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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
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» SPECIALS
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THE AURORA PROJECT
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Remco, Marc, Joris, Mox & Dennis
February 2006
http://www.theauroraproject.com
ProgPower 2005 was the first chance for The Aurora Project (TAP for short), to present themselves and their atmospheric, symphonic progrock to a bigger audience. They received many good reviews and their CD "Unspoken Words" that was released shortly after, got received very well too. The concept of the CD was based on an essay of guitarist Marc Vooys and 5 out of the 6 guys extensively answered the questions I had about the CD, the concept and the band. Read and learn!
Congratulations with your wonderful debut album! How have the reactions been?
Remco: Overwhelming! The majority of the reactions of our album are very positive and that is really satisfying. We started this whole adventure by recording a few songs with some good friends because we liked our music so much, not with the intention of spreading it around the world. That it (after some ups and downs) turned out like this, with our album released around the globe and with all of this exposure and positive responses, is in one word fantastic.
How did you come up with the concept idea and can you explain it a little bit in short? If possible, not as short as "based on an essay" or "centres around the statement "I feel, so I exist"", but also not as complex as the long explanation in the multi-media section :)
Marc: The idea of creating a musical work which is based upon a psychological hypothesis started some six years ago. At that moment I was researching the use of "trance-state" experiments within normal analytical therapy and this caught my intention to use this within music. The hypothesis mainly deals with sub-consciousness experiences, which are hidden from the conscious awareness, but can be recalled through a type of hypnotical state of mind. These same conditions are reached when jamming and this gave a good opportunity to use
this hypothesis within the creation of music. At the same time I was also writing lyrics dealing with spiritual growth against different types of levels of awareness. We used these lyrics to find a collective empathical sense within our jamming sessions and after a period of time these songs evolved into the final tracks of the concept. Although the storyline is the same as the initial writing, the lyrics of the concept were mainly written and formed during the process of writing the music of the concept.
Thanks! That is a lot clearer (to me at least) than the long story.
The tracklisting on the CD is different from what you and DVS put online. Online only the 10 "normal" songs are listed, but on the CD you list 14 tracks (incl. the narrated songs) and there is a 15th track, the song we can hear in the multi-media section. Why isn't that one listed on the CD as well and what is the title? Why aren't all of them listed online as well?
Remco: I always liked the idea of a secret bonus track, a track that is a bit off. Some of my favorite albums contained one (Nevermind - Nirvana, Opiate - Tool etc.). Also many classic albums from Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin had a really mellow last track. A perfect ending to a sonic voyage.
The first few seconds or so were actually some of the first Aurora recordings ever. During our studio time we found a cassette tape with some jams of Dennis and me. We couldn't resist to put the piece of TAP history on the album :-)
You chose to put several narrated songs on the CD, two are full-length songs and in my opinion they intervene with and disrupt the mood that has been build up at that moment. Why did you chose to do it this way and not with more and shorter parts instead?
Joris: We hear this comment from a lot of reviewers. When you just listen to the music and neglect the story that is told to you on "Unspoken Words", you are absolutely right. For the "Unspoken Words" story, the narrated parts in fact play quite an important role. They reveal important information about moods and feelings of the character(s) within "Unspoken Words". Listen to them as markers on the story path or mood swings. After each narrated part, a new door (mood) is opened to you. The big one in the middle has been give a special place on the album and actually describes the event that triggered "Unspoken Words" to be written at all. Listen very carefully to these parts for they reveal the true nature of "Unspoken Words"!!
You have used a choir and flutist Maria Haasnoot (who also joined you on stage at ProgPower) on the album, can you tell me a bit more about them?
Joris: I guess we have a lot of musically gifted friends and family.
Maria Haasnoot in fact is my mother. She is a flute teacher on a music school in the Netherlands. I always had a weak spot for the melancholic sound of an alt flute. It just matched beautifully with the sound of "Nocternal". Something that had to be done! Maria really enjoys playing with us.
