"The Pains Of Sleep"

"The Pains Of Sleep" e un album de avantgarde/experimental pe care ma chinui de aproape doi ani sa-l pun la punct. Puteti downloada toate cele 16 trackuri aici:

1. The Pains Of Sleep
2. End Of The World
3. Will To Kill
4. All That Noise
5. The Man Who Didn't Have A Shadow
6. A Beginning
7. Track Seven
8. The Traveller
9. Flushing Birds From A Tree
10. They Do Not Move
11. Some Random Thoughts During A Funeral
12. ...And The Wind Will Take Our Ashes Away
13. Inward Flow
14. The Sun Regarded As A Source Of Entertainment
15. The Pains Of Time
16. Waking Up...

Textul de pe bookletul cd-ului :

All tracks composed by hermine.
Recorded and mixed by hermine, nosferatu & mihu.
Artwork by armoire grimoire.
Special thanks to bratu, noschuna, anemic cinema and all those who have supported us.

june 2007

“The Pains Of Sleep” doesn’t contain music, in the sense you are used to – it is an experimental, avant-garde, absurd and uncomfortable album. The Project was Mihail Mihu’s idea and it was initially titled “Măcăitul Matzei” (one day, Mihu was trying to tell us that “măcăitul raţei nu produce ecou”, instead he said “măcăitul maţei” and we thought it was a pretty cool name). We started recording some weird tracks at Nosferatu’s place but the material which came out had a very poor technical quality and was very incoherent. So, Mihu quit after only a few sessions, and we canceled the project for some time as neither me nor Nosferatu , at that time, knew how to play an instrument. Finally, after almost two years (we had some attempts to put the album together during these two years, but we gave up every time), I reshaped the best of the old recordings and along with some new tracks – here it is: “The Pains Of Sleep”. The reason for which we’ve decided to change the title from “Măcăitul Matzei” to “The Pains Of Sleep” is that the latter somehow relates to all the tracks, gives them the coherence we’ve been looking for. Each of the 16 tracks turns into a bizarre experience beyond consciousness.

hermine

Notes about tracks:

1. The Pains Of Sleep

It was written when we were on a trip at Câmpina and we initially called it “Sounds From The Living Room Of The Brain”. We thought it would be a good intro for the album, as it is very quiet and calm, it feels like falling asleep, while being aware of the pains that follow.

2. End Of The World

I thought that the main riff of this song sounds somehow catastrophic. I imagined it as a soundtrack for the Apocalypse, although here we’re talking about a “personal” end of the world. But if there is an unbreakable connection between subject and object, than the subject’s end has more implications on the object than initially thought.

3. Will To Kill

This is probably the most powerful track of the album and also the only one which has a clear message: it’s against the Nazis. Mihu is really reading some parts from one of Hitler’s speeches (at least that’s what he told us; we don’t know Deutsch) while adding some of his words.

4. All That Noise

For all those who have a different view on music and art. It is actually a part of a longer song, I didn’t put it all because I thought it would get too boring, this is its best part anyway.

5. The Man Who Didn’t Have A Shadow

This is about loneliness, in its deepest meaning, about finding it useless not to be isolated. It originally had some lyrics, but we took them out eventually, leaving it an instrumental track.

“Fight the hole with nothing

Never breeds you nothing

Gazing through the peephole

Ever getting too small (…)

Someone keeps on dying

I am still enlightened

With his face all over

Roll on, morning after

Roll on, morning after”

6. A Beginning

This is one of the new tracks and really has no idea associated with it. The name comes from the fact that it has a fast tempo, whereas the first tracks were quite slow.

7. Track Seven

Just like “A Beginning” this has nothing beyond the instrumental. We couldn’t even find it a proper title. It is kind of catchy, though.

8. The Traveller

In case you were curious, the words in this one don’t mean absolutely anything. It contains fragments from earlier recordings, all put together. Imagine you walk through a foreign land, and you meet a stranger who tells you some words that you don’t understand, but you are convinced that they were extremely important.

9. Flushing Birds From A Tree

A completely useless activity with completely useless results.

10. They Do Not Move, The Corpses

This one contains random words and phrases from Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot”. Everything decomposes; decay is the only general and permanent rule. Nevertheless, decay leads to the absence of movement which is the ultimate justice.

11. Some Random Thoughts During A Funeral

Why can’t people accept death as, simply, “the end”? They create all kind of absurd Science Fiction scenarios about things that will happen “after death”. I think it is because they have no idea what the term “eternity” means, they just can’t understand it. Everything that exists must stop existing at some time in its existence. This is a law of nature, and the only principle that governs nature is justice. This is an ironic track against religion and not only.

12. …And The Wind Will Take Our Ashes Away

Most of the sounds here were recorded in a forest by a friend of ours, some have been added. Overall, it sounds really desolate and windy.

13. Inward Flow

A modified fragment from “Track Seven”.

14. The Sun Regarded As A Source Of Entertainment

Or the world regarded as a huge circus, a completely non-entertaining form of entertainment, a very bad joke. And who’s watching? Look up. Probably the heaviest track on the album.

15. The Pains Of Time

Time is the source of all pain and suffering, of all the shit we deal with in different forms. The dialogue at the end is about a real person we really hate. The roars earlier were recorded in a public place, with people staring horrified. This is against society.

16. Waking Up…

This is somehow a prophetic track, in which Mihu is imitating Steve Irwin. It is prophetic because we first called it “The Croc Hunter Is Dead”, not long before Steve Irwin really died. It all began when we got chased by a dog as we were walking through a park, and Mihu exclaimed just like at the end of the track: “My God, he’s coming back!” “Waking Up” is essentially an open ending for “The Pains Of Sleep”. You wake from one dream to another and you start asking yourself: which is reality, is there one at all? Yes, it is – death seems like the only “real” reality.

17. Mafiotul (Hidden Track)

This is a hidden track which begins at exactly 2 minutes after the end of “Waking Up”. It was recorded during the first session for “Măcăitul Matzei”, and it is the only material from that early period that we’ve kept without editing or modifying in any way (as we were completely satisfied with it from the very beginning). It is also, along with “The Pains Of Time”, the only track which contains speech in Romanian. The guitar part is taken from one of Bratu’s songs, “Plumb”. “Mafiotul” is an ironic track about a person we’ve met in high school, and all those who resemble him. The only reason for which we’ve put it as a hidden track is that it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the album, but we didn’t want to leave it out, as it is a sample of what “Măcăitul Matzei” wanted to be.