Shrubbery Terror’s latest offering, “Draught (The Man Who Sleeps),” is like a haunted dream woven into melody in a shadowy, swirling swaddle of sound and poetic philosophy. Founded by Mateusz Nowakowski, the one-man experimental project continues to find its niche in the music world, smashing through genres with raw emotive power and literary poignancy.
“Draught (The Man Who Sleeps)” makes you feel as if you’ve walked into an ancient forest of thoughts, one that’s still, deep, and whispering. The song maintains an ethereal equilibrium of quiet but expansive, eerie but intimate tension. The composition has a literal weight, as though each note sounds like sleepless nights and philosophical unrest.
This and the rest of the songs on the forthcoming debut album are drawn from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, a body of work that straddles the line between childlike wonder and adult disillusionment. The vocals, sometimes ghostly and submerged under layers of instrumental haze, sound like they emanate from another world, casting Blake’s introspective poetry with the force of a modern-day spell. The song is against the wholeness of the traditional structure, working an arc that’s more cinematic and dynamic. Textured sounds come and go, ambient drones yield to melancholy melodies, and silence is as big a part as sound.
While we wait patiently for the Shrubbery Terror’s full-length album, “Draught (The Man Who Sleeps)” makes for an enticingly beautiful trailer. It demands quiet, reflection, and space. For those who give it that much, it provides a peek into a mind unafraid to sleepwalk through dreams and nightmares in equal measure. He’s not only constructing songs but cultivating entire worlds.
