Altus - 24 Hours

Review by Victor Couwenbergh

2005 has been the year of remastering for Mike Carss of Altus. Normally, he releases two albums per year. In 2005, however, he released only one new full-length album, Autumn Breeze, and for the rest of the year, concentrated on reworking some of his older albums. Armed with new samples, better plugins and new soft-synths, he set to work fine tuning songs that never seemed quite as full and rich as they could have been. He completely re-worked Fire, taking out some tracks and adding new ones, polished up Winter Embrace, and is starting the new year with a re-worked 24 Hours.

Originally released in 2001, 24 Hours follows an entire day of contemplation in four tracks. Each phase of the day is examined emotionally and sonically. If you were alone on a mountaintop for a full day with no distractions, you might experience the feelings of wonder for nature which Altus captures perfectly on this album. Each epic track is no less than 13 minutes long, and the entire album clocks in at just over an hour. Plenty of time to catch a glimpse at the wonders nature offers us if we are willing to listen.

Entire samples sets were beefed up or outright replaced for the re-release of 24 Hours. After falling in love with the original, I was a little afraid that such a major overhaul would make it lose its sonic character. Amazingly, 24 Hours retains its personality and adds a whole new perspecitve on the music. The songs have aquired a new depth and richness that Mike's older recording techniques couldn't achieve. It's a major improvement, and I'm an even bigger fan of this album than I was for the original.

As always, 24 Hours will be made available for free on Mike's website. Make sure you check it out when he releases it New Year's Day, 2006. If you like ambient orchestral music, this will be an album to remember.

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