(07.14.07) The first six hours
Belgian label U-Cover have for many years released small run CD’s by a
range of both established and largely unknown artists. Always keeping an
eye on quality, the label consistently releases great melodic electronic
music often as part of a dedicated series of themed releases. Project 24
Hours is no exception but takes the concept a whole stage further.
One of the most prolific artists on the U-Cover roster is masterminded
by label head Koen Lybaert and Mexican musician Ester Santoyo and goes
by the name Ontayso. After a long period of planning, Project 24 Hours
finally became a reality late in 2006. The concept was to take a series
of one hour field recordings and turn them into a diverse range of
electronic soundscapes. Each CD in the series is one hour long and they
are released in pairs, a set a month for a year. Each CD comes in a slim
clear plastic CD case along with a glossy divider card with recording
information and a colorful photo taken in or around Ontayso’s base in
Belgium. The first of the releases also came with a solid clear plastic
box to hold the full series of 24 CD’s. Covering a whole range of
melodic, dub influenced, dark and ambient styles the ambitious boxset is
limited to a very small number of just 45 editions, all of which are
long since sold out. Luckily, a second edition of 35 copies has now been
made available through the U-Cover website and a short series of
summarized versions can also be found there.
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Hour One. Field recording 16.09.2006 :: 00:00 to 01:00 in Geel, Belgium.
The low drone of distant traffic or roar of a passing plane and the
manipulated sound of footsteps on a concrete floor start Hour One
atmospherically, as if doing the ground work to set the scene for a
story yet untold. Add to that some metallic strings and random animal
noises and an image starts to form of the setting and environment
Ontayso inhabit. A long walk through dark city streets in the dead of
night perhaps? The addition of lush orchestration and strings further
strengthen this image and add an air of melancholy turning into hopeful
optimism. It is not long however before the dark veil of a troubled soul
returns once more. Incredibly intense and introspective atmospheres are
consistent themes through the first quarter of Hour One, at which point
the mood becomes considerably more energetic, anxious and agitated,
almost as though the slow walk has become a fast run, almost out of
desperation or fear. After the danger has passed, the mood returns to
its former low dark tones with the sound of passing cars, the activity
of other people and birds squawking. Eventually, as the environment
becomes busier, the mood seems to lift and become more relaxed and less
threatening, but it is not long before a low rumble and helicopter style
electronic whirs bring back an air of impending danger and a need for
self-preservation. An insistent heart-pounding train-like percussive
beat brings with it the sense that whatever is in pursuit is getting
very close and the fear intensifies as if frantically trying to escape a
prolonged chase on foot as the net closes in. Hour One closes with hazy
static that fades away to just the rumble of passing traffic and some
doleful orchestral strings, leaving us to reach our own conclusion to
the story. (4.5/5)
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Hour Three. Field recording 19.09.2006 :: 02:00 to 03:00 in Geel, Belgium.
Hour Three opens with sweeping synth tones and a low minimal drone with
insect noise or birdsong backing. The mood is atmospheric but at the
same time spacious and expansive, almost like being weightless in space.
A few short minutes in the atmospheric mood subsides and a throbbing
rhythmic beat something like an electronic representation of a train’s
rhythm prevails over sweeping synth tones. It is at this point that the
mood becomes more upbeat and revitalized with a renewed sense of anxious
urgency. When the journey is complete everything breaks down to return
to the gentler futuristic ambience experienced at the start, becoming
increasingly minimal until all that remains is a low rumble and a sound
something akin to the tune transmitted during Close Encounters of the
Third Kind. This is broken up by a period of tonal ambience with an
environmental, almost tropical, feel that eventually returns to its
previous form, adding an ominous low pounding like an approaching war
machine beneath it. The overall mood of Hour Three is one of gentle
tonal ambience with a spacious futuristic quality and hints of a dark
undercurrent. (3/5)
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Hour Five. Field recording 13.09.2006 :: 00:50 to 06:00 in Geel, Belgium.
During its fifth hour, the project takes a more sinister turn, creating
an air of dark urban tension. The mood as this hour progresses is of
tense anxiety with an almost expectant air of danger from which there is
no hiding place. There is a feeling of being watched from the shadows as
if there is a debt to be paid and repayment day is rapidly approaching.
Hour Five gives the feeling of desperately traveling around a cold dark
city, without any real purpose, looking for answers to a problem that
lies heavy on their shoulders. At around the halfway point, the mood
changes and a fast insistent beat and ominous low bassy thud appears as
the chase begins and the desperate need to survive kicks in before
returning to the dark ambience of before. The second half of this disc
maintains the mood and intensity of the first half but intersperses it
with energetic bursts of metallic rhythm or dark noise. This half of the
disc is also more abstract and slightly random, almost as though
portraying a sense of confusion and disarray. This hour of music could
represent the final hour waiting for the time to arrive when you meet
your fate. This whole hour of music is intense and drenched in a dark
desperate anxiety beautifully crafted to set a scene, create a mood and
expand on it further. The best ambient experimental music can create
images and feelings within the listener and this disc does that
wonderfully. Played back to back, Hour One and Hour Five tell their own
story and could form the soundtrack to an imaginary film. (4.5/5)
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Hour Seven. Field recording 13.09.2006 :: 07:00 to 08:00 in Geel, Belgium.
In contrast to Hour Five, Hour Seven depicts an entirely different mood
and feeling. A low mechanical fan-like hum and a hollow swirling drone
become increasingly prominent as the scene is set. The mood is dark but
upbeat, the music dry, repetitive and arid. After this lengthy
introduction, the atmosphere changes to an urban soundscape complete
with passing traffic and the electronic representation of insect sounds.
There is a persistent heartbeat like rhythm throughout and the mood is
one of heavy ambience, the sounds of a busy city constantly present but
juxtaposed against the sound of birdsong, perhaps indicating a location
on the outskirts of the city where the metropolis opens up and becomes
greener. On one hand you have the noisy hustle and bustle of a congested
city and on the other the open spaciousness of the countryside. It could
also represent the problems facing us in this day and age, the need to
work in and be close to the city counteracting the desire to live in the
clean open countryside away from the noise and pollution. (3/5)
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Hour Nine. Field recording 18.10.2006 :: 08:00 to 09:00 in Geel, Belgium.
Hour Nine picks up where Hour Seven leaves off. This time however, the
beat is a rounded, rhythmic and coolly digital. Bearing the traits of
the heavy suburban landscape, with its traffic noise and busy throb,
Hour Nine is very much an extension of the previous hour in this set.
Based around the noise of transportation and the associated rhythms and
sounds they create, this disc also has a claustrophobic feeling of
enclosed space, a sense of ensuing panic and a need to escape. (2.5/5)
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Hour Eleven. Field recording 19.09.2006 :: 10:00 to 11:00 in Geel, Belgium.
The final hour in this first batch of six hour long discs opens with
rural ambience dominated by layered birdsong that soon give way to
vaguely Eastern influenced metallic rhythms with increasingly cavernous
bassy undertones. As this fades away the sound of traffic and birdsong
segues into an extended period of deep bouncing bass and train-like
rhythms from before breaking down and transforming into a darker, more
abstract, experimental take on itself. After a further segue of birdsong
and passing traffic links to metallic techno influenced rhythms, the
mood slowing and drifting texture, choir-like tones and rainfall draw
the hour to its close. This disc offers quite a mixture of similarly
themed styles but is generally more upbeat and rhythm oriented than the
others in this set. (3/5)
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Project 24 Hours is out now on U-Cover.
