Sleep In

The idea is pretty simple: Attendees are invited to sleep while the performers play music that encourages to do so.

It’s very rare that we share the intimacy of our night’s rest with other people. Our brains are much more active and our senses stay more alert when we spend time in the company of others – also in unconscious states of sleeping and dreaming. Combined with a constant aural stimulus that oscillates between soothing and disturbing this opens ways to experience dreams in a very different way: We seem to dream much more and remember our dreams more vividly. It’s not necessarily a deeply relaxing night but definitely one attendees will remember long after.

The composer Robert Rich developed his idea of „Sleep Concerts“ during his time as a student in California in the early 80s. Since his music is very slow and flowing, but he still wanted to get the full attention of his audience, he came up with the idea of simply allowing the listeners to fall asleep during the concert as well. Otherwise, he could not imagine that people would listen to his music in peace for hours.
In the phase shortly after falling asleep and shortly before waking up, the brain is very active. In these states, thoughts can link together in new ways - completely independent of logical patterns. It is precisely these stages in which our mind gives free rein to its imagination. Usually, the memory of these dreams is rather vague or fades away when you wake up.
However, by oscillating between diving in and being woken up, it becomes possible not only to experience these phases several times in the course of a night, but also, in the best case, to remember them better.