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About

Slaapwel Records is a small record label specialized in music to fall asleep to.

Wim Maesschalck aka Wixel, who started the label, often found himself lying awake in bed, not sleepy enough to fall asleep, not lively enough to keep doing stuff. He figured it would be good if there was more music that soundtracks the thin border between being asleep and lying awake, deliberately choosing the sleepy side of things. So he set out, looking for people that would be good at making mind-soothing songs.

He asked them to write a sleep-inducing record, he listened to it, and when he failed to reach the end because he fell asleep, he released it as a musical record. All artists are various people he met through the years, different yet all connected with their unique talent, yet all very good at making "boring" music. This is not an insult.

"I love their music to death and I think they are all very capable of making wonderful sleep-inducing songs. In any case, don't make too much of it. It is all just good fun. Sleepy fun."

And that is still the philosophy of Slaapwel Records today.

Demo Policy

We're really humbled by all the requests for releasing a record.

It's very flattering you think Slaapwel could be a good home, but, in all honesty: if you made an album and you're looking for a label to release it: Slaapwel can't do that for you.

Slaapwel only releases albums specifically made for people to fall asleep to. Much like scientists, we do a test with each submission before releasing it.

If you want to make something special, feel free to send it over. We promise we'll try it out, if it works, we'll get back to you, if it doesn't, we prefer staying quiet because it is no fun to say it didn't work. :-)

Elsewhere

Monday

Jul302018

Dear sleepy friends!

It’s been a while, but we’re still around and yes, we have an exciting announcement. We proudly present ’Periphery’ (slaapwel xiv) by Danny Clay, a composer and teaching artist from Ohio currently based in San Francisco. His work is deeply rooted in curiosity, collaboration and the sheer joy of making things.

I’ve been a fan of Danny’s work for a long time. A few years ago, I had the honor to work with him on a collaborative album. This went so well that asking Danny for making a sleepy soundtrack felt like a logical step. And guess what: he said yes and came up with ‘Periphery’, which consists of 4 realizations of the same score, performed with flute, cello, piano and tones.

Danny: “Periphery takes a simple tune that I heard at my grandparents’ church as a child and unravels it, leaving the remnants to drift among each other and the original to loom as a kind of vague feeling at the edge of the senses.”

In other words: ‘Periphery’ is a perfect companion to fall asleep with.

The album comes in a hand folded and stitched limited edition of 250 copies. Artwork by Jon Fischer, design by ORDNER, mastering by Ian Hawgood.

Get your copy here!

//Stijn, Slaapwel Records

Monday, July 30, 2018 at 8:00