For their first release on –ous, Slovenian harpist and composer m preis (fka rouge-ah) presents‘my dreams are only nightmares’. Built from years of research into sleep, sleep disorders, and alternative musical notation, the album takes the nightmare, an intimate and at the same time universal experience, both as subject and method: dream records, memory fragments, and bodily sensations are translated into an alternative notation system, one that departs from traditional structures in favour of something intuitive, non-hierarchical, and body-led.
The album’s sonic language interweaves electric and acoustic harp, voice, vocal articulation and poetry with pedal effects and percussion that emerges as involuntary and fragmentary bodily irritation. The harp, constricted by centuries old classical and symbolic connotations, is used as a canvas for expanded techniques and a source for textures and noise. m preis equally treats their voice as material: moving between speech, whisper and fragmented poetry, it acts as a carrier of internal states. Throughout the album, m preis holds organic and electronic elements in tension, mirroring their perpetual balancing of composed and improvised moments. Loops, layers, and digital twists follow the logic of dreams: repetition, slippage and sud- den cuts create eerie but alluring scenes. ‘my dreams are only nightmares’ meets the listener on emotional, intellectual and physical levels at once.
Positioned between contemporary electroacoustic and experimental music, m preis’ sonic research acts as a tool for reflecting on both internal and collective, often equally repressed psycholo- gical states. Nightmares, though deeply personal, are carriers of collective tensions and fears. They are reminders of the silenced realities of our contemporary times.
Urška Preis, who works as a solo artist under the pseudonym m preis, is a composer, harpist, visual artist, and writer. They fini- shed their MA studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design Ljubljana, they also studied at the academies in Reykjavík and Leipzig. Their debut album “bare” was released by Kamizdat Records in autumn 2018. They and the electronic music producer Tine Vrabič – Nitz formed the II/III duo which debuted at the AmbientSoup label in 2020 with the ep “it could be paradise”.
They’re also a member of Rok Zalokar’s fluid ensemble Zhlehtet, a four-piece experimental noise group Sujevera and form Piss Paradise alongside Bridget Ferrill and Pixel Bambi. Besides their musical engagements they fluctuate between creating radio and written contributions in fields of performance and music, curating, photographing, exhibiting, designing, writing and speaking.
