I am quite glad to annouce that “Sleepless Nights | Lysergic Mornings” is finally out on the Belgian label taâlem.
As per label’s policy, this EP is available as a digital download and as two different editions presented on the tiny and collectable 3″ MiniCDr format. One of the two variants comes in a pro-printed 2-panel mini-digipack and is strictly limited to 32 numbered copies, the other is housed in a regular plastic mini-jewelcase and is offered to the public in an unlimited edition.
“Sleepless Nights | Lysergic Mornings” is particularly important both for me and the label, because it comes exactly 18 years after my “Traces 94-95“, which on December 3, 2001, inaugurated the now incredibly long series of taâlem publications – when the label was still based in France, and also because it represents my first proper release since I re-built my studio and started working on new music during the recent years.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” and “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, the two tracks featured on the EP in a seamless sequence, were created on purpose of a release on taâlem and were especially designed to fit the 3″ MiniCDr format.
In January 2019, as a sort of ‘personal experiment’ on myself, I worked on this music exclusively by night. For about one week I decided to sleep no more than a few hours each day during the late afternoon, and stayed awake all night to work with my synthesizers, sampler, effects and so on.
The resulting lack of rest put me in a particular state of mind, where I was less focused on the search of an ‘audiophile’ quality to the music, suggesting me to experiment with, and concentrate on, what would be usually considered ‘errors’. I intentionally included some glitches, tape hiss and various defects, and also used field recordings and other sounds which I originally recorded on cheap cassettes during the early ’90s, when I had an habit to slow down sounds with two tape decks and I usually re-recorded the same cassettes hundreds of times.
Both titles are inspired by this ‘experience’, and the tracks have a sort of ‘psychedelic quality’, or at least that is the impression they still give me months after their creation.
“A Cypher For Glitchbusters” is an attempt to describe with just a few words the practice I mentioned a few lines above, while “Peter’s Psychedelic Breakfast” is both an hommage to a quite more famous sonic breakfast – which I guess needs no further explanation – and a personal dedication to my closest friend who has been supporting and helping me ever since my memory can remember.
More information is available here. You can listen to the complete release and purchase it on the dedicated Bandcamp page.