Reader, listener, blog-enjoyer, whatever you are here for, just know that I am into oversharing. I sleep walk, sleep talk, and stop breathing when I sleep sometimes. I also have insomnia quite often and I do not enjoy sleeping early. By the latter statement I don’t just mean that I hate sleeping at 9pm but I also cannot sleep when the sun is rising, it annoys me.
Of course, I wanted to tune into an album the artist describes as “a collection of dreams recorded over 6 months and set to music, then weaved into ambient instrumentals all themed around sleep. Light a candle, get under the covers, and explore the inner maze of DREAMS. I may seem to struggle to sleep and even fight for my life when I am asleep, but I truly appreciate sleep as a concept. Was it easy to guess that I am a Taurus?
This project opens with “Dreaming,” a two-minute track comprised of electronic, surreal sounds. I can best describe this sound as one you would hear in an eerie scene in a sci-fi movie. I think this description best describes the mood of the whole album. The project is a collection of sounds in the most raw sense. Not that it is gritty or unflinchingly honest, no. I mean that the sounds are pulled from nature without much additional music added. In a way, the surroundings and everyday life become music which is truly poetic. On “Lawyers Were Our Friends” – Magana speaks of a dream that she recently had and for me, this exemplified how experimental and how much of a passion project this is. I admire and respect the dedication to make this type of music- because it is that.
A project to listen to when you realise overwhelmingly that everyone around is living life for the first time and also has lives their own- not only existing as a background character to your life. Or simply if you are the type looking for ambient sounds different from the usually rain sounds and beach waves.
Written by Nthatile Mavuso
