Om sweet Om

>> Sleep’s Al Cisneros wakes up to music
again with his mind-melting new duo

LET THE LIGHT IN: Om

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

When mentioning San Francisco’s heavy psychedelic duo Om, one can’t escape the legacy of Sleep, the band from which original Om drummer Chris Hakius (who departed earlier this year, replaced by Emil Amos) and bassist/singer Al Cisnernos hail. Sleep have posthumously become the touchstone for post-Sabbath doom rock, with their record Jerusalem, featuring the hour-long opus “Dopesmoker,” being stoner rock’s holy grail.

“I don’t think any of us really thought Sleep would become this popular, especially years after the band had already stopped,” says Cisneros. “I’m really moved that the band has had that much response and impact on people.”

After the demise of Sleep in the late ’90s, Cisneros was so distraught that he took five years off from playing music altogether, returning to school while taking up a job teaching chess. After music and lyrics once again began to appear in his head, at an increasingly rapid rate, Cisneros found himself with little choice but to return to music.

“When Sleep ended, it just felt exactly like death to me. I was really in a sad, demoralized state with a lot of pain. I really needed that time off to explore my mind state and psyche, and ask myself some important questions about how I identified myself. Om was what really cut out the things that were obscuring the light, and really let me live again.”

The result was Om’s hallucinatory serial jams, the ever-evolving cyclical motifs and eerie mysticism reminiscent of Tibetan Buddhist chants. Talking to Cisneros now, on the eve of their FIMAV appearance, he does indeed seem to be in a good place. He has a new drummer in tow, their new record Pilgrimage is clearly their crowning achievement and work is already underway for their fourth record.

“I’m really excited about Om right now. Playing with Amos is just so refreshing for the band right now, and I really feel lucky that I found him. Just being able to play Victoriaville, with people like John Zorn on the bill, means so much to me. I think we are just living in a really inspiring time period right now.”

With KTL at Victoriaville’s
Colisée (4000 Jutras E.) on
Saturday, May 17, 10 p.m., $32