally collide — that's when the FM kicks in. It’s a very rhythmic approach to designing sounds and it has a very organic quality to it.
To relate to some established concepts, you could say it's kind of like a West Coast style groovebox. It's pretty simple on the surface, which is great, but it gets so deep once you start exploring the ways in which the different components interact with each other.
I just played a live show a few days ago while we're traveling in Japan where I opened a blank Live project and started building a track from scratch with Dyad. After that experience I feel that it's become my favorite instrument of ours so far.
What was the first piece of gear or instrument you’ve ever owned and how has it influenced your journey?
I touched on this in a previous question, but the first thing I really started making music with was a Nintendo Game Boy, specifically with the Little Sound DJ tracker software. It's a very capable handheld music tracker that has inspired numerous others. In recent years the Dirtywave M8 for example is a project that builds on the LSDJ lineage.
I think this has influenced me in a few different ways. First of all, I learned how to make the most out of a fairly limited feature set. The Game Boy sound chip is simple with only four monophonic channels of sound. It also has a very simple, starkly electronic tone so the focus is on learning how to express yourself within those confines.
I've definitely become quite detail-oriented through this experience. I see that in a lot of other people who have come from chip music as well. I feel grateful that this was my introduction to making electronic music.
Is there a product of yours that you are particularly proud of?
I think Opal was a milestone, it's something I worked on very hard for a very long time and it ended up really resonating with people.
What are three new and three old things that you currently enjoy?
A new year, my road bike, our next thing. Mountains, the ocean, the Roland MC-202.
You can find out more about Ess’ latest work over at Fors.fm, take a look