Slumberland

Slumberland embraces the experiment.

The band led by sound artist Jochem Baelus deploys an arsenal of home-made mechanical instruments to unleash a hypnotic krautrock/post punk sound with echoes of distorted exotica, long-lost soundtracks and boozy rock & roll greats.

For their latest album 'Sea, sea, sea, drifter / See, see, see, drifter' (Consouling Sounds), Slumberland has crossed the Atlantic, making landfall in Montreal to work with engineer/producer Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, amongst many others known from 'Jerusalem in my heart'. As the unofficial sound guru for the Canadian label 'Constellation', he is right at home with the cinematic portraits and tribal realms of Slumberland.
With his help, the album was recorded in a former refrigeration unit amidst the colourful Dutch tulip fields of Voorhout. Though there’s little evidence of this cheerful decor.

This second album was mixed at studio Hotel2tango, Montreal (known for Godspeed You! Black Emperor, among others...) and sounds murkier, rawer and more explosive than its processor. The songs unfold in a constant friction between tactile textures and spare melodies, with the inky voice of Baelus increasingly at the forefront in the role of master of ceremonies.

Since 2013, Jochem Baelus has been besieging the music scene with his re-engineered sewing machines and film projectors.

With its obscure, veiled songs, his self-titled debut album in 2013 on the experimental Dutch label 'De Zesde Kolonne' made an impression for its Lynchian atmosphere, prior to which he had already gained a reputation with bands including Echo Beatty. It didn't go unnoticed by bands such as Tindersticks and King Dude, with whom he would later share the stage.

After several tours in Germany, Eastern Europe and Switzerland, a 'live' tape was released with collaborations from the 'Psychfest' festival Eindhoven and he was invited to take part in the compilation album 'I said no doctors' alongside the likes of Silver Apples and Dan Deacon, on the American label 'Dymaxion groove records'.

After numerous solo shows, in 2018, he decided to expand his band to a trio.
The two drummers Alfredo Bravo (Flying Horseman) and Frederik Meulyzer (Stray Dogs) supply an organic, visceral counterweight to all that mechanical noise.
In this configuration, the band has made a name for itself as an intense live experience, entrancing audiences in a collective, repetitive, timeless ritual.