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woodandwire.com.au/project/ww9-automating-somnambulist/

Originally conceived as a demonstrative show reel for various psychoacoustic techniques as a form of data delivery and an approach to a philosophical understanding of the world; the accumulation of material began to imply that the initial focus became an investigation of sleep-states and hypnagogia. Still, the main thrust of the initial proposal - to make sense of the world - remains valid. While there is still no agreed-upon scientific explanation as to why we need to sleep, a popular theory is that it's the time required for our unconscious to unpack the experiences from the day and transfer them into memory. The stream of false sensory information we experience as both sleeping and waking dreams may well be a side-effect of this.

Here then, is the mind's process working in reverse. The vast majority of sounds present here stem from real documented experiences, however much cut and treated. The representation of the material now closely resembles that of dreams, with their loops, confused narratives, and seemingly unrelated material that nonetheless makes sense while we are experiencing it; it is only later, upon waking, that confusion, puzzlement, or trepidation sets in when we attempt to analyse them.

Headphones are preferable, then a proper stereo setup (ie, left and right speakers forming an equilateral triangle with the head) with flat response monitors. Laptop/computer speakers are not desirous. The work is designed to be listened to as a whole, however track markers have been inserted for convenience. Some dreams are better than others.

VITAL WEEKLY REVIEW

More music by one Sasha from Melbourne. The digital version of this is released by the netlabel Wood And Wire, while Sasha has a few copies of this on CDR with a handmade package on his own Second Language Records. "Originally conceived as a demonstrative show reel for various psychoacoustic techniques as a form of data delivery and an approach to a philosophical understanding of the world". About sleep states, hypnagogia, why we need to sleep and source material from field recordings, found sound, tape manipulation, noise and effects units. While it has been cut into eighteen tracks, with as many titles, it sounds like all of this music belongs together with all of these flowing straight into each other. While its not the same in some ways I am reminded of the older Hafler Trio most of the times, with some ambient textures, collaged voices and processed field recordings but all in a more rougher state. Like things recorded on dictaphones before being processed into shady loops and slowed down voices. Maybe alike 'A Thirsty Fish'. Maybe it's because the Hafler Trio came up in conversation a few times last week. From the three releases I heard by them so far, I thought this was by far their best release. An excellent example of raw musique concrete, philosophical thought and fine execution through minimal means. (FdW)
www.vitalweekly.net/862.html

SONIC MASALA REVIEW

In some ways Automating’s effort Somnambulist is the most ambitious of this incredibly ambitious brace of releases. Comprised of 18 tracks that investigate the stasis and psyche of sleep-states, hypnagogia and hypnopompia via field recordings, found sound, tape manipulation, noise and effects units, the end result of Somnambulist is the interior score to a technologically-obsessed paranoiac (there’s that word again…). I honestly found myself going a little crazy whilst listening to it, it invades the skull so completely. This, combined with vivid imagery due to the inventive use of the field recordings, paints a garish vista of modern societal nightmares akin to Todd Haynes’ Safe or Darren Aronofsky’s Pi. Even Lost Highway plagued my mind. Now I love these films, but I don’t want them fusing with my mind – God, I can see the Mystery Man’s eyes upon me! Seriously, this is an incredible trip. I'm not sure I’d recommend taking drugs whilst watching this one…
sonicmasala.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/cant-hear-wire-for-wood-10-releases.html

CRAWLSPACE

‘Acoustic Decoding’ is a time-lapsed trip through chromatic, emphatically dodgy hyper-futurist smog. Your ship is weaving through a canopy of Emirates high-rises several centuries after Our Death. So what the hell are you doing there, in your ship? Nice stuff, anyway.
crawlspacemagazine.com/2012/10/09/listen-automating-acoustic-encoding/

TINY MIX TAPES REVIEW

Amazing Australian artist Automating (how’s that for alliteration) makes screechy industrial-tinged experimental music, mixed with murky strings and plenty of drone. They also release free albums. Somnambulist consists of 18 bits of avant-garde goodness specifically designed to tickle your primary auditory cortex. With track titles like “Alpha Wave” (there’s also Beta, Gamma, and Theta), “EEG Test,” and “Lucid Dreaming,” and appropriately mind-bending tunes to match, listening to this album is like getting your brain picked by the most expert of audiophiles — and it’s a blast.
www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-automating-somnambulist-album-stream

MUSIQUE MACHINE REVIEW

This is a nicely, diy packaged release; combining a stumptown cardboard wallet with collages and transparent sheets of text. The cdr contains eighteen tracks, forming a large collage just over an hour long. One of the transparent sheets has a long introductory text, which concerns itself with sleep, memory and “psychoacoustic techniques as a form of data delivery”; and indeed, there is a dream-like atmosphere to the recordings.

At the risk of appearing to be casting a superficial eye over the album, I think its worth stating from the off that there is a huge amount of material on “Somnambulist”. Too much to be covered accurately in any depth, here. However, this material does fall within somewhat narrow parameters; in fact, it could be crudely divided, sonically, into a mere two categories: field recordings/found materials and drones - with the added proviso that some of the latter are constructed from the former. So, we have “mayday” radio pleas, rubbing shoulders with reverbed firework recordings; street conversations meeting with engine noise… Near the start of the album, there’s a section of bleating sheep after an islamic (?) call to prayer - which is then itself followed by pealing church bells; but there’s no clear indication of this being a “politicised” juxtaposition on Automating’s part. Thus it becomes a more generalised “surreal” technique, with a resulting surreal tone (in the truest sense). The field recordings and found materials are often manipulated, but it has to be said that they’re not stretched very far. Often they’re looped or delayed and, given the concerns with sleep and memory, reverb plays a predictably large role. The processing often works towards a murkiness - this is not an album of shining, detailed electroacoustic work (and that's not a criticism). Indeed, its often only the little snippets of raw field sound that provide any colour or clarity, since the majority of the drones are indeed murky and “lo-fi”; earthy, shadowy and obscuring. Though, saying that, the organ-like drone in “Acoustic Encoding” is most definitely celestial in destination.