During the recording period - back in the 21st century - my father, Jaap Bol, conducted a local choir called "Cantilene". This of course was a unique opportunity for us. About half the choir was willing to participate on "Unspoken Words". Together with some friends, even neighbours and most of our own voices we recorded the end part of "The Resurrection".
The composer of the choir piece - Leo Kohlenberg - is a friend of the family. Although he didn't like our music at all, he did a great job. ;-)
The narrator of the album - Gerrit Versteegh - was a former colleague of Remco and Dennis. He seemed very interested in the "Unspoken Words" story and one day asked for a copy. A few days later he came along with this minidisk… so the story 
goes…
Further more, there's the clarinet player to whom we only refer as "the stigg". He was part of a musical ensemble in which Remco participated. There used to be a violin on the album too.
The album was produced by Arno van Dreef and mastered by Sander van der Heijden. Did you chose to work with these people for specific reasons?
Remco: We already knew Arno from his work from his band Smogus. He also recorded our first demo. Arno is a really pleasant guy to work with, who constantly challenges you to experiment. When the time was right for the full length, the choice was obvious.
Sander was pointed out to us by Arno. He knew his work already, and he did wonders to the total sound of our album.
You went out of your way to present a whole package - the music, the concept and the multi-media part. Was it a must for you to present yourselves as allround artists? I only have the promo, is there any special package for the retail CD?
Dennis: We are collecting as much live video takes we can from our performances, to make a DVD with special content for the fans. The retail CD contains an Aurora multimedia section with the background of the concept, pictures and a integration with our website.
The Aurora Project is all about athmosphere. By using video projections and voice samples for live shows and with our website and multimedia software we want to engross the listener in that atmosphere.
The musicianship, artistic talents as well as the highly intelligent concept makes me curious about your backgrounds musically as well as socially (studies etc). Can you tell me a bit more about that?
Mox: You could say that we all have a different background musically (jazz, EM, metal, rock etc), but in a strange way we all have prog-blood pumping through our veins. This, in combination with the way our songs come to existence, provided the music of "Unspoken Words". For the concept we had our own mad professor Marc.
Where does the band name come from? Does it mean something specific?
Joris: There's a story behind the name… After working through the entire English dictionary without result, we decided to name the band after a song of one of our key role model bands "The 3rd and the Mortal". That song in particular was entitled "Aurora Borealis". We figured to call ourselves "Aurora".
Later on, we noticed that a band called "Aurora" already existed. By adding "The" and "Project", not only it sounded more "flexible", it also seemed an original band name since no other existing band showed up at Google. What did show up at Google was a mystical aircraft. So, you'll understand why we kept the name The Aurora Project.
How was ProgPower for you? You have gotten many good reviews!
Dennis: The ProgPower was a great experience, we worked very hard for this festival because ProgPower was our first big presentation to all the progfans. And of course the media attention that comes with these kinds of festivals. We were staying at a brilliant location, an old castle with a lot of festival visitors and other bands. The atmosphere was great and we partied all night long on progressive rock. We had a terrific 3 days in Baarlo and we hope that more of these festivals are coming our way next year.
Are you already writing new songs? At ProgPower you played a song that is not on this CD, "The Connection". Is that a new song?
Mox: Yes it is, and writing new songs for us is an ongoing process. We love to experiment and to jam, that combination regularly gives birth to a new song. Also don't forget that a relatively long time has passed since we recorded the album, so we already have some very good material trapped in our TAP heads waiting to come out…
What are your plans for the near future? Gigs, tours, festivals maybe?
Joris: 2006 will be The Unspoken Year for us. That means we have to play our asses off. ;-) As we speak, we're working on promo packages which will be send soon to bookers in the Netherlands as well as in Europe. We also plan to do some small tours this year. Keep watching our website for a gig in your neighbourhood!!
submitted by Marlies 27.02.2006
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