A Dazzling Descent Into Sonic Shadows

If anyone’s been charting the unpredictable creative journey of pianist and composer Mark Springer, Sleep of Reason (Sub Rosa SR563) is a thrilling new chapter—not a departure, but a deepening of his restless musical language.

Known for his kinetic hand at the piano and boundary-defying collaborations, from the anarchic energy of Rip Rig + Panic to his recent ventures in opera, Springer now delivers an album that’s as conceptually ambitious as it is musically daring.

The album unfolds as a triptych, each section sharing the title “Sleep of Reason” but exploring divergent soundworlds: a string quintet with vocals, a pure quartet, and finally a solo piano meditation. This structural arc asks us to follow Springer through shifting realities, peeling back the layers between waking clarity and the fogged realm of dreams.

The opening act, the “Sleep of Reason Quintet,” is where the album stakes its claim. Here, the formidable Sacconi Quartet is joined by none other than Neil Tennant—the unmistakable voice of Pet Shop Boys—adding a sharp, almost spectral lyricism to Springer’s feverish music. The collaboration is an electrifying move: Tennant’s vocal delivery and incisive lyrics cut through the swirling strings with a steely poise, grounding the piece’s emotional volatility. The themes are pulled from Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos, with Springer and Tennant jointly reimagining Goya’s unsettling depictions of 18th-century authority and societal decay for a 21st-century night.
“Phantoms and Monsters,” the album’s stunning opener, draws the listener into this chiaroscuro narrative with wavering string lines and haunting word-pictures.

As the album progresses into the “Morn, Noon, Night” string quartet, the vocal veil lifts, but the intensity remains: the Sacconi Quartet sustain a seamless, tightly-knit ensemble, the music’s lyric impulses now embedded in the restless interplay of the instruments. There’s a sense of restless searching here—the sense of narrative persists, but our guide has faded, and we’re left to decipher the shadows on our own.

The final movement distills the experience to its essence: Springer alone at the piano, haunted by thematic ghosts from earlier tracks. He twists and reframes the motifs, offering no easy resolution—this is dreaming after all, and in Springer’s world, closure is as elusive as perfect harmony. The result is a coda that is by turns beautiful, disquieting, and achingly honest, as if the composer is both chasing and fleeing the music’s ecstatic visions.

What’s most striking about Sleep of Reason is its refusal to provide comfortable answers. Springer’s collage of string textures, enigmatic motifs, and lyrical fragments immerses the listener in a world where the logic of dreams reigns. Every section balances menace and allure, clarity and ambiguity. The album pulses forward, then steps into suspended moments that challenge our listening habits, never quite letting us settle.

Sleep of Reason is, in essence, a sonic exploration of the tensions between order and chaos, light and obscurity, consciousness and the wild hinterlands of sleep. Springer, always the adventurer, leads us through darkness and into fleeting stabs of illumination.

The result is not just an impressive musical feat, but a powerful reminder of how much beauty and truth can be found in embracing the unsettled spaces between worlds.

​​Phantoms and Monsters streaming: bfan.link/phantoms-and-monsters More info: www.exit.co.uk

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