Sleep (an attempt at trying)“ is a radio suite for vocalist, narrator, improvising ensemble and electronics. In this project Bumšteinas explored the subject of insomnia which makes it a very autobiographic project. The main sound material for “Sleep” came from the sleeping-aid and relaxation tapes, that Bumšteinas bought for himself in various fleamarkets around Europe. The course of personal therapy wasn't too successful and due to nocturnal boredom Bumšteinas started dabbling with the functional music used on these tapes. Later Bumšteinas began to enrich these tape collages with his own instrumental recordings and additional electronic sounds and so from these authentic creative actions developed a series of strong musical structures that were finally joined by a lead vocalist and an international improviser's ensemble which was specially gathered for this occasion. The final form of “Sleep” consists of 7 songs and 3 instrumental tracks of a highly nocturnal, even hypnotic, nature. The lyrics of the songs a derived from the verbal contents featuring on the initial sleeping-aid tapes.
Every broadcast of “Sleep” is presented live according to a narrative plot written by Arturas Bumšteinas which consists of various insights around the theme of insomnia, such as – overview of insomnia in ancient China, contemporary jokes about insomnia, confessions of the narrator to the listeners and a live call from the listener of the broadcast. In general this broadcast has an aim to make impression of a spontaneous, improvised narration with music by various bands played in between the talking. In order to strengthen this impression various imaginary band names were invented and so all the songs that were played on this broadcast were presented as the courtesy of “The Insomniacs”, “Sleepless International” and “Sheep Orchestra”.
Recorded on various portable studios in Vilnius, Warsaw, Oslo, St.Petersburg, Washington DC and Berlin between April and September of 2011.