ATONE
Un jour EP
CDR-/Download, autres
directions in music
Another “moulinette”, another direction in music. This label keeps on
surprising me with the diversity as well as with the quality of the music
they release. Every endeavour, be it artistical or economical, has that
point of “tipping over”, where it either turns into being well-known and
profitable or sinks into the black forge of anonymity. In between is the
grey area, in which people like Stephane struggle to keep their idea alive
and to draw it into the direction, they once figured they’d like it to go.
Finally, I hope, his work is starting to pay off – not in material terms,
but in terms of artistical satisfaction, networks of likeminded people, and,
in a way, having made a name for himself. This is the sixth release on
autres directions in music, and the one that should finally prove that this
label is more than just a hobby or a swell idea to work on after the dayjob.
So, when all respects have been paid to this unique label, let’s get on to
the music.
While I am sitting here, drinking water and eating sugar, trying to
disregard the throbbing pain in the palm of my right hand, where I have
inflicted an open wound of about 2cm radius, while working heavy machinery,
Atone is throbbing away around my head filling everything with a slightly
deconstructed music concrete. Five tracks of keyboards, sequencers,
drumboxes and harmonicas mixed into tracks that prod along their
self-reflective rhythms, I start to wonder what it all means. The atmosphere
is one of relaxed uneasiness, sounds start to rise from the mix and cling to
the back of my brain, sometimes comforting my, other times – e.g. the
high-pitched noises during “c’est fini” – unsettling me. Everything
adds to the mix and the mix itself is the floodgate to let the waters drain.
Less dangerous than Harpages
but more exhausting than Dirge,
these soundscapes do take their toll on the listener, while also offering
relief. The piano-chords during the opening of the last track “qobac
sine” are comforting, though subsequently muted and muffled and drenched
with more overdriven guitar-sounds. That track especially manages to wander
between the world of the peaceful and the eerie. Well, to some the quiet
moments before a heavy rainstorm breaks lose are frightening while others
enjoy exactly those moments, when the rising electricity in the air is
almost smellable.
Staying with that track, it is also the perfect example of the way Atone
moves within its tracks, starting at one point, and then adding layer upon
layer, covering some parts of the music completely, while shoving other into
the foreground, slowly but persistently. Until what has started off as a
slow, melancholic but relaxing piano-piece, made to enjoy, turns into a big
heap of music concrete, with layers and layers of keyboard-sounds. Other
tracks use different sounds, from glass chimes to digital noisery, to
whatever seems close at hand. The washes of white noise mixed into
interferences at the beginning of the first track should be mentioned.
