Dreams Beyond

Dreams Beyond – Spotted Peccary Music SPM-3005

A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreams are also sometimes seen as a means of seeing into other worlds, dreams often function as a “signpost” motif to mark certain stages in life, the unexpected discovery of one’s own jewels. Perhaps knowledge cannot be defined through perception. This album Dreams Beyond presents an opportunity for using your ears to explore impossible and fantastic landscapes in alien worlds, sometimes resembling the mountains of earth, sometimes resembling nothing you have ever seen. Are dreams experiences?

1. About the album Dreams Beyond

Melodic electronic instrumental music from the…

…symphonic side of the vast universe of ambient sound arts; extraordinary voyages through time and space, exploring original landscapes of exotic imagery and providing an imaginative soundtrack for nurturing dreams and fantasy.

Dreams are the shadow of something real. Dream scenes may be indistinguishable from those set in the dreamer’s real world. Sverre Knut Johansen has now opened a new portal to worlds transcending dreams and other imaginative experiences, allowing listeners to move in and out of dreams and reality, to explore Dreams Beyond. The music on this album is deeply inspired by visual artwork — “THE BEACON” by MichaŁ Karcz, which can be seen on the album’s cover design. The music was recorded between May and November of 2019 at “Space Center Music Production” studio in Sweden. The Cello on the final track, “Human Connection,” is played by Henrik Silfverhielm. The OSCar Programmable Music Synthesizer was used to create alien singing/calling birds.

The study of dreams is called Oneirology. During the day, the soul receives images; during the night, the soul produces images. While most people think of time as a constant, the famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein showed that time is an illusion, it can vary for different observers depending on their speed through space, and he further revealed that gravity can bend time. The story never begins or ends – it merely ‘becomes.’

2. The tracks

The last of the summer moons have begun to wane…

…the old crows break their long silence and begin to shriek strange cries from the darkness, expressing dark moods framed by adventurous melodies that haunt the ancient mountains. These are the Tatra Mountains, the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains, which form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. Their topography causes one of the most diverse climates in that region. Leo Frankowski mentions the Tatras several times in his Conrad Stargard series of science fiction novels, also there is mention of these same mountains in The Wolves of Time, a series written by William Horwood. The composer Karol Szymanowski on occasion found inspiration with the distinctive traditional music of the Tatra mountains in southern Poland. The opening track sets this listening adventure in motion, “Tatra Mountains (Introduction)” (4:40).

There might be a science of dreaming, crossing the ancient chasm, cautiously emerging into percussive motion and pulse, a dance into the fullness of time and what lies hidden. Before the magical time of the chimera ends one might sometimes be aware while dreaming that one is dreaming, “Awakening” (9:37).

To look through the ceiling, through the roof…

…to dream of reaching the sky, weaving awe for the soaring landscape, is sometimes a simple matter, requiring only a “Skylight” (8:58). Such openings allow for rhythm and pulses to lead the way up into the vast beyondscape. With a sound signal like whistling the title track emerges, leading into a stop and start sequencer pattern that keeps repeating and building: “Dreams Beyond” (10:54). Unseen creatures continue to whistle from the void, calling out to each other to enhance their telepathic illusions, thoughts dance upon the pillows of oblivion. What I hear next reminds me of the majestic beauty of creation and all those who love silence and calm in the mountains, “Dawn” (4:01) is the frontier of the void, light emerges with varying shapes of the crystal-image spreading luster across the sky.

The term Tatra is a general expression in Slovak for barren or stony land, and in Russian for rocks and small stones in a river. The Tatra Mountains are home to many species of animals and insects and this song includes many imaginative clues that may trigger your ideas of what those beings might be doing. The track “Tatra Mountains” (8:35) presents a melody that haunts the wonderful meadows just under huge lime cliffs, walk through the valleys and then climb the higher parts of the range and behold the soaring landscape all around. The Legend of the Sleeping Knight is a folktale from the Tatra region, was inspired by the outline of one of the most famous peaks, Giewont, which is said to resemble the silhouette of a sleeping knight.

You are now floating gently above the delicately…

…painted sleeping knight, now surging towards ecstatic climaxes, now yielding to the hypnotic strains of a wordless dance. My favorite track is “Causeway” (9:48), an interesting journey through many layers and textures on a raised road across wet ground. I hear electronic insect sounds, portraying a trail through night and mystery, time and room variously for romance and terror, and letting go. Imagine discovering that you have already fallen into some accidental time travel to prior historical settings and have been left stranded. Imagine being suddenly transported into the past and managing to make something by exploiting all the things you know from having studied history. The mood is slow and vast, ever stranger events rekindle the fires of a dying universe. “Echoes of the Past” (9:19) .

The final track is titled “Human Connection” (6:38) and is a reflective processional meditation, in my mind’s eye I can see lines of pilgrims climbing the mountain to find gems holding the powers of the season. The cello is played by Henrik Silfverhielm, and the synthesizers provide the situation.

3. The musician

Sverre Knut Johansen has allowed his…

…listeners to become Krononauts, providing a path to the extreme distances of time, sometimes to explore the creation of the universe, and other times just for the speculative wonderment. He has a master’s degree in music technology from NTNU in Trondheim, Norway (2009). His first commercially released collaborative musical adventure was an EP of space rock titled Void (not on a label, 1980). In the beginning he experimented with audio cassettes and then built his first music studio in 1983, where he composed and recorded his own symphonic rock through the 1980s, adding computers and midi technology in 1990.

He got a record deal with the…

…Origo Sound label in 1992. Some recording highlights include Distant Shore (Origo Sound, 1994); The Source Of Energy (Origo Sound, 1999); Av Jern (Orkana, 2008); Planets (Origo Sound, 2013); Hibernation (Origin Music, 2013); Life (Origin Music, 2013); Ancient Prophecies (Origin Music, 2013); Lights (Origin Music, 2013); Elements Of Light (Origin Music, 2014); Different Directions (White Horse, EP 2014); Nightshift (Origin Music, 2014); Earth From Above (Spotted Peccary, 2016); Secret Space Program (Spotted Peccary, 2017); Contact (Origin Music, 2017); with David Helpling – The Vast Expanse (Spotted Peccary, 2018); with Robert Rich – Precambrian (Spotted Peccary, 2019).

4. Where to buy Dreams Beyond?

You can buy the album Dreams Beyond at the store of Spotted Peccary Music and Bandcamp.

Written by Robin James, August 19th, 2020