MySpace Trawl - Athome Project
Then buzz it up
November 9th, 2006 at 15:30 by Matthew Laidlow
As you’ve probably come to realise over time, we like a lot of different-sounding things. Remember the kids in school who used to call you gay for listening to jazz while they preached about how gangster rap was the best thing since Swiss cheese?
Sadly they still exist and will probably continue to mock you, but don’t worry there’s a kind, loving home for you here. With these MySpace Trawls we like to expose ourselves - not literally - to everything that’s being made by musicians across the world. Our basic way of thinking is, if it sounds good we’ll listen to it, no questions asked. A good old donkey’s age ago, we stumbled across the Norwegian act Sirka Ragnar. Nice stuff came from there, the gentle melodies and flowing beats made it a firm favourite in the hecklerspray boombox. We decided to return to Norway this week to see what else we could find in its treasure chest of musical gems. It’s more electronic mayhem this week as we explore the sounds of the Athome Project.
The Athome project is the brainchild of Stian Jacobsen, who's been experimenting with music since 1998. That’s eight whole years! In this time, a whole range of sounds have been tried, tested and experimented with. Primarily, it’s the more calmer side of electronica with the sounds of jazz, downtempo and leftfield beats all being blended together to create his distinct sound.
What struck us when we were browsing the Athome Project was the amount of time he’s been producing music for. As we’ve mentioned, he’s been going for eight years, which is a long time, without either a) giving up, b) going bust or c) being noticed. Usually, a lot of bands will play for a few years before realising they're either not very good or the music industry couldn't vare less about them since they're not seen as mainstream anymore. This is happening more and more now with bands disappearing as quickly as they started. So unless you're very familiar with your Norwegian electronica, were gonna assume the majority of you haven’t stumbled across this act before.
But surely someone has done to keep the Athome Project in business? On closer inspection, it becomes apparent that a lot of his earlier works were used on Norwegian TV. Having your music played on TV is always a sure fire way of getting yourself noticed by millions of people who normally wouldn’t touch you with a barge pole. It happened for Aqualung when their oh so happy song Strange and Beautiful was used to flog a dodgy motor. Apart from getting his music distributed in his native country, one release was picked up from a German label we’ve never of called Stereo Deluxe. Having your music heard in another country obviously can’t be a bad thing so more fans were won over in Germany.
The music itself is a delicate thing indeed. Imagine if you’re in a nightclub and sick of hearing the same music for four hours of raving away. Logic says you’ll want to escape this and go somewhere to chill out. This is where you’ll here the music of the Athome Project. It’s deeply soothing and will unwind you. It’s the perfect soundtrack to watching the world go by. Soothing beats with melodies that create the illusion of being in a dreamlike state of mind urge you to stop what your doing and just relax. All four tracks available on the Athome Project MySpace page are all up for download which is a first for any artist we’ve covered. Usually they're keen to give something away, but keep you hungry for future offerings.
A wide offering of tracks from across the years show a good template of how the sound of the Athome Project has altered and experimented. Our personal favourite track is Analogue Acoustics which starts off with a lo-fi piano chord whilst the sound of a camera clicking away is placed over the top. Add to this some post-drum & bass beats (if there is such a thing) then you’ve got a sound that you could dance to if you have the energy to after a long night, or simply listen to as your night draws to an end.
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