The Pains Of Sleep is a one-man project from Bucharest, Romania, focusing on experimental, ambient and avantgarde tunes, created with uncoventional means and far from 2010's musical standards. It is a 100% Do It Yourself project, with no purpose other than putting on tape a sober, depressive, nihilistic view on life, which will be heard by those who are designed to hear it, and will be ignored by most of the average people.
The Pains Of Sleep first appeared in the winter of 2006, as a noise and almost non-musical project entitled Macaitul Matzei. The first line-up of this so-called band (in which hardly anybody knew how to play an instrument) was Alex Zamfir (vocals, composer), Tibi Vancsa (recording and noises) and Mihail Mihu (guitar and some vocals). The three highschool mates used a wide range of "instruments" (an old guitar, plastic bags, pencils, pots, frying pans, mugs, a toy piano) to create a noisy, out-tuned background for chaotically spoken words, most of them mocking stereotypes confronted daily at school.
But the technical means were disastrous and the group dissolved shortly after Mihu left to become a bass player for some traditional Macedo-Rumanian music bands. The materials recorded were of very poor quality but filled with ideas that were put aside, but not forgotten.
In 2007, Alex Zamfir picked up some old demos and fragments and mixed them up with freshly composed Fruity Loops tunes. The result was a 16 track demo called "The Pains Of Sleep". While it still had a lot of sound and technical issues, the new material was far better then the primitive recordings from the "Macaitul Matzei" sessions, and it presented a strong ideology. Again, the demo was left behind - it was the best thing that could have been done at the time.
In 2009, Alex Zamfir re-recorded a track from the 2007 demo, 'End Of The World', adding guitar effects and solos played by Andrei Bratu (the solo guitarist in Alex's yet to be named alternative metal band). The result was unexpectedly good: for the first time, after almost 4 years of creeping and crawling, the project had achieved the desired sound.
In 2010, the spirit of Macaitul Matzei and The Pains Of Sleep is more alive than ever. The project will begin working at new material, also remixing the old 2007 demos to bring them to a decent level, if not professional. Even though there isn't any set deadline, the results will be put together on The Pains Of Sleep's first album.
