Days Between Stations released their fourth album, “Perpetual Motion Machines (Music For A Film),” on November 29, 2024.
“Perpetual Motion Machines” is the result of DBS founding members keyboardist Oscar Fuentes Bills and guitarist Sepand Samzadeh working on the music for a documentary film about Jean-Paul Bourdier in the mid-2010s. As the music reached completion, the group was offered the opportunity to release their music as a “proper” album. Sepand says, “Jean Paul’s artwork was our muse, and we scored the music to pictures and to existing films.” Ultimately the changing roster of film producers developed new goals for their project, and the band focused on turning “Perpetual Motion Machines” into an album now available digitally, on CD, and vinyl.
BUY ON CD OR VINYL IN OUR STORE. BUY ON DIGITAL ON BANDCAMP. ALSO AVAILABLE ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS.
There are two music videos for the album:
1) “Seeds”, directed by Alex Dorriz. The music video for “Seeds” features artist Jean-Paul Bourdier at work, altering landscapes, coloring bodies, marking up film frames, playing with manufactured items to see how they influence visuals. The video was voted “Track of the Week” by Prog Magazine in September 2024
2) “Being”, directed by Erik Nielsen, featuring vocalist Durga McBroom
“Being” felt unfinished at the time. Oscar had written a melody that lent itself to vocals, and “we based them around the general concept of existence and trying to inject Jean Paul’s poetic philosophy.” Ultimately, the lyrics came from a more personal place, “this is what Jean-Paul’s art inspired us to do, and we let the music speak for itself. Pink Floyd backup vocalist Durga McBroom sings on “Being,” which will be released as a video on November 29, the same day as the album.
Produced by Navon Weisberg, who helmed the project “as a fan. I removed the technical hurdles and allowed Sepand and Oscar to focus their energy on the music, allowing their emotions to be captured.”
The album is dedicated to the memory of “Big” Bill Kaylor who engineered early sessions of “Perpetual Motion Machines” and worked on the group’s second album, “In Extremis.”
Formed exactly 20 years ago in Los Angeles, Sepand and Oscar named the band after Steve Erickson’s novel “Days Between Stations.” The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord inspired the band to work on their music after he used some of Sepand and Oscar’s musical experiments as the basis for “Saturday” on The Pineapple Thief’s “12 Stories Down” album. The duo continued to work with a range of musicians on what became their first release, “Days Between Stations,” in 2007.
Their 2012 recording “In Extremis” was produced by Yes’ Billy Sherwood. In 2020 they released “Giants,” which included vocals from Durga McBroom on “Witness the End of the World” and voted as Prog Magazine’s Track of the Week.
The band has a history of music in films-dating back to “Radio Song” (from the debut album) licensed in the independent film “Young, Single & Angry” in 2006 and then in 2023 in “Paul & Trisha: The Art of Fluidity,” now featured on Apple Movies. They created the score for a short Mexican movie, “Y Recibir Tu Aliento” in 2017.
Perpetual Motion Machines (Music For A Film)
Waltz for the Dead (1:53)
Proof of Life (2:49)
Seeds (2:39)
Unearth (4:21)
Intermission 3 (0:52)
Stone Faces (3:15)
Paradigm Lost (6:24)
Ascend (3:14)
Being (featuring Durga McBroom) (9:00)
Written and performed by
Days Between Stations: Oscar Fuentes Bills and Sepand Samzadeh
Produced by Navon Weisberg and Days Between Stations
Additional performers on “Being”:
Durga McBroom: vocals, Scott Connor: drums, Oscar Fuentes Bills: backing vocals
Navon Weisberg: drum programming on “Waltz for the Dead”, “Proof of Life”, “Stone Faces”, and “Paradigm Lost”
Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Navon Weisberg
Mastered by David Gardner
Executive Producers: Sam and Parvin Samzadeh
Manager: Erik Nielsen
Art direction, layout, and band photo: Erik Nielsen
Photo of Jean-Paul Bourdier by Alex Dorriz
Featuring the artwork of Jean-Paul Bourdier.
