Under an Hour was originally composed as one-time accompaniment for a modern dance performance at Portland, OR's Time-Based Art Festival in September, 2004. But after working on the composition for up to eight months,
Menomena's three members decided to commit the music to tape. For those of us who missed the one-and-only showing of
Under an Hour, we can be thankful they did. What's impressive about
Menomena's score is not only how well it accompanied the dance (clips are available through the band's website), but how effective it is without any visuals at all. Composed of three nearly 20-minute sections, the music was written to mirror the dance's three movements: "Water," "Flour" and "Light." Each of
Menomena's members were responsible for writing one section, and each attended multiple rehearsals by Portland's Monster Squad dance troupe. Integrating the music with the unique choreography wasn't easy -- for "Water," the dancers performed in two inches of water on a specially built stage. The floor was covered in powder for "Flour," and in "Light" a ceiling installation lowered lights into the dancers' space at timed intervals. But the band also had to capture in music -- on "Water," for instance -- such esoteric ideas as "purity," "scarcity" and "play."