The eclectic electronic artist behind Arms and Sleepers has announced his latest studio-length album, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’, set for release in March 2024 through Berlin’s 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 over 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.
Where the most recent Arms and Sleepers full-length release, 2022’s ‘former kingdoms’, is peppered with the sultry saxophone refrains, syncopated 16ths and smoky ambience of a New York jazz bar; ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is acute and driving, with complex drum breaks reminiscent of powerful post-rock acts such as Mogwai and Caspian brought insistently to the fore.
Alongside companion single ‘Fathers and Sons’, new single ‘It’s Easy’ perfectly captures this creative evolution, pairing a BATTLES-eque combo of kick-heavy shuffle and staccato synth bass line with Ramic’s inimitable ear for melancholy minimalism. The titular two-word refrain “it’s easy” drifts in and out of focus over haunting piano arpeggios, as much found-sound sonic texture as it is laconic story telling.
This first glimpse of ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is 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 1st single dual track release is from the first section of the album, titled Innocence. "It's Easy" was written with my father in mind, who was killed in the war in Bosnia in 1993. I was thinking about how "easy" it could have been for there to not be a war and for people, including my dad, to not be killed senselessly. In some ways, it could be very "easy" to avoid wars, and so this song was written from the perspective of an innocent, somewhat naive, child for whom something like war and violence make absolutely no sense whatsoever.”