BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260913T053847Z UID:2f737263-5e82-4f6d-98ee-5bede1f6050e DTSTART:20260816T180000 DTEND:20260816T190000 CLASS:PRIVATE DESCRIPTION:experimental art-pop - chamber pop - dream pop\n\n\nImmediately bonding over the The Flaming Lips and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood\, the two have intermittently lived and worked together since\, in Brooklyn and Los Angeles\, but mostly on the road in-between\, as shifting parts of pirate crews traversing the country and playing in bands Water From Your Eyes and This is Lorelei\, among many more.\n\nthe fantasy of a broken hea rt began on these journeys\, in moments stolen while wedged up between roo mmates and band members in overstuffed apartments and the cramped backseat s of cars. The creative outlet of two working musicians\, fantasy was firs t just Al and Bailey writing songs\, using music to track the vicissitudes of their lives and relationships - with each other and the sprawling ecos ystem of musicians of which they’re a part.\n\nthe fantasy of a broken h eart’ s new EP\, Chaos Practitioner\, follows their explosive debut albu m\, Feats of Engineering (2024)\, building on the latter’s kooky but sin cere narrative chops while charting new aural directions. The album spotli ghts the duo’s musical ecosystem with cameos from friends old and new\, including Jackson Katz of Brutus VIII\, Nick Rattigan of Current Joys\, an d Kelsea Feder of Blums. Mixed by Nate Amos (Water From Your Eyes and This is Lorelei) and mastered by Ruben Radlauer (Model/Actriz)\, the six-song collection breaks just past 19 minutes\, but in that short span guides the listener through a frenetic freefall. The album\, as its title suggests\, careens between candid reflections on the real world and forays into the haze of daydreams—leaving the border open for exploration. “Is it magi c or just mystery?” they ask rhetorically on the EP’s third track\, Ha ve a Nice Time Life\, a nonsensical-by-design mediation on the danger and promise of getting addicted to the thrill.\n\nBailey’s husky baritone wh ispers\, shouts\, and croons\, Al’s airy vocals twang and soar transcend ent\, their voices drifting in and out of conversation with each other. A transient\ndialogue between the two runs through the tracks\, often out of sync and existing sometimes in absentia. Chaos Practitioner’s meditativ e and surreal elements are grounded by driving percussion and shimmering t wangs of harp\, while ethereal synth layers maintain the dreamlike foundat ion. The final track\, We Confront the Demon in Mysterious Ways\, offers a tentative resolution to the struggle\, between one’s inner life and the real world\, laid out in the preceding tracks\, with Al and Bailey recrea ting a never-ending argument between two lovers\, at turnsaccusatory and d efensive. “You wanted real love but you got me instead\,” Al sings. “Does it feel good when you hurt me back?” replies Bailey.\n\nAl and B ailey call Chaos Practitioner their “most bedroom collection to date.” It was crafted by close friends in close quarters\, on the floors of hote l rooms and living room couches between Brooklyn\, Mexico City\, and Los A ngeles. Though shaped by the surrealist endeavors of 70s prog-rock and lat e-90s dream pop\, fantasy’s output is ultimately tethered to reality\, t o music as sculpted by years of live performance. A maximalist diatribe\, their sound is guided by whatever the fuck they want\, but always anchored by the emotional core of the central relationship.\n\nAl says that Bailey is the gas. They’re steering\, maybe (sometimes) pressing lightly on th e brakes. Indulge in their fantasy\, put out your cigarette and pack your bags\, or don’t\, and come along for the ride.\n\nWhen the world sputter ed to a halt in 2020\, the whirlwind stopped. The pair deposited themselve s in Al’s native Los Angeles\, taking the opportunity to hunker down wit h their twinned sound and commit to fantasy as a fully-fledged band. They looked back on the time they had put into their careers and each other\, h arnessing their powers to confront the ambiguity of the transitional and d raw coherence from a myriad of perspectives.\n\nThe resulting debut album\ , Feats of Engineering\, is both sweeping epic and a candid record of ever yday moments\, an emotional scrapbook filled with things that happened and things that didn’t. It begins\, appropriately\, with the slow\, anxious beeping of a car door left ajar\, gradually cut off by the dignified tone s of a synthetic organ\, which carry you nearly to rapture before the song launches into toe-tapping abandon: “welcome to the fantasy of a broken heart\,” Bailey intones. This frenetic dynamic marks the rest of the alb um\, which weaves moments of intimate ambience with bursts of lush orchest ration\, the heart-thumping bravado of drums and guitar confronting baroqu e dignity.\n\nThough shaped by the surrealist endeavors of 70s prog-rock a nd late-90s dream pop\, and the logic-eschewing rules of animated worlds\, the album is ultimately tethered to reality\, to music as sculpted by yea rs of live performance. A maximalist diatribe\, its sound is guided by wha tever the fuck it wants\, but anchored by the emotional core of its centra l relationship. Lyrics careen between the silly and the sincere: from ciga rinos and »bibby bops'« to euphoric art and grecian pillars. Bailey’s husky baritone whispers\, shouts\, and croons\, Al’s airy vocals twang a nd soar transcendent\, their voices drifting in and out of conversation wi th each other. The title track is defined by a rare and total harmony\, » What’s your intention?/Locomotion in detention/Think of jumping off a br oken bridge suspension/In Middletown«\, Al and Bailey sing in unison\, re calling a bad day in Connecticut.\n\nWhiffs of Americana grasped from cros s-country voyages appear in panorama\, alongside moments of conflict and c ollusion\, and sometimes flashes of epiphany. Truth is buried just beneath the veneer of fiction\, but these aren’t love songs\, more a bundle of snapshots from the ever-shifting dynamics between two people and their res pective worlds.\n\nAl says that Bailey is the gas. They’re steering\, ma ybe (sometimes) pressing lightly on the brakes. Indulge in their fantasy\, put out your cigarette and pack your bags\, or don’t\, and come along f or the ride.\n\nhttps://fantasyofabrokenheart.bandcamp.com/\nhttps://youtu .be/l8wbmyurRmc?si=qzvg1Yy91D4QKcod LOCATION:Hafenklang Goldener Salon SUMMARY:fantasy of a broken heart (NYC • Dots Per Inch Music) URL;VALUE=URI:https://sperrstunde.org/events/2026-08-16-fantasy-of-a-broken -heart-nyc-dots-per-inch-music END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR