This is not the musical numbing agent you know from elevators and waiting rooms. From the catchy but vaguely unsettling Aliens Talk Backwards to the delicately percussive Good Fortune, James reinterprets the genre in a manner that is both time-altering and timeless. Strange Slumber: Music for Wonderful Dreams is raw material for the imagination.

This entire album was written as a present to Barry's godson Fletcher Roberts and his parents, who are avid music fans and love to fall asleep to various kinds of music.

"Lost Highway" was written and recorded in one take in an apartment closet. It was written on an open tuning guitar borrowed from a friend. Barry is still not sure what the tuning was.

"Curious Ghosts" and "Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie" were written by electronically manipulating a song titled 'The Ghost Again' written by Barry James in 1999 for his old band 'The Sunflower Conspiracy'.

The song "Feed" was almost omitted from the collection, but was left in at the last minute because of the levity it added to the album.

The song "The Watchmaker" was finished on an airplane on a laptop computer, somewhere between Chicago OHare airport and Tucson International.

Barry is fond of leaving ambient noise in his songs, like the foot pedal click at the beginning of "Aliens Talk Backwards", or the distant radio that can be heard at the end of "Mother and Child".

The variety of percussion instruments on "Six String Lullaby" were a last-minute addition to the song, and included sanding blocks, novelty 'magic' wands, and a pillow lined with small bells.

A prevalent instrument used on this album is the eBow, an electromagnetic device that causes a guitar string to constantly vibrate, mimicking the sound of a bowed stringed instrument.

The front cover artwork cartoon doodles were taken from scratchpads from when Barry worked as a graphic artist.

The front cover model is photographer and model Natalie Paquette, also known as FetishFairie in certain online circles

1. Aliens Talk Backwards
2. The Watchmaker
3. Mother and Child
4. Fletcher's Song
5. Lost Highway
6. Feed
7. Slow Dance
8. Curious Ghosts
9. Six String Lullaby
10. Good Fortune
11. Let Sleeping Ghosts Lie

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 04/15/2015
Barry James lives in Arizona USA

Tagged as: New Age, Ambient, Electronica, Experimental Electronic

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