Something that sucks: Arms and Sleepers calls it quits

Arms and Sleepers (above) have made friends and fans all over the world (even Charleston, W.Va.) with their music. The duo announced an indefinite hiatus last month.

Got some bummer news recently. As of April 2012, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ambient/down-tempo duo Arms and Sleepers, are on an “indefinite hiatus.” The first news of this seemed to indicate something more permanent, like a break-up, but still, indefinite hiatuses are never good when it comes to bands and expecting new music from them anytime soon.

It’s crazy but we’ve been following and covering Max Lewis and Mirza Ramic pretty much since around the time that they formed back in 2006.

It was around this time that they visited The Empty Glass in Charleston to play a show with The Concept. It was at this show that my wife and I met the A&S dudes, who were sharing the bill with The Concept.

Getting to see their music combined with tour footage and miscellaneous footage projected on a screen behind two dudes messing with synths and computers was as engrossing visually as it is sonically.



One of the things that was great over the years was to follow the group as it released new music, and see how they progressed since releasing “Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive” so many years ago.



I got to cover A&S around this time in Graffiti, and I know that Bill Lynch covered the group in the Gazette on one of their return trips to the Glass. WVRockscene even caught up with A&S here for a Q&A and a few reviews.

It just sucks enormously. Arms and Sleepers was one of the only groups that my wife and I could agree that we both liked. Nothing goes on forever, but Arms and Sleepers, since 2006, have released a lot of great music. Judging how much time I’ve spent on their bandcamp page, even if they’re no longer a functioning unit, I’ll no doubt remain a fan of their music. I have collected enough of their CDs over the years that I am assured of this fact.

Check out some youtube clips and visit their bandcamp page to hear all Arms and Sleepers releases.

CD REVIEW: "Matador"

CD: Matador
ARTIST: Arms and Sleepers

On their new 10-song CD Matador, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ambient duo Arms and Sleepers (Max Lewis & Mirza Ramic) return with more of their trippy, sleepy, piano-based atmospheric airport lobby music, this time bringing more friends on as guest musicians, with way more vocals than we've heard on three of their previous seven releases, each of which we've loved and treasured.

After opening with "Orly" and then hearing the title track and "The Architekt" that's the first thing that will jump out at longtime listeners of A&S: the increased vocals. At first we were cautious of more singing on the A&S tunes; sometimes -- and especially in the case of A&S' cinematic, mainly instrumental output -- words can get in the way, maybe getting in the way of the trip these guys want to take you on.

But no, Lewis and Ramic bring in the guest vocals smoothly, and with rich results, on the aformentioned tracks and "Twentynine Palms," "Helvetica" and "Simone," which is why we'd have to say this is the duo's best work to date: moving their music forward, not afraid to share the creative process with others and not sticking with any particular formula.

Compared favorably to a few acts we've dug in the past, Portishead, Air and Radiohead, we'd have to say A&S comes down closer to an Air-Radiohead type hybrid on Matador, but spitting it out in their own unique fashion.

"Kino," "Words are for Sleeping," and "The Paramour" round out Matador, and like all of our favorite releases (theirs especially) we're always asking ourselves "Is that all?" when the 41 minutes worth of Matador is done; left wanting to hear more.

What does Arms and Sleepers have to do with WVRockscene? We got to see 'em at the Glass a few years back, chatted up Lewis and Ramic, affable chaps each, and have been in love with their music ever since.

Maybe they'll come back through someday, maybe not, but you should definitely click on the link and check these guys out.

-- thanks to: Emile @ nice promo

related: Our feature on Arms and Sleepers

Arms and Sleepers release "Matador" 10.7

Arms and Sleepers (Mirza Ramic and Max Lewis) release Matador next week

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ambient duo Arms and Sleepers obviously aren’t from West Virginia. But they have swung through, and we were lucky enough to catch them at The Empty Glass a few years back.

Since then, they’ve been one of our favorite acts, as we’ve slowly compiled a small collection of their releases, from Bliss Was it in That Dawn To Be Alive, their limited edition EP, and most recently The Motorist, Mirza Ramic and Max Lewis’ musical output has been in steady rotation in the WVRockscene home stereo.

Now, together for just four years, after touring all over the U.S. and Europe and receiving wide critical acclaim, as the duo is set to release Matador next week, and nationwide in mid-November, Ramic and Lewis said they’re looking forward to getting it out and going on tour.

