Know where each story starts.
A source registry controls what can be collected. Story identifiers and source attribution follow the material into the script and the review package.
Music / Moving images / Creative processWorks to hear.Stories behind
Works to hear.Stories behind
the sound.
Music, music videos and experiments in composition. Explore the work, then follow the choices that shaped it.
Music, artwork and film by Fredrik Brattén. Released as Ragnar Bratten.
The singer behind the work
Recording my own vocals.
I sing and record my own material in the vocal booth of a physical recording studio. I have sung in a few bands over the years, although the past few years have been quieter on that front.
Singing takes regular practice, and I feel that in my own voice. I cannot always reach the higher notes or hold a note for as long as I would like. This is where AI helps me enormously in making the music I want to make.
The upcoming album
North Star & Me
I am planning a four-week release sequence leading to my 18-track album, North Star & Me.
For me, songwriting, singing and studio recording belong alongside the composition and AI-assisted production experiments in this collection.
Selected works
Nine different ways in.
Intimacy, dark humour, visual storytelling and the work of finding a musical voice.
Hud mot hud
An intimate Swedish song developed from a programmed rhythm and bass seed.
Awaken Wired (Chalumeau, Sul)
A 36-bar introduction in five phases, with the complete original composition instructions.
Superposition Baby, more Concepts than You got Cells
A rap battle about AI concepts, with the explanations and research behind the wordplay.
Same Wet Reeds
Memory, recurring images and a written arrangement built around restraint.
Why Was Love
A song becomes a visual treatment through competing storyboard ideas.
Studio – New York – New York
An 80-second Suno Hook set in a New York atelier, directed through ChatGPT and Fal.
Featured production storyA groove you can hold
A groove you can hold
before the song exists.
For Hud mot hud, a four-bar rhythm and bass loop was built in Python, uploaded to Suno and used as the starting point for Extend.
Heavy at the bottom.
Air at the top.
Room for a voice.
Hear the original seed & read the story →Air at the top.
Room for a voice.
- Describe the soundDry, close vocals. Deep bass. Fragile woodwinds. Space between the parts.
- Build a starting pointFour bars at 76 BPM, with deliberate timing offsets and sliding bass tones.
- Develop it into a songUpload the seed, explore extensions and shape the presentation version.
Behind the 80-second film
Inside a New York atelier.
Studio – New York – New York brings together performance, photography and the small gestures of making clothes. Explore the scenes and the direction behind its ChatGPT and Fal workflow.
Explore the production →Audio-reactive video productionWhen sound drives
When sound drives
the image.
Music Video Creator explores another way to turn music into moving images: analyse the audio, then let its rhythm and frequency energy drive the visuals.
Explore Music Video Creator ↗From a track to a visual response
The showcase presents waveform and spectrum views, particles, reactive spheres and terrain, with effects such as zoom, flash and shake synchronised to the beat.
Explore the visual examples, audio-analysis workflow and interactive demos behind this Python-based production tool.
Beyond music / AI-assisted editorial production
A newsroom built around review.
Audio, images and editorial judgment meet in news-room, an audio-first prototype for a local morning brief from Västra Götaland.
Make editorial checks actionable.
Script QA checks attribution, sensitive reporting and copied source passages. Rejected scripts or unapproved sources stop voice generation. Captions take their words from the authored script; speech recognition supplies timing.
Review the episode as a whole.
The operator receives the script, audio, captions and review checklist together. This supports source checking and editorial decisions for public-interest reporting. Improvements move through experiments, review and an approval gate.
The current prototype packages audio and captions for human review. Its wider production design extends to video and YouTube distribution.
Before the first note settles.
Classical interests and experimental approaches meet in detailed writing about texture, pacing and the role of an instrument.
What changes when the instrument changes?
A đàn bầu can be explored as a rhythmic voice, a melodic reply or a long transition. The question is what it contributes to the composition.
An earlier Same Wet Reeds arrangement asks for spare đàn bầu replies beside fingerpicked guitar. Hud mot hud explores it against bass and woodwinds.
Explore Same Wet Reeds →Sometimes an intro takes pages.
Fredrik describes writing one to three A4 pages to develop an introduction: when each voice enters, which instruments remain silent, and how the opening moves.
Awaken Wired (Chalumeau, Sul) is his selected example for this part of the collection.
About the intro example →Turn a feeling into musical choices.
The preparation for Hud mot hud connects a tactile sound idea to register, timing, vocal proximity, stereo width and the order of sections.
The brief, the code and the seed let you follow different stages of that process.
Follow the process →Learn through musicA rap battle.
Open on Suno ↗
A rap battle.
A conceptual disagreement.
Superposition Baby, more Concepts than You got Cells turns an argument about weights, neurons and features into competing voices, repetition and a final joke.
Listen for the correction: the opening voice confidently mixes things up. The answer is part of the song.
Superposition Baby, more Concepts than You got Cells
The player connects to Suno only when you choose to load it.
Artist name: Ragnar Bratten · Educational experiment
Open a line. Follow the idea.
“Weights in the file, features in the flow”
A compact hook, with a useful distinction.
Weights are stored model parameters. Activations are values computed for an input. Interpretability research studies recurring patterns in those activations as features. The weights shape how those patterns arise; the hook simplifies that relationship.
“More concepts than you got cells”
Superposition as a musical image.
In the cited toy-model research, a network can represent more features than it has dimensions by using overlapping directions. Applying this picture to larger models requires care; a feature is not simply one neuron with one fixed meaning.
Why does the first verse get it wrong?
The disagreement is the teaching device.
The song first presents a misconception, then challenges it. The exchange gives the listener both the misconception and the answer, using rhythm and repetition to make the distinction memorable.
Composition notebook / Supplied original instructionsAwaken Wired
Awaken Wired
(Chalumeau, Sul)
Artist name: Ragnar Bratten
36 barsThe introduction alone
7/8 · 2+2+3Written metric design
Five phasesFrom ppp to fff
An introduction composed as a sequence of changing states: the room breathes, a mechanical pulse takes hold, a light clicks on, and a chamber ensemble gathers until it is cut away.
Fredrik’s supplied instructions connect everyday sounds to a tightly specified musical form. Cloth, breath, wire hangers and radiator ticks become part of the written arrangement alongside prepared guitar, harmonium, bass clarinet, flute and strings.
Awaken Wired (Chalumeau, Sul)
The player connects to Suno only when you choose to load it.
Five phases of one opening
The written plan: 116 BPM, 7/8 grouped 2+2+3.
| Bars / Phase | Dramatic movement | What the instructions ask for |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 / 1A | The room becomes audible | Granular fabric and breath textures, small metal sounds and a very quiet, dry, widely separated stereo space. |
| 5–12 / 1B | A rhythmic motor takes hold | Prepared acoustic guitar repeats D–A–E–A–C–A–G. Radiator ticks supply metric accents while the fabric layer continues. |
| 13–20 / 2A | A switch triggers a new foundation | A central lamp-switch click cues a D/A harmonium drone and electrical hum. Bass clarinet enters in the chalumeau register. |
| 21–28 / 2B | The chamber texture tightens | Viola and cello use sul ponticello tremolos, harmonics and col legno gestures. Alto flute adds interlocking fragments above the continuing drone. |
| 29–36 / 3 | Pressure, saturation, then absence | A chamber-orchestra crescendo adds chromatic tension and microtonal glissandi. The written hard cut removes the ensemble, exposing the underlying room layers. |
Three layers keep the room present.
The granular fabric-and-breath texture, the prepared-guitar motor with radiator accents, and the harmonium/hum foundation are introduced separately. They are asked to persist through the larger ensemble and remain when it drops away.
Technique carries the image.
Chalumeau register, sul ponticello, col legno and portamento give the instructions a specific palette. These choices connect the desired physical sensation to an instrumental action.
The final cut changes what came before.
The climax is planned together with its disappearance. Returning to the bare room makes the small, early textures part of the ending of the introduction.
Read the complete original intro instructions
This is the complete five-phase example supplied by Fredrik. Wording, notation and original spellings are retained.
[Intro - Phase 1A: Subterranean Room Tone & Foley Architecture (Bars 1-4)]
[style: electroacoustic minimalism, musique concrète, subterranean foley art, dark ambient]
[genre: experimental sound-art, avant-folk, electroacoustic chamber music]
[tempo: 116 BPM, rigid mechanical clockwork pulse, strict 7/8 time signature subdivided 2+2+3]
[mix: hyper-intimate close-mic recording, zero reverb, bone-dry acoustic space, extreme binaural left-right separation, high transient definition]
[layer 3 initialization: introduce continuous stereo granular texture; microscopic recordings of heavy cotton bedsheets twisting, dry linen shirts brushing against plaster wall, and metal wire coat hangers softly clinking; pitch-shift and time-stretch breathless vocal exhalations into a shimmering ghost-pad locked to high A4 (440Hz) and E5 (659.25Hz), panning asymmetrically in a slow figure-eight across the stereo field]
[dynamics: pianissimo possibile (ppp), tense nocturnal stillness, sensory deprivation atmosphere]
[vocals: none, strictly instrumental and electroacoustic foley]
[Intro - Phase 1B: The Thermal Pulse & Prepared Pluck (Bars 5-12)]
[style: polyrhythmic minimalism, prepared acoustic chamber-folk, mechanical rhythm-art]
[genre: avant-folk, post-minimalism, experimental acoustic]
[tempo: 116 BPM, locked 7/8 meter (1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3)]
