Sleep Chamber

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Sleep Chamber
Origin Flag of the United States Boston, Massachusetts
Genre(s) Industrial
Dark ambient
Noise
Years active 1980–Present
Label(s) Inner-X-Musick
Associated acts Women of the SS
Women of Sodom
Website Sleep Chamber on MySpace
Members
John Zewizz

Sleep Chamber is an American musical band / project from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 1980, by John Zewizz, the group has had a wide assortment of members including; Andrew Woolf, Arthur PW, Ashley Swanson, Craig Wien, Darline Victor, Elaine Walker, Eugene Difrancisco, Jacqueline Briley, Jay Keegan, John Wysocki, John Zewizz, Jonathan Briley, Laura Chopelas, Lawrence Van Horn, Malcom Smith, Michael Moynihan, Paul Arnold, Richard Geller, Semiramis, Shiela Gardner, Sin, Thomas Thorn, Tione, and performed a wide variety of music. Early works were experimental and considered noise music, with elements of musique concrete. Shortly thereafter Sleep Chamber was recording ritual and dark ambient music, which continued into the early 1990s. In the late-1980s the band began incorporating more computer generated sounds into their work and produces some industrial music inspired work with content that revolved around sex and magic. The band is reluctant to categorize the music and refers to it as a "soundtrack for sex."[2]

The popularity of Sleep Chamber's live shows grew and in the early 1990s they were selling out mid to large size rooms in Boston such as Man Ray Club, Axis, and The Middle East[3]. A pioneer in the field of ritual/dark ambient and industrial music the publics egerness to see their provocative stage shows allowed them to tour extensively throughout the US and Europe. Their stage show was renown for a troupe of scantily clad female dancers called the Barbitchuettes. Popular with the gothic and fetish subculture, the Barbitchuettes would preform B&D and S&M scenes for the audience. Sleep Chamber paved the way for bands such as the Genitorturers.

Sleep Chambers self destruction began with the death of Barbitchuette dancer and then girlfriend of Zewizz, Laura Graff. Zewizz was questioned by police in the suspicious death before it was ruled an accidental heroin overdose. In 1997 a heroin addicted Zewizz disbanded the project shortly after returning to Boston from a German tour when he was suspected of the murder of Karina Holmer a Swedish au pair living in Boston.

Around 2000 the Sleep Chamber project became effectively silent, and it is unclear if Sleep Chamber will release any future material. Zewizz now living in New York City has stuck a deal with German independent record label FünfUndVierzig to distribute previously undistributed and newly remastered songs.

Discography[1]

  • 1983 - Dream Distillate
  • 1983 - Dream Distillate (Reissue)
  • 1983 - Live At Newburryport
  • 1983 - Speak In Tongues
  • 1984 - Live At The Innersleeve Gallery
  • 1984 - Musik For Mannequins
  • 1985 - Ikons & Ov
  • 1985 - Live At The Air Station
  • 1985 - Sigil 23
  • 1985 - Sleep Chamber
  • 1985 - Submit To Desire
  • 1985 - W:O:M
  • 1985 - Warm Leatherette
  • 1986 - Babylon
  • 1986 - Flesh On Flesh
  • 1986 - Live At The Pallace Roads Theatre
  • 1986 - Live At The Rat Club 12:18:85
  • 1986 - Live On WZBC 11/5/86
  • 1986 - Trance
  • 1987 - Live At TT The Bears 7-8-87
  • 1987 - Sexmagick Ritual
  • 1987 - Sexmagick Ritual (LP)
  • 1987 - Sleep Sanatorium
  • 1987 - Spellbondage
  • 1988 - Fetish Garden
  • 1988 - Sacred And Surreal
  • 1988 - Satanic Sanction
  • 1988 - Sins Ov Obsession
  • 1988 - Sleep Sequence
  • 1989 - Sharp Spikes & Spurs
  • 1990 - Sirkle Zero
  • 1990 - Sleep, Or Forever Hold Your Piece
  • 1991 - Justify My Love
  • 1992 - Sacred And Surreal
  • 1992 - Siamese Succubi
  • 1993 - Sweet Dreams Sweet
  • 1993 - Symphony Sexualis
  • 1994 - Sleeping Sickness
  • 1995 - Cuckoo Clock / Reality Reveiled
  • 1995 - Seduction: Through The Past...Darkly
  • 1995 - Some Godz Die Young EP
  • 1995 - Sonorous Invokations Ov Brian Jones
  • 1995 - Sopor
  • 1996 - Sacrosanct
  • 1997 - Liez In The Skyz
  • 1997 - Sirkus
  • 1997 - Some Godz Die Young
  • 1998 - Sonorous Invokations Ov Brian Jones Vol. #1
  • 1999 - Sentinel Serenade
  • 1999 - Kum Kleopatra / Nessus



[edit] Notes

1. a more robust discography can be found at www.discogs.com
2. The Boston Phoenix May 9 - 16, 2002 [1]
3. The URL www.sleep-chamber.com no longer points to a web site concerning the band Sleep Chamber. 4. John Zewizz DOES NOT, and never has, lived in NYC. He is still in the suburbs of Boston. john zewezz LIVES IN EVERTT MA. Sleep Chamber is working on a new album as of 2008