Soporus (Latin meaning to lull to sleep) began playing live in autumn 2005 and was
founded as an ambient side project of Saxon Shore's Will Stichter and Matthew Stone. In early 2006, they scored the soundtrack for a documentarty short film, “Re Enactment”, where children in war-torn Uganda explain tactics used by militia groups to recruit children for their war purposes. Their friend Andy Bruntel (Rilo Kiley, Bonnie Prince Billy, Mountain Goats) edited the film and enlisted their support. The duo began working on an ep for a 4 band 2xLP split for Burnt Toast Vinyl, resulting in a 4 song cdep with an alternate fifth song to be used for the vinyl split.

Atómové Elektrárne is thematically influenced by Stone’s childhood growing up in Cental
PA. The events at Three Mile Island on 29 March 1979 are interwoven in family folklore. His father was working in Harrisburg, PA and was sent home with an evacuation seeming likely. His family lived less than 5 miles away at the time. Stone was only a year old at the time, but his interest in the nuclear power and accidents continues. The song titles are all connected to nuclear reactors that have experienced accidents. The title of the album, Atómové Elektrárne, is the Czech company which opened the nuclear powerplants in present day Jaslovské Bohunice, Slovakia. “Bohunice” was the site of a nuclear accident in 1977 which resulted in the closing of one of the reactors at the site. “Surry II” is a reactor in Virginia where workers were scalded to death in both 1972 and again in 1986. The album closes with “Pripyat”, referring to the location in the Ukraine that was home to perhaps the most devestating of all nuclear accidents--Chernobyl.

Soporus’ ambient music draws a parallel to these nuclear themes, tightly harnessing
music of powerful energy and concentrating it in a beautiful, subtle package. Stone
composed “Pripyat” while looking at a photo of a ferris wheel in the town post-Chernobyl
and the song reflects the bleakness, sadness, and quiet beauty of the empty place.
Elements of Soporus’ ambience can be found in the mix of Saxon Shore’s work, but for
Atómové Elektrárne it is the focal point.

This is part of a four instrumental band series where each band was commissioned to fill
an LP side with new music. Burnt Toast Vinyl will be releasing the four bands together as one double-LP set, but also as individual cdeps. The series includes Foxhole's Push/Pull, The Magic Lantern's s/t, Soporus' Atómové Elektrárne, and Questions in Dialect's The Ghost Wishes to Speak.