DREAMLIFE OF THE SLEEPLESS

Dreamlife of the Sleepless is an LP with content aligned with the other albums I've been working on lately, in that these albums are less stylistically uniform and more varied with most of the tracks fairly different from one another. That said, it still sounds generally like the Neon Icon sound with slabs of drones, groans, bleeps and squeals chopped up, blending sputtering loops with percussion of varying types. And truthfully, a lot of the tracks are still very much based in the ambient, atmospheric realm but there are tracks such as the title song that are attempts at happy little instrumental jams. Expect a handful of similar minded albums currently in the works!

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DREAMLIFE OF THE SLEEPLESS (LP)

DAS RHEINGOLD

Das Rheingold alludes to Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and the opening track is indeed a "cover" of the prelude to Wagner's Das Rheingold, the first section of the opera. The prelude's drone-like composition, perhaps one of the first drone compositions ever conceived, famously (and perhaps apocryphally) came to Wagner as he lay half asleep and was meant to evoke the flowing water of the river Rhine. The rest of the EP consists of less direct references to Wagner's opera but the tracks are also sort of inspired by that concept of drone music evoking bodies of water and flowing rivers. Most of the album was composed with a keyboard and is basically beat-less, as I was attempting to explore soundtrack-like atmospheres akin to '70s German bands like Popol Vuh. The prelude cover was recorded with my brother Garrett Leong on additional guitar who also performed the song with me at our most recent live show at Warbler Records in downtown Santa Barbara.

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DAS RHEINGOLD (EP)