Abstractions of Dead Dreamers by Pale World

Some of the most provocative artists inhabit the world of dreams; David Lynch, Brion Gysin, James Joyce, these visionaries were obsessed with capturing the transcendental subconscious. And on the new album Abstractions of Dead Dreamers, experimental musician Pale World guides listeners through this same mysterious inner space, a nocturnal journey winding through collective memories of those who came before. Much like Lynch emphasized the all-encompassing experience of cinema, that “It’s important that a film is loud. . .It should surround you, envelop you, so you can live inside a dream”, Abstractions of Dead Dreamers follows a similar philosophy, tumbling head-first into the rabbit hole of all-consuming harsh noise. Semi-recognizable samples and field recordings blur together in the freefall, evoking the hypnagogic flashes of a Dreamachine. The static subsides when we reach the bottom, washed-out stream-of-consciousness conversations flooding the soundscape. But these slice-of-life vignettes are too fuzzy to fully grasp, like a voyeur looking from the outside in. There's a feeling like one has walked in on a party they weren't really invited to, a room of dream strangers, some recognizable faces but others blurred memories half-recalled and half-created by the sleeping mind. This pattern continues, mirroring the cycle of falling in-and-out of REM sleep. Vacillating between these states of consciousness, Abstractions of Dead Dreamers emerges somewhere in-between, not quite lucid yet fully immersed in hazy unreality.