Summerlove

Michael's blog for his late-girlfriend, love and partner, Summer Serafin. The scattershot beginnings of a memoir...

Michael on Wikipedia

Summer & Michael - Bipolar Explorer's page on Wikipedia.

Bipolar Explorer

Michael's band, acclaimed NYC-based dreampop trio, Bipolar Explorer. News, audio, video and links to their eight albums on Slugg Records.

Michael's "Collected Plays" at Amazon

The first anthology of Michael's works for the theatre, Collected Plays, published by The Ginger Press, avail via Amazon.

Double review of 2018 releases Sometimes in Dreams and Til Morning is Nigh, (translated from the French):   SOMETIMES: "...We couldn't talk about 2018  without mentioning Bipolar Explorer. The New York dreampop/shoegaze duo continues to deliver, even though we left them with a very poignant Dream Together last year. This year they decided to kill two birds with one stone first with Sometimes In Dreams released on January 1st.   Once again, the couple Summer Serafin (spoken word) and Michael Serafin-Wells (guitar, bass, percussion, tape loops, vocals, spoken word)  send the listener into a parallel yet reassuring universe with Sometimes In Dreams. With this double album, Bipolar Explorer bring us with them diving into their intimacy in the most solemn and purest way possible.  The first seconds of the album we are made to hear is indeed Summer Serafin's voice  on "You Are Loved (Summer's Theme) before her spouse takes the reigns with stripped and celestial  spell-bounding compositions as such as "Letter To The Darkest Star", "Ocean", or "So Anyway".   Alternating between Summer Serafin's spoken word passages  and  Michael Serafin-Wells's emotional  flights of lyricism, Sometimes In Dreams is made of several chapters, inviting us into the very intriguing world of Bipolar Explorer. The New York duo  astounds us, of course,  with this much beauty whether on "Out" and "Necessary Weight" or with the brilliant "And At That Hour, Above (Perigee-Syzygy)", "The Choral Text Passage" and other "Dead End Street" ; making everything whole. This double album aims to be both cathartic and luminous, necessary for the band to exorcise  all that's eating them inside as it's the case with "Any Day" and "Lost Life". This eighth album of the New York couple puts shoegaze back into a state of grace.   TIL MORNING: "... Eleven months have thus passed after their moving double album Sometimes In Dreams. And yet this has not been enough for Bipolar Explorer not to come back and enchant us yet again for this end of the year, this time with a more conceptual album titled Til Morning Is Nigh: A Dream Of Christmas.   With Christmas season approaching (and it's become more than a custom), artists and bands have decided to follow the trend  so as to remind us of the festive aspect of the event, and the New York duo has gotten on board too but with an extra touch of creativity.  With the help of a French unknown named Sylvia Solanas who quotes several passages of the Old Testament on short tracks ("Before We Could Be Found", "The Faithful Delivered", "Even Forever"...), Bipolar Explorer explores (no pun intended) the Christmas tradition with their luminous and enchanting dreampop/shoegaze through tracks still as minimalist but also dreamlike with among others "Bethlehem", "Oh That We Were There" and "Mille Anges Divins".   Michael Serafin-Wells and Summer Serafin, more discreet, as well as their French guest give us a new glimpse of Christmas with solemn compositions such as "Gabriel", "Midwinter", as well as "Angel Frequency".   Til Morning Is Nigh: A Dream Of Christmas is quite a bold tale divided into 23 musical chapters. If you're looking for Christmas gift ideas, Bipolar Explorer is more than an option.” - Editorial Staff

Les Oreilles Curieuses

Raphael Duprez, Associate Editor, Indiemusic (France) - 2 January 2018 (translated)   One year ago, Bipolar Explorer’s record “Dream Together” moved us to tears and sounded like a musical farewell, as well as a last goodbye, but also, an unstoppable wish not to let absence become the most oppressive feeling in (composer/band co-founder, Michael Serafin-Wells’) life. Remembrances matter, as they always do with Bipolar Explorer. And through “Sometimes in Dreams” the project reaches an upper level into emotion and confidence, transfiguring the everlasting link between two inseparable soulmates and creators. In this new work, Summer and Michael chart a course that follows an inspired and enlightening way of composing - illuminating nostalgia as a powerful, precious and human strength  - to offer us so many fascinating and sincere songs, all destined to be unforgettable and essential to our own lives. Have no doubt, this is a major record.   The dearest human beings are the ones we cherish the chance to meet and talk to when we most feel the urge to do so, spend hours writing one another and focusing on every word in reply. Michael suffered, but survived. Bipolar Explorer is a perfect reflection of this humanity; a honest, pure and helpful presence. A guileless and urgent art of melodies, tunes and vocals thread their way and lead us lovingly through “Sometimes in Dreams”  and, in the depths of the record, Summer, his muse, his eternal love, talks to him and us as she never did before. But Summer never looks or sounds like a ghost: she stands right in front of us, holding her lover’s hand as they both look at us, smiling. She then lays her eyes on him, sings with him, creates and changes into a remarkable source of inspiration for their new double-LP; an eternal piece of work, divided into different chapters but as homogenous as welcoming us to explore BPX’s parallel universes and lands.   Summer is always here, close to Michael and us. Her voice resonates through the first tunes of the record, and will shine more and more as we travel into a wonderful and moving musical world. Never with even a thought to erase her presence, Michael creates an intense but devoted melodic canvas during two hours that are flowing nearly too fast for us, as we all feel comfortable and at peace with what we are listening and enjoying. A complete immersion explodes in our souls: distortion on “Letter to the Darkest Star” and astonishing natural movements on “Ocean” invite us to swim in clear and warm waters. ‘Sometimes in Dreams’ is an album about life, its difficulties but, most of all, all that makes us go forward, whatever may happen : “Phantom Limb” and “Out” stare at the vaporous veils of desire and the constant need to be with our beloved ones, as “Necessary Weight” changes pain into the origin of redemption and the acceptance of our mourning.   On the second part of the record, “Thousand Thousand Summer” is probably the most passionate track; a vocal obsession changing into a cathartic hypnosis, then leading to the overwhelming song “The Choral Text Passage (Summerlove)” which breaks our mental barriers as well as Michael’s when he went through his oppressive loss. “Sometimes in Dreams” is a staging of the union of souls, troubles and inspirations; a hidden book, lost in the multiple bookshelves of an imaginary bookstore, but the only one we can find in a glimpse of an eye, as it is shining and calling us.   The final words of “Lost Life” are the most perfect way to end up talking about “Sometimes in Dreams”; so, time to let Bipolar Explorer express an ultimate motivation to think, feel and live. Summer and Michael’s tenderness, confidence and friendship are spiritually and melodically intense, and we can’t thank them enough for what they give us, year after year.   Perfect ending: “In this moment she appeared to him. In this waking hour he saw and could see. Overcome with emotion he understood at last. She beckoned and he returned to her joyfully, as she said, simply... now!”   Bipolar Explorer’s “Sometimes in Dreams” is available from 1 January 2018 on Slugg Records. ” - Raphael Duprez - Associate Editor

Indiemusic (France)