Eiyn Sof
March 26th, 2008
Eiyn Sof (“eye” with an N, “soft” without the T) is Melissa Boraski, a Toronto-based mother of two who makes music while her kids are sleeping.
After having performed since childhood and starting her first rock band at the age of 14, Melissa rather suddenly adopted a religious lifestyle in her mid-teens. During that time she was a vocalist on 5 internationally distributed gospel records (Vineyard Music). However, Boraski left the church in her early 20’s to freely pursue more exciting creative projects.
After many teenage years exploring song writing and visual arts, a taste for the unusual led Roan Bateman to exploring art through sound. He began to experiment at home in the late nineties often collaborating with long time friend Hans Finkeldey (Sense Hertz, Hans Ohm & founder of Under See Recordings). The endless possibilities of synthesized sound, guitar effects and sampling led to many boxes of recorded tapes and his first solo instrumental project, the Sleepy Mosquito Buzz Quartet (‘Quartet’ referring to the 4 tracks he was limited to, not a band). Marking the death of his 4-Track and a switch to computer based recording, this project is now simply called Sleepy Mosquito.
“Long Gone”, Dark Bird’s debut, gives flight to Roan Bateman’s song writing. In the mid-nineties Roan’s melodramatic teenage poetry found a 4-track cassette recorder and his dark visions began to take form in song. A shy disposition left his songs in the shadows and he found comfort in the role of guitar player in several bands through the late nineties. With mainstream radio being his only exposure to new sounds, saviors such as the Cure, Radiohead and Neil Young quickly led him down the mysterious rabbit-hole of indie pop, electronic, and experimental music. Artists such as Low, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, and Aphex Twin having the greatest influence.