IF MUSIC HAD A QUIET SPOT where it went to wind down, that spot would be a rented apartment on Molenstraat, in The Hague. It would spend a sleepless night there, thinking, and it would be recorded by Matthew Florianz and Erik T’Sas. Over the span of one night, from dusk to dawn, the artists recorded the ambient CD, Molenstraat, their second collaboration, using a piano, a keyboard and sounds floating up from the street. In less than an hour, we spend a sleepless night with them; a sleepless night where emotions increase as fatigue grows and the activity outside wanes.
The title of each track being the time on which the artists started to record the song, the album begins at 16:30, at dusk, as the denizens of The Hague head home. Over the sound of footsteps and rain, of cars passing by, a light, pensive piano improvisation, reminiscent of Brian Eno’s Music for Airport, is played. In the background, layers of wave-like synthesized modulations are added. These layers are light and anything but overbearing. Unlike the heavy blankets of sound some ambient musicians can produce, these layers feel like sheer curtains floating in a breeze. The minimalist approach forces us to pay attention and allows us to live through the same emotions the artists experienced that night. Additional layers would have distanced us from this experience. Thus, with the first track, the day seems to be washed away by each rolling sound.
By 17:42, however, the sounds from the street are fewer and the music becomes darker, more brooding. The light natural piano is replaced by heavy synthesized chords, and the wave-like drifting becomes metallic chimes. Until 22:52, when the piano seems to lull itself to sleep, the brooding continues, and by 01:37, a quiet optimism sets in as though the artists respond to the end of the previous, darker day and the beginning of a new one. By the last track, which begins at 07:33, layers of waves, similar to the ones in the first track, shape the mood and sounds from the street filter back into the music.
The ambience created by Florianz and T’Sas in Molenstraat is palpable, the setting is real and the improvisation makes the whole experience personal. Through suggestion alone, we feel, in turn, relaxed, emotional, drowsy and ready for a new day. Molenstraat is a street in The Hague to which I will return again and again to relax at the end of the day.
