Electronic / trip hop project Arms and Sleepers releases new single, 'O-R-I-O-N

The eclectic electronic artist Arms and Sleepers has shared ‘O-R-I-O-N (ft. YEYEY)’, a sparkling slice of dreamy trip-hop lifted from his 14th full-length album, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’, set for release on March 1st, 2024 via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.

‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is a sonic exploration of artist and producer Mirza Ramic’s experience of fleeing war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s and the death of his father in the conflict; his life-changing journey mapped over four, distinct musical movements.

Lifted from the album’s first movement, ‘Innocence’, ‘O-R-I-O-N (ft. YEYEY)’ is laid back and groove heavy, with YEYEY’s soulful, care-free vocal cruising down sun-soaked streets, blissfully unaware of what lies ahead. An icy, uneasy synth refrain lingering throughout and the track’s abrupt, truncated conclusion serve as the only signs of the life-changing events to come. The track’s heady, introspective rush of nostalgia and youthful insouciance turns to uncomfortable trepidation in a masterful emotional twist that has become a hallmark of Ramic’s incredible body of work as Arms and Sleepers.

Formed in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and now living in Berlin Germany; 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.

Where the most recent Arms and Sleepers full-length release, 2022’s ‘former kingdoms’, is peppered with the smoky ambience of a New York jazz bar; ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is acute, urgent and insistent; with reverb-soaked samples and found sounds backed by complex, driving drum breaks that demand complete attention.

The arresting narrative power of ‘O-R-I-O-N (ft. YEYEY)’ and the incredible story of ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ see Mirza Ramic blur the boundaries between genre, heritage, expectation and influence to produce music as Arms and Sleepers that is pertinent, poignant and extraordinary.

Arms and Sleepers on ‘O-R-I-O-N (ft. YEYEY)’:

"The idea for this track came together pretty quickly, written during a late night creative rush last winter. I knew I wanted to have YEYEY aka Ben Shepard (formerly of Uzi & Ari) sing on the track, as we used to collaborate frequently back in the day – but hadn’t done anything together since 2011. Ben’s voice has always complemented Arms and Sleepers songs super nicely, so I wanted to revisit this bond and have him be part of the new record. As with our previous collaborations, there wasn’t much back and forth – I gave him the instrumental and he sang on it, and I immediately loved what he came up with."