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"Ultimately, With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields is a hugely ambitious project which sees its endeavour completely and utterly vindicated. It’s an album that reminds us that songs in their most traditional form and musical experimentation can co-exist peacefully and complement one other wonderfully. It has the twin powers to soothe as well as to break hearts and deserves to be remembered as one of the best works of 2011."

http://musosguide.com/sleepingdog-with-our-heads-in-the-clouds-and-our-hearts-in-the-fields/14736

We all got very excited to present 'He Loved to See the World Through His Camera', which is the first SINGLE from our forthcoming album (release Monday) "With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields".
enjoy ...and share, folks!

http://soundcloud.com/gizeh/sleepingdog-he-loved-to-see/

"With Our Heads in the Clouds and our Hearts in the Fields”.  What a lovely title for a record.  If I didn’t already know the music of Chantal Acda, then I would be very much drawn to this record by the title and the album art work.  It really is lovely.  People who know me will know that I’m a sucker for good names and art.  But, as with all records, good art does not a good album make and it’s the whole package that really matters. ’

On with their 3rd album, the unimpeachable Sleepingdog return with an album of such astonishing complexity and grace you will fall immediately in love. Green Wedge’s Olly Isaac falls in love.

The rift between dreams and reality is something that we all often face; a moment of pure bliss can be mistaken for an ethereal moment from the minds eye and, likewise, what we perceive as reality can be mistaken as an aspiration from the subconscious. Sleepingdog entwine the both, weaving dreams and reality into calming ripples that shear across the ambience of merging moments.

Dissecting each song here would fall upon deaf ears, as each track flows as graciously into one another as they are as individual pieces. Chantal Acda, one half of the Belgian band, is as soft as the rhythmic progressions of her guitar, combined with the airy yet prominent orchestration of Adam Bryanbaum. With our heads in the clouds and our hearts in the fields echoes peaceful moments of youth and a time where life seemed at ease.

Sleepingdog create something that seems to hover aimlessly yet with a purpose, honest and calming lyrics tell stories of moments and experiences that perhaps we have, in our own individual way, each experienced. Sleepingdog offer us a time to allow ourselves our own journey, and to ride the wave until the end.

The album calmly surges and gently breaks, but that merely dignifies unity with its surroundings. It makes one drift seamlessly from vision to thought as the hedges and buildings pass by the car window, or as the stillness of subtle melodies forges beautiful bursts of comfort that is certainly valued in a society where the world seems to turn from one day to the next far too quickly.

To define Sleeping Dogs latest work would be naïve and honestly; self righteous for their symphonic beauty is their own. But if one was to forge the gracious melodies of Ludvico Einaudi and perhaps the vocal divinity of massive attack you would to some extent almost be there.

The human capability of creating music will always astonish. The soul is a tremendous source of ideas, and Sleepingdog has honourably created an album that flows upon the words of fairy tales and dreams.

If you are looking for comfort from a world that can often be loud and boisterous, or just some succour whilst you lay peacefully in bed, then With Our Heads In the Clouds and Our Hearts In the Fields is an album that rests completely relevant beside you.

http://greenwedge.org/2011/04/18/with-our-heads-in-the-clouds-our-hearts-in-the-fields-sleepingdog/

'With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields' - stream the entire album here. One week to go before the official release.

http://www.gizehrecords.com/gzh31.html

Just two weeks until the new sleepingdog record is out... we've added another track 'He Loved to See the World Through His Camera' for your streaming pleasure. Pre-orders are flying out. Happy days.
http://soundcloud.com/gizeh/sets/gzh31/

Sleepingdog – With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields (Gizeh Records)

‘With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields’ is Sleepingdog’s first album in three years and follows their critically lauded second release ‘Polar Life’. Consisting of Chantal Acda, also of True Bypass, and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, famed for his work as part of Stars of the Lid, Sleepingdog are this time accompanied by Hildur Guðnadóttir on cello and Chester Desmond on violin.

Opening track ‘Untitled Ballad of You and Me’ demonstrates perfectly the prominence of Chantal Acda’s vocals on this release, pushed right to the forefront of the mix with quite compelling consequences. Despite its initial gentle feel this track consequently appears drenched in tension, creating goose bump enticing moments. ‘It Leaves Us Silent’ reminds of Sigur Ros with its intrinsic melody and orchestration painting a haunting ambience throughout. The warm drone like feel and instrumental nature of ‘Kitten Plays The Harmony Rocket’ allows the track to operate almost as an interlude before the quite stunning ‘He Loved to See the World Through His Camera’ again caresses the listener with the most delicate and heartfelt vocals. The instrumentation all the way through the whole album is remarkably subtle and complementary whilst never dominating.

There is such a warm and atmospheric feel to this album, enveloping the listener in the first few seconds and never releasing them until the final few chords have faded from earshot. This is a refreshing and ultimately incredible release and one that will surely see more glowing praise showered in the forthcoming months. 9/10

Mark Whiffin

Sleepingdog: With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields
Gizeh Records

Now here's a brilliant idea: take Stars of the Lid's Adam Wiltzie, with all of the production and compositional promise that that brings with it, and pair him with chanteuse Chantal Acda, who contributes beautiful vocalizing and a well-honed song sensibility, and what results is a stunning collection of electronic-folk balladry called With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields. The two first collaborated on the last track, “The Struggle,” of Wiltzie's 2004 release The Dead Texan (kranky), before formalizing their Sleepingdog partnership on Naked in a Clean Bed (Zeal, 2006) and Polar Life (Gizeh/Zeal, 2008) prior to this third album's creation.

Placing the album's longest song first is a bold move but in this case one that pays off handsomely. “Untitled Ballad of You and Me” is buoyed by a simple yet haunting theme first voiced by piano alone and then paired with Acda's fragile, tremulous voice. In fact, the music proves so alluring, you may find yourself hard pressed to remember what she's singing about, so transfixing is the material on purely sonic grounds. A key change finds the song moving from initial moments of uplift into a slightly darker section dominated by organ and multi-tracked vocals before reverting back to the sparse piano-and-vocals arrangement with which it began. Of course there are other sounds present too, yet they're woven so seamlessly into the overall fabric they're sometimes easy to miss. In a typical song, vocals and keyboards, piano especially, inhabit the foreground, while acoustic guitar, strings (courtesy of cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir and violinist Chester Desmond), and subtle atmospheric embellishments flesh out the painterly background.

Like the first song, “It Leaves Us Silent” pairs its gorgeous vocal and piano melody presented together, while what sounds like a mellotron—with all of the King Crimson and Moody Blues associations it brings with it—provides powerfully evocative backing. A similarly affecting melodic quality elevates “He Loved to See the World Through His Camera,” a song that finds Wiltzie's voice in a rare moment shadowing Acda's, and the slow-burning anthem “Scary Movie.” Her voice becomes a mere whisper alongside wavering long tones during “Kitten Plays the Harmony Rocket,” an ambient setting whose title and style comes closest of all the album's tracks to resembling a Stars of the Lid composition. The album's title is well-chosen, given how much its material combines the ethereal and the emotional into a haunting, forty-three-minute collection that ends up sounding both earthy and heavenly. Though it's early in the year, one might anticipate seeing Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields on at least a few year-end 'best of' lists.

April 2011

SLEEPINGDOG got airplay on BBC 6 Music!
'It Leaves Us Silent' on last week's Gideon Coe show in between Neil Young and Deerhunter. listen around 2:42:30

Sleepingdog is the musical lovechild of True Bypass’ Chantal Acda and Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid fame; as angelic a collaboration as anyone familiar with either band might expect. Wiltzie’s atmospherics are toned down slightly from his other works, making it slightly more accessible than some may be accustomed to, but Acda’s vocals add such a feather-light touch that creating a more appropriate pairing would be inconceivable.

This results in a subtly varied work, less in tone but rather in texture. While He Loved To See The World Through His Camera is suitably comforting, it holds a melody at its core that will follow you into your dreams, but then there are songs like Scary Movie, more abstract and repetitive but no less hypnotic. In striking such a fine balance between these two directions throughout, Sleepingdog have crafted an album that’s as soothing as whale song but considerably less aquatic.

Mostly known for his work with Stars of the Lid, Adam Wiltzie has teamed with singer/songwriter Chantal Acda (one half of True Bypass) to form Sleepingdog. Their collaboration has resulted in With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields, a collection of eight serene and palatial dreamscapes with softly sweet vocals.

Incorporating vocals into ambient dreamscapes can be a tricky business, but Acda’s vocals take nothing away from this CD, being a pleasing and ambient aural experience; in fact acting as narratives to these musical soundtracks, forcing the listener to pay closer attention, and ultimately transforming the ambient pieces into mellow songs. Although with not so much a commanding or piercing voice, as a soothing, noir-folk affectation (think mum or Hello, Blue Roses rather than Bjork or Kate Bush).

Taking cues from Harold Budd, as well as Matthew Cooper’s work as Eluvium, most of these atmospheric pieces start with delicate piano and guitar sounds that are treated and assembled into richly layered sonic wallpaperings. Delicate swells of lush, orchestrated melodies (courtesy of dreamy synth lines) and some well placed, sweetly melancholic strings round out the sound, while delicate piano tinkerings and vocals imbue a bit of playfulness.

The songs unfold with an understated elegance as soothing voices emerge from the colorful, melancholic backgrounds. Ambient drones and spacey synths blossom with shimmering arrangements while the contemplative stylings form a winning combination of radiant sonics and lilting choruses.

Gizeh Records