PREMIERE | Noah Deemer, 'The Sleepwalker'
Blessed redeemer — Noah Deemer; press photo courtesy of Alan Dehmer.
The depths of the unconscious are something of a shadow play to our awakened life and world. The vague narratives of people, places, sentiments, sensations and more assemble from latent thoughts left unfinished, memories resurfaced from the archives of all but forgotten experiences and all the unfulfilled parallels of needs and wants. This netherworld of the mind and spirit delves into the orphaned desires, the unmet goals left dormant by the demands of conscious reality, housing everything from the most celestial realms of ecstasy to the most inexplicable points of perdition greater than the sum of all held fears. For the individual in the wakened world of life, these influences from the land of dreams and visions slowly seep into the fabrics of recollection and impact the creativity and craft of an artist's work that stands at the threshold between the realms of the sacred and sublime.
Thus is the lavish landscape of Noah Deemer’s mesmerizing labor of love, The Sleepwalker. Recorded at home in NYC and in a North Carolina cabin between 2018-2019 amid experiments with hypnosis in the Upper East Side; Deemer shares a work that navigates between the fragile states of our shared planet with a vulnerable and spiritual sense of the self traversing between dimensions of the material and metaphysical. Considering these were compositions that were gestating and created on the precipice of the world collapsing, The Sleepwalker offers an introspective collection of ballads that enrapture the senses with psychotropic overtures that deal in big electric baroque set pieces. Noah revives the classic concept album with an indulgent sense of experimental impressionism, assembling an eclectic and bedazzled kaleidoscope of vintage magnetic tape spools spinning on the hubcap axis of a 4-track reel.
From the very get-go, The Sleepwalker starts with the fade in of "Modern Ruins" that feels as if you walked in mid-intro to a cult genre film from the late 60s. The fuzzy distortion and space age tones makes you feel as if you are urban exploring about the rubble and remnants of contemporary society, while "Lay Your Hands" delves into a romantic interlude that longs for a transcendental human touch that feels raw in naked desperation. Noah leads the listening audience into the foyer of absolute abandon into the musings of the creatively illuminated mind, navigating the deep seas of subconscious waters on "Underwater Green / Coming Down" that submerges the sense of self and swims like a vintage subtle and suave 50s/60s hybrid of a golden era counterculture crooner.
The title track fantastically blends 60s lounge tones with 70s euro electro ventures, that slowly sways into the lush fields and valleys of dreamlike motions. The serenity is interrupted by the less than a minute and a half rocker "Please Life" that rages hard with lots of squelching riffs and roars, right before going full open mic night gaucho on the finger-snap worthy western recitation of "Outlaw". Appropriately Noah Deemer's The Sleepwalker soars off into the golden glow of the horizon, backed by bubbling synths that soar like bugs, birds and bees to the beat of their own electro buzz. The natural order of things are witnessed like faint recollections and rearrangements of dream logic pieced together by the morning’s new beams of incandescent light.
Basking in the stage’s spotlight — Noah Deemer; photographed by Alan Dehmer.
Noah Deemer provided the following candid insights on the inception of the anticipated new record:
I’m always writing songs; The Sleepwalker is the first album I’ve released but I think it’s the fourth I’ve made on my own. It came out of a time where I was going through a lot of pressure and change, and despite all the ideas I had about who I was and the kind of music I was gonna write it seemed to emerge fully-formed on its own from somewhere else. I’ve spent a lot of time with it but it still has this vital mystery that I hope comes through and resonates with people.
I’m very proud of the album cover. My friends Evan and Raleigh made it, they’re amazing artists. Do check them out: evancrankshaw.com / raleighgardiner.com
Cover art courtesy of Evan Crankshaw and Raleigh Gardiner.
Here are some songs movies and books that had a direct influence on the album:
Alice Coltrane - Galaxy in Turiya
Cities Aviv - Suddenly Evaporate
Polyrock - Love Song
Bobby Hutcherson - Tranquility
Shintaro Skamoto - My Memories Fade
Steve Hillage – Octave Doctors
Can - Dizzy Dizzy
Common People - Those Who Love
Nina Simone - What More Can I Say
The Ascent - Shepitko
Stalker – Tarkovsky
Noah Deemer cast in the pensive pale blue light; photographed by Alan Dehmer.
W.G. Sebald - The Rings of Saturn
Mishima - The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea
Noah Deemer’s The Sleepwalker will be available May 6.