BELFAST EDITION
An arresting exploration of the artist’s personal experience of fleeing war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s, the tragic death of his father in that conflict and how the war in Ukraine echoes these difficult memories, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is the breathtaking new full-length release from international artist, producer and prolific creative, Arms and Sleepers.
Formed in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and now based in Berlin, Germany; Arms and Sleepers is the electronic trip hop project of producer Mirza Ramic (formerly a duo with Max Lewis), who has subsequently released 13 full albums and 20 EPs of glitched-out grooves that take as much inspiration from leftfield hip hop experimentalism as they do from the slowburn ambience and panoramic euphoria of contemporary post-rock.
His forthcoming 14th full-length album, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is a breathtaking aural account that charts the life-changing journey of being forced out of your home over four distinct, musical sections. Initially inspired by watching Kenneth Branagh’s award-winning coming-of-age drama Belfast as the fighting in Ukraine broke out, MIrza found himself reflecting on his own experience as a child and how it has formed the man he is today. As such, the album’s four sections, titled ‘Innocence’, ‘Melancholy’, ‘Rupture’ and ‘Reflection’, serve as the reification of the life and experience that Mirza lost as well as a representation of the identity he has since shaped for himself.
Whereas more recent Arms and Sleepers releases, such as 2022’s full-length ‘former kingdoms’, are peppered with the sultry saxophone refrains, syncopated 16ths and smoky ambience of a New York jazz bar; ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is instead acute and driving, with complex drum breaks reminiscent of powerful post-rock acts such as BATTLES, Mogwai and Caspian brought insistently and urgently to the fore.
