Doc Sleep

Doc Sleep produces textural, atmospheric dance music and co-runs the acclaimed Jacktone label. With roots in the Midwest, she moved to San Francisco and became a staple of the Bay Area queer party scene, and eventually relocated to Germany. She released several EPs, including 2019′s Crème Fraîche, before making her full-length debut with the lush ambient techno release Birds (In My Mind Anyway). Originally from Minneapolis, Melissa Maristuen first used the name Dr. Sleep when she began spinning at clubs and parties around the Bay Area during the early 2010s. She co-founded Jacktone with Darren Cutlip (dabecy) in 2013, and the experimentation-friendly label issued music ranging from dream pop and ambient to IDM and techno, usually on cassette and often by artists without any prior releases. She relocated to Berlin in 2015 and became part of the queer collective Room 4 Resistance, while she continued co-running Jacktone and expanding the label’s network. Her first two EPs as Doc Sleep appeared on Detour (2016) and Bottom Forty Records (2017). She released the digital EP Your Ruling Planet in 2019, and Crème Fraîche appeared on Dark Entries, with remixes by Violet and rRoxymore. She collaborated with Glenn Astro as Beats Unlimited, issuing a self-titled cassette and a 7″ single in 2021. Additionally, she formed the project Collectibles with homemade synth artist Fashion Flesh. Doc Sleep’s debut album, an eclectic set of downtempo and IDM pieces titled Birds (In My Mind Anyway), was released by Tartelet Records in 2023. ~ Paul Simpson