[layer 2 initialization: introduce continuous rhythmic motor; a vintage small-body acoustic guitar prepared with a strip of dense felt and rubber wedged under the strings at the saddle; execute a relentless, dry, woody eighth-note arpeggio pattern across every bar: D3 - A3 - E4 - A3 - C4 - A3 - G3]
[percussion integration: layer a sampled cast-iron water radiator expanding under thermal pressure; sharp, resonant metallic pipe ticks locked with surgical precision to beat 1 and beat 5 of every 7/8 measure, acting as a skeletal snare and kick replacement]
[mix: prepared guitar panned 15% left with boosted 1.2kHz fingernail attack; radiator ticks panned 15% right with resonant metallic ring at 3.5kHz; layer 3 fabric whispers continuing uninterrupted in the wide periphery]
[dynamics: pianissimo (pp) to mezzo-piano (mp), hypnotic, insistent, inescapable insomnia groove]
[Intro - Phase 2A: The Incandescent Ignition (Bars 13-20)]
[style: drone minimalism, dark chamber-folk, electro-organic art-pop]
[genre: contemporary classical drone, experimental chamber music, avant-garde folk]
[sfx: at Bar 13 Beat 1, execute a loud, startling, hyper-realistic mechanical bakelite ceiling-lamp pull-cord SWITCH CLICK dead-center in the mix]
[layer 1 initialization: triggered immediately by the switch click, unleash the third continuous foundation layer; a 19th-century wooden reed harmonium fused with a raw 50Hz European electrical alternating-current ballast hum and warm vacuum-tube saturation; hold an unbroken, monolithic open fifth drone on low D2 (73.42Hz) and A2 (110Hz); emphasize the physical mechanical wheezing of the foot-pumped bellows and wooden key-thumps]
[harmony: static D5 pedal foundation supporting shifting modal clusters above: Dm9 (Bars 13-14) | Em7/D (Bars 15-16) | Fmaj7#11/D (Bars 17-18) | C6/D (Bars 19-20)]
[instrumentation: a solo bass clarinet enters in its lowest, woody chalumeau register, playing long, mournful, breathy sustained tones that rub against the harmonium drone in minor-second intervals before resolving to the ninth (E) and eleventh (G)]
[mix: harmonium and 50Hz electrical hum anchored dead-center from 40Hz to 800Hz; layers 1, 2, and 3 now fully interlocked as the permanent sonic spine of the piece]
[Intro - Phase 2B: Nocturnal Chamber Weaving (Bars 21-28)]
[style: polyphonic chamber-folk, cinematic art-pop, microtonal chamber music]
[genre: modern classical, chamber-pop, orchestral avant-folk]
[harmony: Dm9 (2 bars) | Em7/D (2 bars) | Fmaj7#11/D (2 bars) | C6/D (2 bars) over relentless D2/A2 drone]
[instrumentation: solo muted viola and solo cello enter with restless, glassy sul ponticello (bowed near the bridge) tremolos and fragile harmonics; an alto flute weaves contrapuntal, dizzying 7/8 melodic fragments that interlock mathematically with the D-A-E-A-C-A-G prepared guitar pluck]
[articulation: alternate between icy col legno (tapping strings with the wood of the bow) synced to the radiator clicks, and searing, expressive portamento slides mimicking the disorientation of staring into an unshielded lightbulb in a dark bedroom]
[dynamics: steady poco a poco crescendo from mezzo-piano (mp) to forte (f), narrowing the perceived walls of the room]
[Intro - Phase 3: The Blinding Filament Crescendo & Hard Cut (Bars 29-36)]
[style: maximalist avant-pop, dissonant orchestral chamber-rock, spectralism]
[genre: experimental orchestral art-pop, avant-garde classical, noise-chamber]
[tempo: 116 BPM, frantic 7/8 urgency, zero rubato]
[harmony: relentless chromatic upward tension climb over immovable D pedal: Bbmaj7/D (Bars 29-30) | Gm9/D (Bars 31-32) | A7(b9)/D (Bars 33-34) | A7#5#9/D (Bars 35-36)]
[instrumentation: full 12-piece chamber orchestra erupts; first and second violins, violas, cellos, double bass, oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, and contrabassoon engage in a staggered upward microtonal glissando, climbing slowly across two octaves toward a piercing, blinding high-register cluster]
[percussion: radiator metallic clicks double into sixteenth-note chatter; deep orchestral floor toms, dry wooden rimshots, and brushedconcert bass drum pound out the 2+2+3 metric accents with brutal physical weight]
[mix: push the entire chamber orchestra into warm analog tape saturation and heavy bus compression; high-frequency string overtones shimmer blindingly between 6kHz and 12kHz like an overheated tungsten filament about to snap; keep the 3 core room layers buried but audible inside the maelstrom]
[dynamics: climb relentlessly to an overwhelming, claustrophobic fortissimo possibile (fff) at Bar 36 Beat 6]
[transition: at Bar 36 Beat 7, execute an instantaneous, surgical RAZOR-SHARP HARD CUT of the entire chamber orchestra, woodwinds, bass, and percussion; zero reverb tail on the orchestra; leave a startling 1-beat vacuum where ONLY the bare, naked 3 continuous room layers (50Hz harmonium drone, muted guitar pluck, radiator click, and fabric breath) remain suspended in bone-dry air]