BLURSTEM
Recorded mostly late at night while his family is asleep, Blurstem is a piano-centric offshoot project of Elskavon, Minneapolis composer Chris Bartels' longest-running artist project. Bartels went into a piano-writing frenzy in the fall of 2018, when Blurstem was birthed, and decided to pursue collaborations with over half of the debut album, Among the Oaks, which released in October 2019. Since then, the sonic palette of Blurstem has expanded into more expansive ambient, cinematic, and neo-classical realms.
GENEVA (LP, with Elijah Bisbee)
With concepts birthed and finessed over the span of three years, in many locations across the midwest United States, Chris Bartels (Blurstem) and Elijah Bisbee present a unique blend of ambient, cinematic, and minimalism with their first full-length album together, Geneva. While many of the songs were conceptualized when Elijah traveled to Minneapolis and set up a makeshift studio for a few days in Chris’ living room in 2019, it was in the heart of winter a few years later when they booked an Airbnb (aptly named “The Music Ranch”) near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, for a week, brought a lot of recording gear, and revamped the kitchen and dining room into a makeshift studio, when the album would truly take shape.
[ July 15, 2022 / Bigo & Twigetti ]
FABRIC OF SUMMER (EP)
Written as an ode to the taking in of the serenity of a midwestern summer, Fabric Of Summer returns Blurstem to its roots - emotive, raw, improvised piano. “It’s easy to forget that life runs in seasons. Life has its ups and downs, as has this year for myself and my family. But even with our long, cold, dark winters here in Minnesota, spring and summer always come, and more often than not, they couldn’t be more perfect - a welcome reward for pushing through the cold.”
[ September 9, 2022 / Pianoramix ]
LUCID (EP)
Lucid dreams are said to be a sort of “between state” of being awake and asleep. Reality or fantasy, or somewhere in between. The subtle, warm piano tones on an early November morning were the soundtrack of such a state for Chris Bartels’ wife when writing what would become Lucid. Since exploring further sonic palettes beyond the piano with more ambient and cinematic tones in his more recent releases, Bartels brings it all back to his Blurstem roots with these songs. And with it, he invites his listeners to an experience of dreamlike balance - is this real? Is it fantasy? Maybe this question avoids the main point, after all. Maybe getting lost in the “between state” is the point. Either way, Lucid is an appropriate soundtrack for such a journey.
[ February 11, 2022 / Anthem Falls ]
AMONG THE OAKS (LP)
Chris and Rebekah Bartels were gifted an old spinet piano when they bought their first house in 2015. Always slightly out of tune, a little dusty sounding, and very much imperfect, the instrument has its own character. But it wasn’t until Chris cut up an old sweater and taped it to the strings, so as to avoid waking up the family at night, that his love for that character really took form. While piano is certainly a part of the Elskavon sound, he was writing so many new songs on this spinet that he felt the need to start a whole new project. Blurstem was birthed. While the sound is a not-so-distant relative of Elskavon, the heart of it is a minimalist, raw, and intimate feel.
[ October 11, 2019 / Anthem Falls ]
Shadows And Horizons (EP)
Written in Minnesota, during Winter 2021. Shadows And Horizons is a reflective and thoughtful collection of pieces that blends simplicity with experimentation. The EP was created as a refuge or calm space in which to escape the turbulent times that we find ourselves in.
[ November 1, 2021 / Bigo & Twigetti ]
