Paul Hartnoll (ex-Orbital), Friday October 9, The Empire, Belfast.
“I’VE always been interested in time,” says Paul Hartnoll, formerly one half of beloved techno pioneers Orbital, who brought down the curtain on their 25 year long career in 2014.
“I’ve always had a thing for clocks and for time as a powerful force – but also the way time oppresses you. It’s one of those things I keep coming back to.”
It was time to turn back the clock after Paul and his brother Phil called it quits last year.
As he began to explore the new freedom of working alone, Paul kept returning to a doodle he has drawn since he was a teenager: a clock face frozen at 8:58.
“For me, 8:58 is a moment of choice,” Paul explains. “It’s almost 9 o’clock. Are you going to school? Are you going in to this job that you hate? Everybody faces that decision now and again. 8:58am is when you've got to make up your mind.”
The resulting solo project and album, 8:58, finds the Orbital man broadening his sonic palate in an experimental, soundtracky fashion via collaborations with folksters The Unthanks, singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt and Robert Smith of The Cure, not to mention an opening monologue on the theme of time by Irish actor Cillian Murphy.
On his upcoming tour, Paul plans to bring the album to life along with plenty of classic Orbital tracks like Chime, Halcyon, Satan, Forever and – in all probability – Belfast.
:: Tickets £17 from Ticketmaster outlets
