Sleepwalk ‘Tempus Vincit Omnia’ cover.
Sleepwalk’s most recent output is Tempus Vincit Omnia, released in December of 2017 by Nader Moumneh’s indie label Electro Aggression Records. Sleepwalk gets the usual extravagant EAR treatment: an elegant 2-disc digipak design, over one full album of new material and a second disc of bonus remixes from some of the top talent in the genre. It’s a lot of music to process.
Thankfully, Sleepwalk is up to the task, being one of the few dark electro bands to remain active over the years and who have managed to keep a consistent quality through it all. The project, now 25 years old, originally consisted of Bruno Ruch and Oliver Spring, both from Bern, Switzerland. Today, Sleepwalk is a three-piece consisting of original member Bruno Ruch, along with Andreas Lehmann (Framework) and Charly (tEaR!doWn). Bruno is still based out of Bern, while Andreas and Charly are based out of northern Germany. For more background, see this informative interview from Flux Project.
Tempus Vincit Omnia is arguably a bit of a return to the band’s original sound. It’s not quite as polished as the band’s last release from Scanner Records ‘Nibiru’. I would highly recommend this album for fans of old-school dark electro. Yet I find the band also has a very modern sound that fits well into the EAR stable of ‘complex and multi-layered’ dark electro. Tempus Vincit Omnia is an album that requires multiple listens to get the full effect, but it’s worth your time and will leave you wanting more. The second disc includes more original material, along with top-notch remixes from artists such as Seven Trees, Terminal State, Pyrroline, tri-state, KIFOTH, Second Disease, Amorphous and more.
The release also has continuity with the band’s past, with one song featuring lyrics and vocals by Oliver Spring and another track with vocals from former member Roland Ruch. Additionally, one song features lyrics from Axel Kleintjes from the defunct project Page 12. With overlapping personnel, Tempus Vincit Omnia also fits very nicely with the release of tEaR!doWn’s latest album Shades Of Apathy (see review here), which was released on the same date by EAR. With these latest albums from Sleepwalk and tEaR!doWn you won’t be listening to much of anything else for months to come.
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