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Droning Cats with NRV – See Blue Audio (previews)

'Cartography of Sleep'
Droning Cats with NRV
See Blue Audio SBA 060

1. When Two Longitudes Overlap
2. Slumbering on a Swing
3. Dreams with Claws
4. Catastrophic
5. Dorian Tapestry

Release date: 14 November 2025

See Blue Audio: ambient / electronic / beatless / cinematic / downtempo / eclectic / introspective… Shade rather than light...

After a short hiatus, See Blue Audio returns with a collaboration between new artists to the label, Droning Cats, and one of our most established names, NRV. In the chaotic and fraught world in which we find ourselves, this partnership has yielded a wonderful musical pause for reflection in 'Cartography of Sleep'. As the title reveals, the sixtieth release on See Blue Audio is a sonic journey through the mysterious realm of sleep. This is an invitation to drift, while still keeping your bearings, as you travel across the blurred borders between waking and dreaming.

Droning Cats are the Brussels-based duo of Christophe Calis (guitar, baritone guitar, electronics) and Jan Delannoy (modular synths), who first met as part of a trip hop band before morphing into solo ambient artists. They came together to create Droning Cats with the emphasis on creating unpredictable and spontaneous music, rather like the curious nature of cats. Their free-flowing approach to creating music is perfectly complemented by the precision and emotional delicacy of NRV, the drone/ambient project from Japanese electronic musician, producer and radio host Nerve, best known as part of the electro-pop band antennasia. NRV has already contributed two exquisite releases to See Blue Audio in 'Blue Roofs' and 'Seasons Beyond the Ashes'.

'Cartography of Sleep' is the debut release from Droning Cats with NRV and was produced entirely by long-distance file exchanges. Across its five predominantly beatless tracks, the improvisational, genre-defying soundscapes of Droning Cats elegantly merge with NRV's finely tuned sense of spacious atmospheres. Drawing on their shared love of sonic exploration, the music charts a course through dreamlike states where languid, luminous passages meet darker, ominous undercurrents, like shifting weather in a strange, imagined land. The combination of shimmering guitar textures, slow-moving drones, gentle rhythmic pulses and textural detail invites the listener to join them in a richly immersive experience where geography is fluid and time dissolves.

As 'Cartography of Sleep' unfolds, it maps out an oneiric terrain where beauty drifts into unease and stillness hides quiet cataclysms. The eloquent interplay between guitar harmonics and subtle electronica gives the music a flavour of the natural world in all its myriad forms. Each track is a stopping point on an uncharted map of dreams, from the vast expanse of the opening 'When Two Longitudes Overlap' to the shadowy elegance of 'Dreams with Claws'.

This collection has a special quality that lent itself to being represented in other artistic forms; the world of sleep and dreams is, after all, also one of images, colours, words and sensations as well as sound. Accompanying the music is a PDF booklet featuring five pieces of text written by See Blue Audio founder Matthew Duffield. Completing the release are images drawn by illustrator Swann Quach. The music, text and images were all created completely independently of each other in different time and space, but they have serendipitously come together. Swann's illustrations adorn the cover artwork of 'Cartography of Sleep' as well as alongside the text in the booklet.

'Cartography of Sleep' is a sublime listening experience and one that gently nudges us into the shapeshifting universes of sleep, dreaming and waking. Take from it what you will as the music washes over you. It's commonly agreed that we all need more – and deeper – sleep; this could help us along the way.

Mastered by Simon McCorry.

Illustration: Swann Quach.

Cartography of Sleep

'Cartography of Sleep' (preview) – Droning Cats with NRV (See Blue Audio SBA #060)