This is a good, solid album; which sucks you in the more you listen. Its not by any means an earth-shattering release - and in that respect, the quasi-scientific album notes don’t help - but its sonically engaging for most of its duration. I say “engaging”, but as mentioned above, the overall tone of “Somnambulist” is obscuring; leaving the listener with a sense of unease and “distance”. Those interested in the murkier, “tape” side of drone, will find much here to chew over; aided and abetted by the further obscuration of its collaged aspect.
-Martin P
www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=5034

RHEA BOYDEN REVIEW

'Dreams are the touchstones of our characters’ -Henry David Thoreau

‘Mayday, Mayday!’ We hear this distress call repeatedly in the track ‘Projection’ but do we get the help we are looking for? Not always when we project all our hopes and dreams onto another person. The album ‘Somnambulist’ by ‘Automating’ which is the solo project of Sasha Margolis from Melbourne, Australia explores hopes, dreams and fears in an 18-track album. The album, released under the label ‘Wood and Wire’ is a tantalising collection of field recordings, found sound and tape manipulation. With track titles such as ‘PET Scan’, ‘Neuronal Response’ and ‘Repetition Compulsion’ we can expect this album to explore deeper states of consciousness and a yearning to make sense of the world through an understanding, in particular, of dreaming and various sleep states.

The album opens with the track ‘Alpha Wave’ and we hear the sound of a chirping bird. Is this a sign that the day has commenced happily? The Alpha brainwaves are present when we are relaxed, meditative, aware and enjoying the moment. It’s a positive note to start on, but as we listen to the album we hear that it explores a whole range of human emotions experienced in various states of sleep. The track ‘Delta Wave’ does not keep one in a happy and relaxed manner for long. It is sinister, spooky and frankly, quite terrifying to listen to. In fact, much of the terror, stressors and stimulants of modern life prevent many of us from reaching the delta brainwave state as often as we should- it is the state of deep sleep and unconciousness that is most restorative. Following this is ‘Voices of the Dead’ and in this track we hear a lot of wind and water. The voices of those we have lost can be found in nature if we listen closely, but we cannot stop the passage of time and hold onto that which has slipped away. I am reminded, when listening to these tracks, of the Gothic poem by Edgar Allan Poe: ‘A Dream within a Dream’- ‘I stand amid the roar, of a surf-tormented shore’ writes Poe, in great despair, realising that he cannot hold onto the dream that is slipping away from him. He sees that he cannot even hold onto one grain of sand that slips from his hand making him question the passing of time-the sands of time- and also whether everything he ever experienced was just a dream and never reality at all. Where does the border lie between dreams and reality? And what happens in that hazy land between waking consciousness and deeper sleep?

A lot of really interesting things can happen in that hazy land and that is the part of this album that to my mind, is really exciting. The track ‘Hypnopompia’ samples distant eerie voices. Are these the voices of creativity that speak to us as we awaken in the morning? The hypnopompic state is the state of semi-consciousness that is experienced coming out of sleep and many a writer and composer swears that the insights that hit them at this moment are the ones that turn into the best stories, songs and poetry. We all know that feeling we have in our gut first thing in the morning-the one that puts us in tune with our strongest emotions- erotic feelings or feelings of deep mourning. Sentiments of joy or loss. If we can capture the truth at the core of these feelings right then and there we can turn them into new energy and life in our various creative pursuits. The track that follows ‘Hypnopompia’ is ‘Synaptic Transmission’ and in it we hear fireworks which are a wonderful way of sonically sampling and expressing the workings of the synapses. Are perhaps the fireworks a celebration of the ideas that have been successfully captured in the hypnopompic state? Happy creative synapses at work that have been well exercised in the dream state?

In other tracks we hear chanting, church bells, organs, bleating sheep, speeding trains, a didgeridoo and muffled voices. How to make sense of all of this? In the track ‘Acoustic Encoding’ I am reminded once again of that Edgar Allan Poe poem, or indeed, any poem I love that begs to be read out loud. For this is what ‘acoustic encoding’ is: the process of remembering and understanding things you hear. When we read a poem out loud we are engaging in acoustic encoding.

The album ends with the track ‘Theta Wave’. This is the perfect finale as the Theta brainwaves are activated when you are falling asleep. New ideas and enhanced creativity occur in a Theta brainwave state. And after listening to an album that makes me ponder the colourful spectrum of human emotions in a dream state, it is very pleasing to end on a track that is a gateway to learning, healing and spiritual growth. In the Theta state we retreat again to the voices and signals that come from within us, and, most beautifully, we can connect to the divine, readying us again for a new morning in the hypnopompic state: another day of capturing our dreams and commencing the cycle over. ‘Somnambulist’ (which means sleepwalker) is a truly inspiring and thought-provoking album on many levels.
rheaboyden.com/2014/03/28/review-of-somnambulist/