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“The first version of the album – a kind of rough draft – was completed in San Francisco during Spring of 2011 before leaving on an extended tour that found me traveling without a home base for a period of 10 months. Upon returning to San Francisco and settling again in the Winter of 2012 I approached the material in a completely different way, changed by a year of travel and new challenges. It was deconstructed and reformed into a different album than what it had once been, echoing some of the themes I wanted the songs to reflect initially – the way our memory changes events in the past and how our surroundings define us.” – Evan Caminiti

Evan Caminiti of Thrill Jockey Records has released one of the most beautiful ambient guitar based albums I have ever heard in my life. Titled Dreamless Sleep, the aura that exists on every song makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as each piece drifts in and out of a kaleidoscope of translucent tones. Fuzz, hiss and other oddly shaped sounds are manipulated into beautiful states of resolve on every piece and it’s a melting of sound that is all its own. The cover has the same calming and colorful resonance as the music, something that adds to the depth of the album when reflected on together.

As one half of the group Barn Owl, Evan Caminiti has been notching out a lot of music that is highly texture based and speaks on levels that transcend rhythm and regular pop compositional formats. It’s music that reflects something very deep and speaks of an age where human influence was of little to no affect on this planet. Created entirely from processed guitar loops, solo’s and texturized layers that were first committed to take in the 4 track realm and later processed further, Dreamless Sleep breathes the calmest voice into highly grafted and saturated pieces of tonal bliss. On every track, as the layers and sheets of sound become more pronounced yet merge in configuration, the sheer volume begins to extend beyond normal measure and the possibilities of guitar become endless.

The balance in energy is stunning as there is still a calm state that rests under this climaxing of energy. It’s a state that keeps the drifting drone atmosphere encapsulated inside of a warm energy field. It’s this energy field that connects all of the music seamlessly and gives the album a really strong voice. Cosmic music in terms of the label can deviate but Dreamless Sleep is truly of a cosmic nature to me. When this album is turned up into the higher register of volume, the sheer sonic power that comes forth in vibration is beyond explanation and is a very important component of the Dreamless Sleep sound.

With seven tracks that come in at a little over forty minutes, the expansion of each piece comes in very long intervals, never forcing any added deviations of the path. As the music breathes, there is always constructing forces of harmony that exists on top of the layers. This is what I’d want to hear if I was flying over a long stretch of clouds and a sun that is caught in between that path. “Leaving The Island” begins Dreamless Sleep and is a glowing beautiful beginning to the full length. With one guitar drenched in fuzz and another set of guitars that sounds like voices coming from the heavens, the slight traces of layers around these parts is a sublime treat to say the least. The presence of manipulated guitars and color schemes coming from them is somewhat overwhelming on first contact. The integrity is preserved when the is masked in a pointless direction, giving this beginning a really fresh and out of body type of perspective in ambient music. Guitars waver in cross patterns over lines that scream out in expression and color in what feels like endless waves of reprise.

“Bright Moments”, the second piece from the album, shoots into right the cosmos as the minimalistic wave of guitars morphs into states I have rarely heard. The presentation isn’t new as people have been creating music like this for decades now but the results are stunningly different in ways I can’t even begin to process. It’s the type of song that takes me to being in a space where light pollution doesn’t make the skies blank and the sight of galaxies and star systems feels endless. As a song that extends over six minutes, it doesn’t leave its original axis despite how far the music stretches and is a mind trip into a deep cavern of expression.

Dreamless Sleep from Evan Caminiti is filled with the most beautiful micro fragments of every kind and is without a doubt my favorite ambient record of the year. Dreamless Sleep is a record that all fans of experimental music will love. Highly recommended from Sound Colour Vibration.

-Erik Otis

Order from Thrill Jockey Records HERE

*Film of “Absteigend” from Evan Caminiti by Paul Clipson