Step into the haunting soundscape of a dystopian future with Ontzieling's debut 'All These Moments Will Be Lost'. This record with Blade Runner-esque qualities is a blend of ambient and experimental music, meticulously crafted to immerse you in the eerie ambiance of a crumbling metropolis. Each track is a journey through desolate streets, abandoned buildings, and the haunting echoes of a society that once was. 'All These Moments Will be Lost' captures the essence of isolation, decay, and the ghostly remnants of human existence.
The artwork is created by Herm the Younger: “We are faced with a scene that could be in a future era or at the beginning of the world. An epic scene, very surreal and conceptual, balanced in the frame and dissolving with time. Even the significant moment captured here is slipping into obscurity and will soon be forgotten.”
‘Ontzieling’ is an ambient project by Michael Paap, a music producer hailing from the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The project meticulously explores the realm of soundscapes, dark versus light, drone, noise and lo-fi, seamlessly weaving them together with the modular synthesizer. Each composition is an unfiltered glimpse into a moment, a live creation captured in one continuous take. The project’s essence lies in embracing the present, record, unplug and move forward.
--
Review by Frans de Waard in Vital Weekly:
"If you have been reading my reviews religiously (and there’s no reason for not doing so), you know I am a sucker for music with a dystopian character. Sometimes, it’s because I believe to hear this in the music, and sometimes because the musician or label latches this word on the music. Of course, it’s one of those catch-all phrases, and what I hear doesn’t mean something you hear. For me, it’s not just about a darker tone, which can easily be captured with an even more vague dark ambient. Still, it’s also about a certain graininess in the music, coupled with field recordings of abandoned industrial parks, faulty electric wiring and nuclear facilities. None of this is present in the music of Michael Paap, from Rotterdam, going by the name Ontzieling, ‘denouement’ in English, and with the coming All Souls Day, right on time. He uses a Eurorack modular synthesizer, and each of the four pieces is “an unfiltered glimpse into a moment, a live creation captured in one continuous take”. And while there may be no field recordings present in the recordings, there is a graininess in the music that makes this very dystopian. And what’s more, in the rusty pipes of Ontzieling, there is still room for the faint trace of melody, the dying breath of civilization perhaps, best exemplified in the opening piece ‘Tonder Zon’. But don’t let this melodic touch deceive you; it’s a small component in the soundtrack of urban mystery – Rotterdam, perhaps? I am curious to know how he feels about the state of his home turf, with quite a few explosions in recent times. Darkly meandering about this is some great, maybe some grey stuff. It is a great record, with only one downside: at 20 minutes, this is also a concise record. Why not 40? Why not a CD of 50 minutes? I was into this and it was over, and I went back in, and then again. Something powerful, and I would love to learn more about his music."
credits
released September 5, 2024
Music recorded with eurorack modular synthesizer
Written and produced by Michael Paap
Mastering by Rob Soma-Lewis at Ambient Works
Artwork by Herm the Younger
The Constellation Tatsu label can do no wrong, and with their latest batch of atmospheric ambient tapes, their winning streak continues. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 7, 2020
The North Carolina singer and multi-instrumentalist translates the "story of lightness" into nine experimental ambient spirituals. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 8, 2021
