Klowra enters the world stage with its beautifully evolved and fully-formed Quartet of Bloom Infinity Series - 9 x Multi-Mode / Multi-FX Pedals

If you’re getting something of a déjà-vu here - it’s because the Klowra Team at one stage worked for Alabs Audio - which launched the Adam Adventures Series a couple of years ago - as covered extensively on this site.

There was a parting of ways inside Alabs, something of a clash of conscience, where my main contacts - including my good friend Jinbo Hui split away to form their own company - now registered in China. The Alabs management had a different direction in mind - so the core active part of that company - engineering, design and marketing split away on their own - to carry on with their vision and direction under a new company - Klowra.

So we have 4 similar looking devices (cv Alabs) - a Pitch Shifter (VEIN), Multi-Modulator (SPROUT), Delay (EVERLAST), and Reverb (LIMBO). These are still 9-Mode Multi-FX Pedals, with ramping and freeze / infinity features, and tap-tempo - but all the algorithms have been re-done and refined - and various functional element have been evolved and enhanced and added to - with also the addition of a new ’Texture’ control - which allows you to either smooth out and dampen or intensify and add more feedback or resonance into individual effects. 

On cursory glance there are significant similarities with Alabs - including the same core colorways - but in slightly different shades / hues - even the styling of the artworks is relatively similar to the Alabs ones - while this Bloom Infinity Series carries a different origin story (which I will go into for later episodes), and the merch side and case candy is also much stronger for Klowra.

At a very basic level you can look upon these as being improved V2 editions of the original Alabs series - while they have been largely re-engineered here - and a great deal of time has gone into the fine-tuning and optimisation of these pedals. I like the concept of the LED Button which enables secondary modes / functions - I prefer that to the toggle switch on the Alabs series.

This to me looks like an every way improvement over the Alabs series - with the same low cost great value applied - as most of these are just $129.99, in fact all but the Vein Pitch-Shifter which goes for $149.99.

Klowra have been constantly refining their Bloom Infinity Series - and in fact we’ve just had a last minute update for the Everlast Delay - which involved updating the firmware via USB-C cable. I personally would have preferred to do that over Bluetooth and via an app - rather than loading a file up to my laptop - and having to use a hard-wired connection to the pedal - that way is so old-fashioned and inconvenient. But I understand that there is a signifcant cost to Bluetooth licensing and for small brands those costs can be the difference between profitability or loss!

Generally for me the experience is much the same - beautiful packaging, better case candy than for Alabs - which I will reflect on later - all-round these feel a little more rounded and sophisticated / refined compared to the predecessor pedals. In truth it’s been a really busy month - and I’ve not had too much time with these yet! I will of course be following up with individual reviews of each pedal where I delve deeper - here I will just be doing an overview roundup - with an explanation of key controls and algorithms / modes onboard - the deep-dives will come with the individual follow-up articles which will happen starting early next month - at the rate of circa one per week until all 4 are done!

You can buy all 4 from the Klowra Amazon.com Store (links below) (doesn’t seem to be enabled for every country yet!)- where the Vein Pitch Shifter is $149.99, and the other 3 - Sprout Multi-Modulator, Everlasting Multi-Delay, and Limbo Multi-Reverb are all @ $129.99!

Please refer to the Klowra Website for purchasing options.

Individual details one each - Controls and algorithms - follow below.

You can read up more about these pedals on the Klowra Website.

We will go into a lot more detail for the deep-dive reviews on each pedal!

Looks like we only have demos so far for the Everlast Delay and Limbo Reverb - I will add the others later - as and when they materialise!

For the Alabs Series the Reverb was the star of the show - and I expect that to be the case here too -  we’ll find out further when I do the full review - where the LIMBO will be the first I do a deep-dive on!