Jason W. Walton Releasing "Mara" Album

Agalloch bassist and Self Spiller mastermind Jason W. Walton has been creating surreal and otherworldly soundscapes for over twenty years.

In the '90s he began working under the name Nothing and released four full-length albums and various EPs. He performed live as Nothing in the Midwest and the West Coast before retiring the name in 2003. Watlon remained busy with other musical endeavors knowing that a return to ambient noise was imminent.

In the summer of 2013, Walton began the songwriting process again by collecting field recordings from places he would visit. He captured the din of humanity on the downtown Portland streets, the rush of ocean waves in Southern California, and the mysteriously comforting monologues emanating from an AM radio.

During mid-2014, Walton manipulated and processed these sounds into disturbingly haunting pieces which would become the basis of his soon-to-be released "Mara" seven-inch.

Walton decided to thematically compose these songs around his struggle with sleep paralysis -- a phenomenon in which a person, either falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experiences an inability to move, speak, and react. While creating these tracks he deprived himself of sleep and recounted his episodes of sleep paralysis within the two tracks contained in "Mara." During episodes of sleep paralysis, Walton states he sometimes feels like he has some kind of spiritual connection or "visit" from lost loved ones.

1. 11:43 PM - Alp
2. 3:21 AM - Yakshi