Copyright © Jean-Paul Bourdier. Used with permission.
© & ℗ 2024 Days Between Stations. All rights of the owner and the work reproduced were reserved. Unauthorized copying, lending, hiring, public performance and broadcast prohibited.
Vocal Melodies and Lyrics: Oscar Fuentes Bills (Big Yellow Chair Music, BMI)
Publishing: Oscar Fuentes Bills (Big Yellow Chair Music, BMI), Sepand Samzadeh (Station One, ASCAP)
Music arranged and orchestral arrangements by Days Between Stations except “Seeds” orchestrated by Oscar Fuentes Bills
Our Thanks To:
The Board of Governors, especially Franz Keylard and Doug Kostelnik
Alejandro Araujo
Ann Rinaldi, Thomas Palmieri & everyone at Progstock Festival
Jason Schimmel at The Bunker
Ivan Reyes Romero for IT Support
Emanual Volakis and Volakis Gallery
Jason Atkinson and David Knauer at Audio Perception
Sean Weitzman and Arturia
JP Cervoni, Dario and Pierangelo Mezzabarba
David Phillips at LA Sound Design
Thomas Nordegg & Edwin Clothier at Timespeed Lectonx
Billy James, Glass Onyon PR
Anne Leighton, Leighton Media
A special thank you to Jean-Paul Bourdier, whose artwork and perspective was the inspiration for this project. Thank you for trusting us.
This album is dedicated to William “Big Bill” Kaylor.
Rest in peace, brother. May we meet again and make music together!
So long, and thanks for all the fish:
It has been an incredibly long and sometimes torturous road to completion of this project. As always, there are many people without whom we couldn’t have done this…
Special thanks and much love to Sam and Parvin Samzadeh for their love and support.
Heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Alex Dorriz, Navon Weisberg, Ivan Reyes Romero, Scott Connor, Durga McBroom, Jason Atkinson, Billy Sherwood, Jason Schimmel, and of course Erik Nielsen and Sepand Samzadeh.
Thanks to my wife Marjory for unending love and faith. -OSCAR
To Nosrat, Nazli & Martijn, Kayvan & Paulette, Soheil, Kian & Shirin, Vahid & Zohreh, Hediyeh & Saeed, Oscar & Marjory, Erik & Jennifer, Gareth, Foroud & Negar, Farhad & Sarvenaz, Paul Whitehead, Durga McBroom, and Billy Sherwood… Thank you for your friendship, faith, love and support while I was in the ring.
To Farhad & Roohi Tale Yazdi… el toro no hubiera ganado si no fuera por ustedes… te amo con todo mi corazón. To my dearest uncle and rock, Abbas Kianmanesh, you are my hero and the kids’ hero….thank you for believing in me and supporting me. To mom and dad thank you for your unwilling love and support and showing me the depths of love when I was in the depths of hell
Finally dearest Jean-Paul, and Alex your work, philosophy and kind heart has set us in Perpetual Motion, thank you for your inspiration. – SEPAND
Lyrics for Being
Travel on
Barely breathing
World’s gone dark
Ocean’s bleeding
Lost my mind
In you believing
Empty words
Found no meaning
CHORUS
All I am was always here
In this sound, waves of feeling
Open up and disappear
Waking up, only Being
Empty homes in this half light
Broken love in your half life
A ruined palace is your birthright
Burnt your eyes staring down the sunlight
CHORUS
All we are was always here
In this house only breathing
Hypnotized by the fear
Waking up, now we’re seeing
BRIDGE
The artifice is disappearing
Fields of color come alive
The evidence points to this place
We’re never leaving
Broken glass, a kitchen table
The fading sun illuminates this empty frame
And while the fury keeps me busy….
Illuminate…illuminate me
I will always be here
I will always be here
I will always be here
I am begging for release
Sickened by the boundless feast
In the belly of the beast I cry
I will always be here
I will always be here
I will always be here
BUY ON CD OR VINYL IN OUR STORE. BUY ON DIGITAL ON BANDCAMP. ALSO AVAILABLE ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS.
