Sleep Party People

Danish multi-instrumentalist Brian Batz crafts hushed, ethereal post-rock as Sleep Party People. Operating out of Copenhagen, Batz and his supporting ensemble appear in rabbit masks for concerts and promotional shots, heightening the music’s uncanny atmosphere. The project’s first release, a self-titled set captured entirely at home, reached stores in 2010. Later work grew more outward-looking, bringing in additional producers and players for Floating in 2014 and Lingering in 2017, yet the singularly spectral character of the songs stayed intact.

After playing in groups for several years, Batz began testing digital treatments of piano and voice in private and started posting the resulting stark, inward pieces as Sleep Party People in 2008. Once a pair of those tracks surfaced on a Neh-Owh Records compilation, the completed Sleep Party People album arrived via MBO and Speed of Sound in 2010. The arrival of We Were Drifting on a Sad Song, issued by MBO and Blood & Biscuits in 2012, prompted the formation of a five-piece touring unit. For the third album Batz sought outside production help for the first time, recruiting Jeff Saltzman (the Killers, Blondie) and Mikael Johnston (Mephisto Odyssey); Floating appeared on MBO and Blood & Biscuits in 2014.

Lingering, the project’s first release on U.S. label Joyful Noise Recordings, came out in 2017 and included vocal contributions from singer/songwriter Beth Hirsch and the Antlers’ Peter Silberman, along with others. The fifth album overall, Lingering, Pt. 2, received digital distribution through Joyful Noise in 2018, followed by a vinyl edition in 2019.