“We’ve been working on this record for a long time, and it feels good to finally release it and play some of these songs live for the first time,” Ramic said.

While not a whole lot has changed with their daily lives, Lewis described the renewed focus that helped forge the new 10-song release.

“Our circumstances have been fairly similar to those surrounding the makings of Black Paris 86 and The Motorist, the only real difference being that we were able to dedicate ourselves more fully to the writing process in the case of Matador. The making of this album was the first time that we were both able to focus on our music full-time, which has been a really good experience -- no distractions!”

Ramic said that while A&S incorporated more vocals and guest musicians and continue to expand their sound on Matador, Arms and Sleepers is still basically just he and Lewis.

“The music we are working on now is definitely different from what we originally began with; there are more people involved now, which has given our sound a welcomed transformation, but this is still very much our own little project and we are certainly happy with where it’s going.”

Lewis explained the sparse vocals in Arms and Sleepers releases.

“Regarding vocals, it wasn’t a very big change for us as we’ve been in bands before Arms and Sleepers that had prominent vocals, and also in our past releases we’ve always had at least some vocals present. We’re not necessarily that big into instrumental music, so we were very excited to be able to work with singers on this album.”

“The only reason really that we did not have more vocals before is simply because it was hard to find the right people, and we ourselves cannot sing. Things kind of fell into place with Matador in terms of vocals, and we’re very happy about that. Collaborating with other artists has been a great experience, as we have always really valued other people’s ideas and input.”

So a process that began with writing in November 2008 and recording this summer is now complete. Arms and Sleepers has a cool teaser video for Matador on their MySpace page, which brings you to one of the more awesome parts of the A&S experience: the video they project as background accompaniment during their live shows.

“We consider the visual aspect of the live performance to be very important,” Lewis admitted. “It’s something that we’ve been doing since we started this project in 2006. Seeing as our music is heavily influenced by visual arts, it only made sense that we would try and present it with visuals at live performances.”

Lewis said that the duo plans on having “a proper music video” for the first single off Matador, "The Architekt" before 2009 is done, so look forward to that.

In addition to any video for their music, Arms and Sleepers is taking a bit of a step back, and releasing a limited pressing of Matador on vinyl, Lewis said.

“Matador is perhaps our most organic-sounding record yet, and we feel that analog media will best be able to convey the sound that we were going for with this album.”

Ramic summed up the pride and joy he and Lewis have in the current state of Arms and Sleepers in general, and Matador in particular.

“…the band has obviously been a central focus for us for a while now, and has been very present in both of our everyday lives for the past few years. It’s certainly very special to us and it’s really nice to be able to see it grow and expand.”


--- photo: Fanny Giroud

Arms and Sleepers new EP "The Motorist"

After getting a copy of the new Arms and Sleepers EP The Motorist in the mail, we got all retrospective and stuff.

It's actually funny to think about how we first found out about Arms and Sleepers a few years back. 'Twas over MySpace, of course, where we first came across the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based duo of Max Lewis and Mirza Ramic, and their ambient music.

At the time, we got 'em covered in Grafitti for an upcoming show at the Glass, and had got Bliss Was it in That Dawn to be Alive mailed in advance. Rarely were we so excited to be able to catch a band.

Ramic and Lewis, sitting in the dark with their synths and laptops, making their soulful, trippy, electronic music, played video footage of what we think now was their actual tour, behind and over them via a projector.

The Motorist EP by Arms and Sleepers, released in mid-February

They were playing with The Concept that night at the Glass, so that was awesome too. Everyone on our end seemed to have a good time with cool dudes and rock to one band we knew rocked, and one that we had just found out about.

This was all back when WVRockscene was cool, mind you. And it was there we also picked up a limited edition EP from A/S. And now, having just got their newest effort in the mail and listening to it, we thought about how much we've dug their music, how unique they are, and how much it sucks they're not coming through town.

Arms and Sleepers has been staying busy, touring all over in February and March, stopping for a show in Austin, Tayhass this past weekend at SXSW. They're coming through Lexington and Pittsburgh in the coming days, winding their tour down. And we know those cities aren't in West Virginia, and that Arms and Sleepers in not from West Virginia. We just dig their music.