Knas (pronounced ka-nahs) is me, i am Knas. My name is Karl Ekdahl, and i am both the capitalist owner as well as the proletarian worker of the concept of Knas, which is a nickname given to me by my best friend over a decade ago. I am not however the only one who contributes to Knas. i have many friends that help out in all different kinds of ways and areas, most noticably Zoe Burke who has been making the bulk of moisturizers since 2013. Knas was started with the help of Martin Schmidt (of Matmos) in early 2009 and released it's first product, The Ekdahl Moisturizer, the same summer. Since then, Knas has been constantly working on producing Ekdahl Moisturizers for the purpose of world domination.

People who should be mentioned as significant contributors to Knas include: Martin Schmidt (Matmos), Jason Willet (Leprechaun Catering / Half Japanese), Zoe Burke (Myconids / Reverse Baptism), Max Eilbacher (Needle Gun), Lars Ekdahl (my dad), Joshua Atkins (Polygons), Nicolette Le Faye (Double Date), Miguel Sabogal (Polygons), Ryan Wirth and whoever i have forgotten.

Knas exists primarily as an outlet for my own creativity. As i see it, Knas is an art project, a political vehicle and a company, in that order. If at any point I feel that Knas has outperformed its main purpose, isn't fun anymore, or has regressed into just being a source of income, Knas will either be restructured, or more likely, cease to exist.

The Philosophy of Knas is to make interesting products at a decent price that aren't just a damn rehash of the last 40 years of electronic music history, but that utilize well known concepts for the purpose of (hopefully) producing something new and tickling. Knas mostly works with analog circuits due to the vast possibilities of unpredictable and chaotic behavior that can be extracted through deliberate misdesign.

In my experience, what makes an instrument stand out is more often then not it's faults, imperfections and limitations. As a buyer of audio gear, i myself do not want to pay extra for unnecessary perfection & fancy enclosure design - it's what's inside that matters. Therefore, Knas deliberately does NOT waste time & money on paper-perfect calibrations etc. Knas products are NOT intended for people who like to masturbate to specifications of perfect frequency response and blah blah blah, but is intended for REAL musicians that are interested in expanding their audial palette. As of this writing (dec. 2010), all enclosures are printed and drilled by hand. When given the option between always delivering a "perfect" unit and raising the prices or letting minor imperfections through and keeping the prices lower - i choose the latter. Do not be fooled, i still have quality control & standards that in my own opinion are rather high. On the electrical side, everything always must be in 100% working order for a unit to be shipped out. Each unit is tested at least two times during the manufacturing process.

With the last sentence comes another thought - we currently live in a world where everything is packaged 3 times, you get at least 11 grocery bags while shopping, and people discard perfect products because of minor imperfections in the packaging. This enormous waste of materials and energy is the product of with corporate greed and what is destroying our world - and Knas does not want to be a part of it. As any business, we have losses in production, but rather then taking the economically more viable approach of discarding and replacing, Knas makes a serious effort to find & fix the issues. If they are deemed to not impair, neither now nor in the future, the performance of the unit, i will fix and ship them out.

As a company that is more or less a product of the Baltimore arts & music scene, i have made a point of (at times of high order volumes) only contracting people within said scene to help out making the Knas products. There are a lot of starving artists out there and this is my way of trying to pay back to the community that has helped me out so many times. Being appalled by how many businesses in america operate - having excessive hierarchys and rules whose only purpose seems to be to push people down - and the intensely meager minimum wage, Knas has decided to only contract help when a decent salary can be guaranteed and encourages having fun at work through being silly & going apeshit at times. A happy worker is a well performing worker.

Knas is at times deliberately going against what is generally considered good business practice. We are NOT driven by motives of excessive profit, but only strive to make the bare minimum to survive. We are also ready to take a political stance where it's deemed appropriate. Knas fully supports any effort to make life for LGBT persons have the same freedoms and options in life as heterosexuals. Many of the people involved in Knas fall into this category, as do many of our best customers. Knas also does not, and have never, taken any official loans Avoiding business with banks & other money institutions as much as possible seems like the most ethical thing to do, especially considering the recent economy failure. For this reason, however, the production volume is limited to a comfortable amount.

The company is located in Baltimore / Maryland / USA, the official address is:
Karl Ekdahl
407 North Paca Street #201
Baltimore MD 21201
USA

(but don't send packages to this address, contact me to get the shipping address)