Blurstem

Blurstem is the ambient piano project of multidisciplinary artist and composer Chris Bartels, (who also writes under Elskavon, Dellwood, Olma, Bora York) whose work spans music, sound design, and visual storytelling. Known for crafting immersive, emotionally resonant worlds across multiple projects, Bartels approaches Blurstem as a space of restraint—where simplicity, silence, and time itself become primary creative tools. Originally conceived as a quiet side project to Bartels’ earlier work as Elskavon, Blurstem emerged during a period of profound personal transition. Shortly after buying his first home and welcoming his first child, Bartels found solace in late-night piano improvisations on a modest, felted instrument—recording unguarded sketches in the still hours when the house had fallen quiet. Those recordings became the foundation of Blurstem’s debut album, Among the Oaks (2019). Eight years later, Bartels returned to the archive, uncovering fragments that had never been fully realized. Listening back felt both distant and immediate—an encounter with a younger self whose voice remained deeply connected to the present. Rather than releasing the material as archival work, Bartels treated these fragments as raw source material, using them as a canvas for transformation. The result is Fallen Fragments—an album that expands sparse, emotive piano pieces through analog tape loops, reverb-soaked layers, time-warping processes, reversals, pitch shifts, and repetition.