Notre Dame is a producer from Paris whose early release landed on Solomun’s Diynamic, followed by records on Cercle and Innervisions. His music sounds organic and alive, with an eighties disco flavour, and it still hits hard in a club. That balance is why his tracks work on Spotify and on the dance floor.
1. Keep the drums simple
The drums do one job: give everything else an easy foundation. The feel is classic boom chug, and most of the atmosphere comes from a single move on the snare.
Key settings:
- Kick with its character in the mids, solid sub underneath
- Snare into Hybrid Reverb with a wooden room and a long decay, blended in
- Filtered percussion hits around the snare for variation
- Hats on a basic pattern
2. Organic bass sound design
From the first note you can hear a real acoustic bass aesthetic. He may well record an electric bass. If you don’t play, you can get close in Serum 2 by layering a multisample of a plucked bass with wavetables, then shaping it.
Key settings:
- Multisample of a plucked bass carries the character, wavetables add weight
- Snappy envelope, not too long
- Width from the Dimension effect
- Filter down a little further so it stays gnarly and locks with the drums
- MIDI: straight eighth notes, nothing else
3. Build the theme on a half step
This is where the feelings live. The theme sits on a half step in the scale, which gives you instant tension and emotion. In E minor that means the third and the second, G and F sharp. Then it is all sound selection and layering.
The four layers:
- Deep lead with glide, a move that runs through his whole catalogue
- Higher, more energetic lead on top
- Character lead with a completely different tone to the first two
- Piano playing the chords underneath
4. Run the atmosphere continuously
The atmosphere is the glue that gives the harmony somewhere to live. Mute it and the track falls apart.
Key settings:
- Saw pad or drone through the whole track
- Plucks running on top of it
- A held chord as the third layer
5. Arrange so every part stands on its own
His drums and bass are catchy enough to live on their own. Everything else is built to complement them, so adding layers over time feels huge, not cluttered. That is what lets him build two different drops: a deep, bass-driven first drop and a full harmony drop.
The structure:
- Intro: bass plus only the low layer of the theme
- Drop 1: bass, rhythm and atmosphere, stripped down, harmony stays on the root
- Breakdown: atmosphere changes, theme thins out
- Final build: two new layers arrive, a very high saw with a descending line and a filtered, gritty pluck
- Drop 2: everything at once, and the bass finally moves through a progression while the theme stays exactly the same
Same theme, new context. That is what makes the second drop land.
Get the project
Everything in this breakdown comes from the Indie Dance sound pack Surge: 10 fully produced Ableton projects, 415+ samples, and 60 Serum 2 presets with matching MIDI. Open the project, solo every layer, and see exactly how the theme is built.
Watch the full breakdown
Reference tracks
Typical reference tracks for this style are:
- Notre Dame – No Rules
- Brunello – Ghost Dance
- Brunello – Iluzja
- Blond:ish, Darco, Broken Hill – GOAT
- Nico de Andrea – I’m Here
- Max Styler – Inferno
- Hugel, Mydoz – Pull Up
- Romain Dary – Really That Simple
- Andruss – Active
- Jon.K – Moet
