(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.
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Project 24 Hours is out now on U-Cover.
