Sitting in his bedroom in Copenhagen one evening in 2008, arched over a
shivering piano in the twilit cool, Brian Batz found himself measuring out
sounds in cascading waves. Centuries earlier, beloved avant-garde composer
Erik Satie declined the term musician, instead declaring himself a phonometrician--someone who measures sounds. The aching and otherworldly "Third
Drawer Down"--the product of Batz's 2 a.m. chording--reflects an ecstatic
phonometric approach for his first album under the moniker Sleep Party
People. Full of arcane arrangements, broken and secondhand instruments, and
manipulated vocals, the self-titled record has redoubled in mystic strength on
the verge of its 10-year anniversary reissue, due February 19, 2021 via Joyful
Noise Recordings
