Masters of musical melancholia, SLEEPING PULSE, reveal the video single ‚Rise‚ as the first advance single taken from their forthcoming new album: „Dreams & Limitations„. The sophomore full-length from the English-Portuguese duo has been scheduled for release on June 5, 2026.
Sleeping Pulse – Rise [Official Music Video]
SLEEPING PULSE comment: „The track ‚Rise‘ confronts the unnerving reality that there is no life without death“, frontman Mick Moss writes. „Both are wound together so tightly that they tease each other. We can try our best to focus on the light, but the darkness is always there, tapping us on the shoulder.“
When you allow Northern English melancholia from valleys of green and gray to get married to the eternal longing of Portuguese Fado from where the raging Atlantic meets the heat of summer at the end of the world, SLEEPING PULSE is what you get.
Portugal has a reputation for people casually talking about death when going about everyday life like other folks talk about the weather. England is regarded as a stoic place, which makes it hardly surprising that SLEEPING PULSE explore the profound struggle of staying sane whilst navigating the heartbreaking truth that all existence is not just brief – but also one fraught with personal loss and an inability to hold on to the people that you love.
So far so good, but what sets the duo of vocalist Mick Moss, who is best known for his work with ANTIMATTER, and Portuguese guitarist Luís Fazendeiro apart, is their artistic achievement to make this existential pain audible with every note on their sophomore album „Dreams & Limitations“. Using a form of doomy progressive or even post-rock as their sonic foundation, SLEEPING PULSE compose music that is in the best way deeply emotional while remaining exciting. The duo’s songs do not wallow in sorrow; they rather embrace the inevitable and live through it for as long as it lasts.
It took SLEEPING PULSE more than a decade to create a more than worthy heir to „Under the Same Sky“ (2014). The debut album came as a surprise and although it was well received, there was no loud buzz, and the lack of live performances should have buried it after a while. This is not what happened though. Instead, the album kept being streamed and a vinyl reissue was eagerly picked up by many fans that the band had gained over the years. Word of mouth, listening to the album at a friend’s place, the fans of beautiful, timeless music kept „Under the Same Sky“ alive.
And of course, freshly converted as well as long-time fans kept politely asking for new material, which was for the most part greeted with silence from the artists who were busy with other projects. Yet as time passed, new personal experiences piled on to the feelings that had given birth to SLEEPING PULSE in the first place, and the louder both musicians heard the call from the inside to return to their project. Finally, these feelings could not longer be ignored, and Moss and Fazendeiro felt compelled to join forces once again in order to write new songs.
With „Dreams & Limitations“ SLEEPING PULSE continue where they left off while they gently venture further on their rocky path. It invites all those to follow, for whom rock music is not all about party and kicking ass. „Dreams & Limitations“ gives a musical voice to loss and pain, but it also offers to carry a part of the burden, comfort and hope, and to be an understanding companion through such dark times.
