Conceived during 2000's frigid winter, Building Castles out of Matchsticks is the musical project of Anne Sulikowski: musician, photographer, videographer, radio DJ, blogger...overachiever. With a palette so vast you'd think the colors would bleed unproductively. But that never materializes, each medium inspiring the next, sifting through different filters inside Sulikowski's creative mind with an unmistakable sense of ballast. More than anything, music was an intrinsic force that pushed her to record her thoughts. Using the songs like a diary, she documents her thoughts: of daydreaming, dreaming, wondering, and wandering. This is her purpose for Building Castles out of Matchsticks. Under the hefty moniker, Sulikowski has recorded a steady stream of over ten albums, with nearly as many collaborations on the side. Through each release she has grown, and so too her music, forming into the unique conglomeration of sounds she produces today.

In practice, Building Castles out of Matchsticks is a pretty simple outfit. With her picturesque imagination, a few pedals, synthesizers, and a guitar, Sulikowski weaves melodies that are anything but primitive. Her sometimes-feminine-sometimes-not vocals, as sparse as they are, add an eerie yet intimate element to the overall resonance of the ambient sounds. Comme Un Rêve, Dans La Nuit, although under twenty five minutes, is a fully unconventional creation of obscured feelings and ideas. Although it’s immediate stickiness may not exist, after a few follow-ups you will catch yourself daydreaming to this soundtrack.

The album title translates to “Like A Dream, In The Night" - a fitting title considering Sulikowski's work has often taken her dreams as subject. Comme Un Rêve, Dans La Nuit begins like a blissful bout of reverie with “Tes Cheveux Dans Mon Visage,” on which the off-beat vocals lie on top of one another, becoming just another instrument colliding with the programmed syncopation of the drumkit. There's a very spiritual airiness to it, like it was recorded atop the highest peak of the Himalayas. “Falling Over Furniture” also has a distinct Eastern feel to it. With sounds she’s discovered in her sleep, Anne composes haunting electronic soundscapes. At times dark and industrial, the longest track of the album slowly fades off into emptiness right before the five minute mark. “Sugar Bleeps” starts off simply, each sound building note by note, growing more and more captivating. The only straight instrumental of the bunch, it's lead by soft percussion, pings, and synth.

“Like A Dream In The Night” is reminiscent of that short span of confusion you have between states of consciousness. Heavily electronic, its disjointed beats, drones, and robotic vocals seep through the cracks of our semi-wakefulness. Gears shift from a strange daydream to a ravishing nightmare with “Still, I Have Never Been Able To Read A Map,” Sounds continually swell, kicked up by chainsaw rips and splashing cymbals, to the point where the cacophony becomes overwhelming and you wish it would slow down. But noise continues to swarm, and like a nightmare, you realistically have the power to stop it, but you don't. Everything grows closer and closer together in your eardrums, becoming rougher and more intense, until finally things begin to patter out before the finish, which comes as sweet relief. Now awake, you begin to realize your industrial surroundings. Dark, billowing skyscrapers, rain, and pollution invade your every thought. The filth of reality becomes apparent. Like a savior, “Trying Again The End All Over Again” sends us back to a dreamy escape, with vocal and instruments together swelling and retreating like an oceanic drift. Pleasantly repetitive, Sulikowski voices “fine” over and over as you become lost to the beat of the ever-present drum machine. This continues until its last surge. Our last waking thought, before we doze off and do it all over again.

Track List:
1. Tes Cheveux Dans Mon Visage
2. Falling Over Furniture
3. Like A Dream In The Night
4. Still, I Have Never Been Able To Read A Map
5. Sugar Bleeps
6. Trying Again The End All Over Again