It's an amalgamation of sessions, built up and edited down, a refined representation of many freely recorded moments.ĭijon created Absolutely throughout 2020 with a cast of collaborators, including Mike Gordon (aka Mk.Gee), Noah Le Gros, Jack Karaszewski, and Andrew Sarlo (producer for Big Thief, Nick Hakim, Bon Iver, and others). Absolutely sounds like its own creative atmosphere, like friends caught up in the moment, creating songs and, somehow, perfect arrangements on the fly.īut, like the makeshift practice space that reveals itself to be a sound stage in the music videos made for the album's release, Dijon's room sound isn't one room at any one time. So using them in improvised studios is a recipe for an unhinged, ramshackle sound, which is exactly what Dijon did, and exactly the sound he captured. It'll pick up all the noises your mind naturally tries to reject: the creak of the floor as you shift your feet, a neglected drum's rattling snares, harsh echoes that bounce and reflect back off your walls.Ī live performance of 'Many Times' from Dijon's Absolutely. Set a mic to omni to record in your apartment or basement, and you'll hear why. 'Everybody's so scared of them,' he says. In home studio setups, like the ones Dijon used to record most of Absolutely. In rooms that sound 'good,' like those found in professional, acoustically treated studios, omni mics are used all the time. When selected, it lets a mic capture the sound of a whole room, in a 360° sonic image, as opposed to just one vocalist or instrumentalist at close-range. Omni here refers to the omni-directional setting on certain microphones. It was a quick summation tacked onto a lengthy chat about Absolutely, his full-length solo debut. 'The omni polar pattern, that's the sound of the record,' Dijon says, just before our interview ends.

Photos by Daniel Prakopcyk, courtesy of the artist.

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