Beyond the grid: building sonic worlds with Ex.sses, Hezen, and Ikävä Pii

For some producers, a track is a sequence of notes; for Ex.sses, Hezen, and Ikävä Pii, it is a living, breathing environment. Drawing from eclectic backgrounds in fine art, professional dance, and film, these three artists treat the DAW as a canvas for sonic masterpieces.

In this deep dive, we hear directly from the artists on how they use the tools within Komplete 26 to bridge the gap between abstract textures and visceral, physical energy.

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How they started: from fine art to the dancefloor

How does an artist’s background shift the way they hear a blank project? For this group, the journey into production began far away from the traditional recording studio.

Ex.sses: “I started out from a fine art background, so I view music-making as an art practice. When I first started, my practice was focused on building soundscapes, heavily influenced by film scores and TV soundtracks. My music has really formed intuitively from thinking about the body moving through scripted terrains.”

Hezen: “I started writing songs with the guitar, but at some point, I started to want a beat and recorded myself banging pots and pans. As a new producer, you tend to put too many ideas in. With time, I challenged myself to limit the amount of tools I use. My music is still very busy and rich, but I’ve got better at carving space for sounds and pauses.”

Ikävä Pii: “The biggest noticeable change has been my evolution from glitchy sounds to more organic synthesis and recording. Digital chaos has become less of a starting point and more of a decorative layer. Playfulness is at the core of it, and that’s the one thing that will never change.”

How Komplete 26 brings their sound together

When you’re building a world, you need instruments that offer more than just a standard preset. These artists gravitate toward tools that provide weirdness by design.

Hezen: “My process relies heavily on happy accidents. I rarely sit with my laptop with an idea in mind. I’ll open a synth semi-randomly and start experimenting. For example, I recently got Absynth 6 and created a saw wave with distortion and reverb – it’s become the hook of a new song I’m obsessed with.”

Ex.sses: “I have recently enjoyed building an energy or mood using the Ashlight plugin on Kontakt 8. I think the flexibility with the parameters means you can really sculpt what you want out of the sound. Absynth 6 also feels so expansive; there’s so much heady space for intricacies like the Aetherizer granular control that creates this amazing spread.”

Ikävä Pii: “The new Massive X is really fun – the Animator gets ideas flowing really quickly – and FM8 is still one of the best FM synthesis tools out there. Because creativity can’t flow without intuitive and reliable utility tools, shout out to Ozone and Guitar Rig – time savers in so many instances.”

How these artists are challenging traditional workflows to transform their sound

The normal workflow often falls short when trying to create something truly unique. Here is how these artists bend or even break the traditional way of using their tools to find new ways of creating music.

Ikävä Pii: “A process I’ve been really into recently is building unlikely combinations of Kontakt instruments. I love to play Balinese Gamelan percs, an Irish Arp, and an electronic drum with one finger and squeeze them together into a strange FX chain!”

Ex.sses: “I like to build the presets with my own field recordings – chewing, licking, crunching sounds, or bits of text I have recorded – and I layer these together into larger atmospheric sounds.”

Hezen: “A technique I rely on a lot is stretching, repitching, and resampling. I love being surprised by artifacts, manipulating sound, and getting unexpected results. My voice will always be my main instrument; I rely heavily on it to create textures and rhythms.”

Top career advice: staying weird in a prescriptive world

Ikävä Pii: “Don’t aim for a career in art. No one is owed a career in art. Your joy of creating, pure urgency – that’s what should drive you. If you want to be an artist, do your own thing without wanting to please anyone… be part of your community and scene. Stay weird folks! It’s genuinely the only thing we have left.”

Hezen: “Don’t feel like you need to pigeon-hole yourself into a specific style or genre. If you feel like exploring in different directions, don’t censor yourself because you think it might not resonate with your audience. It will always be an expression of your singular voice.”

Ex.sses: “It’s important to remain true to what you’re trying to communicate, emotionally and sonically. I believe that everyone has a sonic palette that feels right to them and resonates with their body. Trust that your work will connect with people if it’s coming from a genuine place.”

Ready to build your own sound?

Explore the textures of Ashlight, Absynth 6, and the full Komplete 26 collection to find the sonic palette that resonates with you.

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