The audio track DTTR was produced using a handful of digital techniques, samples, and software packages. The composition first began while experimenting with an Apple iPad app called “Figure” developed by the pioneering Stockholm-based music software production firm Reason Studios.1 With a highly visual interface, Figure was designed to allow users to quickly create “an addictive beat” or “lay down a beefy bass line while waiting for the bus to arrive.”2 To accomplish this, the designers at Reason created a highly simplified “low-fi” interface around three sonic parameters: drum, bass, and lead.
After generating a core audio motif using Figure, I exported the final audio file and imported the sample into a desktop audio editor, and mixed it with various instrument and voice samples. Some of the voice samples were generated by yours truly, and others were sourced from the internet. One internet-sourced sample, which appears throughout the composition, features a sci-fi-like voiceover that states, “Use the location system to find your next objective.” My thought was that this might serve as a cue for listeners to be creative: the location system being one’s cognitive capacity, the next objective being a “project”3 of some kind.
The acronym DTTR used in the title was intended to have multiple meanings. A sample that is featured prominently in the montage is from the well-known American hymn “Down to the River to Pray.” DTTR may thus stand for “down to the river.” It might be noted that the exact origin of this hymn is unknown. An early version of the hymn, titled “The Good Old Way,”4 seems to have been published in the late 19th century.
The lyrical quality of the samples from “Down to the River” (sometimes titled “Down in the River”) is contrasted with electronic beats, samples, and various melodies. The last section of DTTR features a self-composed Flute Organ melody that attempts to bridge this melodic-electronic divide. Along these lines, a Google search for “DTTR” reveals a series of mostly technical usages (ex: Detecting Text with Transformers, Device Time To Repair). In somewhat trendy fashion, DTTR could read as a disemvoweled iteration of “deter.”
In terms of genre, DTTR might be best categorized as lo-fi hip-hop, synthwave, or “chill.” It was produced at exactly 100 bpm and has an atmospheric, nostalgic, and subtly futuristic vibe. This mix of sounds was likely influenced by hip-hop and synth-pop from the 1980 and 1990s. Short, rhythmic synth stabs and light arpeggiations give the track a gritty edge.
One key influence for the track might be the eclectic French duo Air.5 In the early 2000s, I attended a live symphony accompanied performance6 by the French duo Air while working on a photoshoot in Los Angeles. Air’s music has been described as space pop (or “space age pop”).7
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Footnotes
- “Reason Studios.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 May 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_Studios. ↩︎
- “Music Making Apps by Reason Studios.” Reason Studios, https://www.reasonstudios.com/mobile-apps. ↩︎
- Readers interested in broad notions of “projects” may be interested in my working literature review titled An Incomplete List of P-Words for Project-Based Pursuits. Available at: https://danvlahos.com/work/an-incomplete-list-of-p-words-for-project-based-pursuits/. ↩︎
- See: “Down in the River to Pray.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 July 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_in_the_River_to_Pray. ↩︎
- “Air (French band).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 July 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_(French_band). ↩︎
- This took place at the Hollywood Bowl. ↩︎
- “Space age pop.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 May 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_age_pop. ↩︎