Merz/Laraaji/Ismaily - Dreams of Sleep and Wakes of Sound review | John Lewis's contemporary album of the month

The Guardian 80

(Dampfzentrale)
Laraaji’s blissful autoharp overcomes an industrial guitar-feedback dystopia provided by Merz on this filmic album

The starting point for this transatlantic project was an idle thought from the British outsider artist Conrad Lambert, AKA Merz. He semi-seriously conjured up the mythic genre of “industrial-devotional”, one that combined spiritual music with the relentless grind of industry. When appointed artist in residence at the Dampfzentrale arts centre in Bern, Switzerland, Merz decided to explore this idea for a live show, drafting in the Pakistani-American musician Shahzad Ismaily, an old sidekick of his, and Laraaji, the mystic busker, laughter therapist and pioneer of a mbient music from New York. Both provide a twist on the “devotional” side of this equation, accompanying Merz across nine meditative tone poems.