Electronic / trip hop project Arms and Sleepers releases new full-length concept album, 'What Tomorrow Brings'

The eclectic electronic artist behind Arms and Sleepers has released his latest studio-length album, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’, through Berlin’s prestigious Pelagic Records. An exploration of the artist's own experience of fleeing war in Bosnia in the early 1990’s and the death of his father in that conflict, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ maps a journey of being forced out of your home through four distinct musical sections.

Formed in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and now living in Berlin, Germany; producer Mirza Ramic has subsequently released 13 full albums and over 20 EPs of glitched-out electronic 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.

Taken from ‘Reflection’, the fourth and final movement of the album, ‘Melodie’ is a down-tempo, low-key groove that conjures the syncopated 16ths and smoky, New York jazz bar ambience of 2022’s Arms and Sleepers record, ‘former kingdoms’. However, ‘Melodie’ is but one part of the breathtaking story told of ‘What Tomorrow Brings’; a story that has taken us through Innocence, Melancholy and Rupture before closing on Reflection. Now, the sombre synth pads and shuffling backbeat of ‘Melodie’ serve simultaneously as reflection on a life lived and as instrumental optimism for what life is still to bring.

In full, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is an astounding project and serves as proof that, as Arms and Sleepers, Mirza Ramic continues to blur the boundaries between genre, heritage, expectation and influence in order to produce something new and extraordinary.

Discussing the deeply personal subject matter behind the record, Ramic explains:

“This whole new album was inspired by the film "Belfast", the war in Ukraine, and my own personal story of fleeing war in Bosnia in the early 1990s. The album is divided into 4 sections, titled Innocence / Melancholy / Rupture / Reflection, and it is a journey of being forced out of your country / city / neighbourhood / community as a child (which is what happened to me, and what the film "Belfast" is about).

I saw the movie around the time when the war in Ukraine started, and it brought back a lot of difficult memories for me - in addition to my very close connection to Ukraine as I've been touring there extensively over the last 15 years. I went back to Ukraine to play free concerts in early October and return the support that I've been getting there for such a long time as a musician.

The album’s focus track ‘Melodie’ is named after a boat where I spent my childhood summers on the Adriatic coast in former Yugoslavia (today Croatia). It is an intrinsic memory from my early years of life before war broke out. Because my mom was a piano teacher, and because music was important to both of my parents, my dad named the boat “melodie” – a really sweet gesture. Little did I know that music would become such an important part of my life and identity, especially in dealing with the demons from my past. The boat was destroyed during the war, but I’d like to think that its spirit continues to live through me and the music I create.-

‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is out now.