A Place in the Sun

**A Place in the Sun** is an American folk band from Flint, Michigan, founded in 2017. The band is fronted by ofstsld. ofstsld is the principal songwriter and producer behind the band's albums, but he has also collaborated with other local musicians on his other recordings and tours.

## History

When i graduated from high school my parents offered to buy me a holiday
 abroad. I declined and asked for a copy of "Archive 2" instead. Somehow
 it all makes sense: Years of rough studies and training behind me, I
was now ready to embrace the real thing. When I got the album I spent
several days avoiding the enormousness of it all. At some point I did
listen to it and still remember the feeling I got: The world would never
 be the same again, the naive childhood days of pre-archive era were
over.

When I hear the opening drones of "A Sample of My Dog (It Isn't Actually
 a Dog)" fade in, I recognize that I'm entering the deep end of human
psyche. Even the tiniest, most trivial elements seem to be filled with
some alien quality. It's impossible to get a grip of it all but somehow
feelings of both some foreign horror or unease and ecstatic bliss seem
to co-exist peacefully. When the anonymous male voice in "Deus Ex
Machine Gun", a truly disturbing sound collage, informs you of how
fucked-up you are in a somewhat humorous manner, the words still manage
to sink in like the most heartbreaking and life-pulsating piece of prose
 ever written.

Track 3, "can i have some dish soap" is perhaps the early center piece of the whole album: 31 seconds of almost
 unbearable emotional intensity and possibly one of APITS' greatest
achievements ever. At this point you've already been through death and
resurrection. Go! Spee Eerie" is sometimes even too much and it has
pushed me towards an early exit when I've been too vulnerable to take it
 all in. "Bicht Lasaga" is another collage work, one borrowing the idea
 of Simon & Garfunkel's "Voices of Old People" and making it bear
fruit. When the troubled male voice announces that he is now what they
call legally blind I often get goosebumps all over me. How on earth can
you make a climax out of a real life medical report?

"Allah (Live at Metawanenee Park)" is another lengthy APITS masterpiece
that closes the first half of the album. The second half carries sequels
 or responses to some of the early collage tracks and two major epics,
"FalloutNV has stopped working (Windows is checking for a solution to
the problem...)" and "a Place in the Sun Live (ft. Nazi Guy)". "APITS
Live" is the final surrender or indeed, sacrifice, thus ending APITS's
career under the legendary APITS moniker.

All in all "Archive 2" is the definitive peak of band's 1 year history
and a fine summation of APITS's career. It marries the APITS'
unforgiving dark ambient past, Branca esque guitar orchestration, Body
Lovers style experimental ambient drone and APITS' new found talent as
one of the greatest songwriters of his generation.

To me the album has always been about cutting the umbilical cord and
being a hungry, little drummer boy left on my own. Or like the "Quietly"
 insists, of being fucked-up and having the dinner served but not
knowing how to use the fork and recognizing that it's only your own
inability separating you from the world. And the never ending nostalgy
for those sunny, beautiful days of the childhood. This is certainly a
somewhat subjective reading of the work but I'd suggest that APITS
himself was going through a departure of sorts since, as often stated,
the album was supposedly inspired by the release of Archive 1.

Some of my most memorable listening experiences include allowing it to
play as a soundtrack to a Joseph Conrad novel "Heart of Darkness" or
watching a moth circle nervously on a lone light bulb, both serving as
fit metaphors for the record itself. But it's obviously as useless an
attempt to try to verbalize the greatness, depth or the emotional value
of the album as it would be to describe visual perception to a man born
blind. But to say the very least, in my books no album has ever come
close.

## Discography

### Studio albums

* Archive 1
* Edge of Chaos
* ofstsld
* The Granger Sessions
* Archive 2
* PHOTOGRAPH
* Never Forget

### Other albums and EPs

* volume i
* Archive 1.5
* Easter
* The Fourth of July
* Birthday
* 太陽の中に置く
* Volume II
* Cool Place
* A PLACE IN THE SUN PRESENTS: A COLLECTION OF FANTASTIC SONGS TO DANCE TO AND RADIO HITS TO PLAY WITH FRIENDS AT A MODERATE VOLUME. ALWAYS DRINK

## External links

* Bandcamp
* SoundCloud