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MUSIC FROM MEMORY

Ocean Moon - alias of producer Jon Tye (Seahawks / MLO).

In addition to running the long-standing label Lo Recordings, Tye has recorded under various names and been involved in numerous projects over the past three decades. Keen fans of the label may also notice that this isn't Tye's first collaboration with MFM; his work during the 1990's as part of UK ambient group MLO captured their attention years ago, leading to the release of their retrospective album 'Oumuamua' in 2021.

Releasing archival work alongside new material from an artist has been a fundamental aspect of Music From Memory's identity since we began the label, and is something that continues to bring us immense joy. With Jon continuing to produce work under a wide range of names to this day, the short step to releasing this new work was organic and natural. Working under the name Ocean Moon Jon carries echoes of his work with MLO into the modern day, weaving an ambient electronic music that radiates gentle positivity.

The title 'Ways To The Deep Meadow' is inspired by the poem 'Universal Solar Calendar' written by poet, mystic, shaman, and visionary Angus Maclise. Maclise began as the percussionist in an early iteration of La Monte Young's Theatre Of Eternal Music and later played with the Velvet Underground before moving to Nepal, where he wrote and published an impressive collection of poetry and music.

Side one of the album was created at a time when Tye had been exploring ideas around artificial intelligence, delving into books such as 'The Physics Of Immortality' by Frank J. Tippler, 'Novacene' by James Lovelock, and '12 Bytes' by Jeanette Winterson, seeking an alternative to the prevalent, negative views of AI. He was also inspired by the Buddhist perspective of AI as an integral part of consciousness evolution, as evidenced by the creation of a Buddhist robot that preaches in the Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto.

Side two consists of two long-form pieces, one composed for Janine Rook's 'Made In Dreams' exhibition and the other for Vix Hill Ryder's 'Wild Edges' film. For 'Made In Dreams', text from the exhibition catalogue was processed via the Holly Herndon Holly + app to create an environment that is simultaneously otherworldly and warm.

As with much of Jon's work, this music seeks to nurture an optimistic outlook in the listener, something he achieves here with subtlety and a truly delicate touch. The immersive ambient music of 'Ways To The Deep Meadow' reaches out to the listener like gentle trails of light, offering it's spells,invocations and enchantments to all who choose to listen.

Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Been a while since we've heard from old friend John Tye - horizontal commander of the sonic seas. Ocean Moon, his new alias seems to exist in a perpetual, lilting drift. Time slows down, woes are abandoned, and we lie contented in Tye's rich pools of gentile ambience.

TRACK LISTING

Ways To The Deep Meadow
Souls Fall Away
Day Of The Voyage
Plains Of Paradise
Angel Falls
Made In Dreams
An Ending Full Of Light

**Includes special printed inner sleeve**

'Distorted Clamor', the latest full-length album from legendary Spanish ambient composer Suso Saiz. Marking his eighth release with Music From Memory, the album showcases Saiz at his spellbinding best, continuing a prolific creative phase in a career that spans over 40 years.

Building upon 'Resonant Bodies' and 'Nothing Is Objective', his most recent full length releases for Music From Memory, Saiz's dedication to experimentation and conceptual approach to sound lie at the centre of 'Distorted Clamor'. Discussing his process and the concept behind the album, Saiz says: “Thousands of beings cry out for their lives, for the sustainability of their habitats, for their future. Their clamouring together generates a distorted, deafening and incomprehensible noise. Trying to go deeper into that distortion and understand all the voices and discover the strength and beauty in all of them. This was the first image I had when I started composing Distorted Clamor. Can distortion and all those sounds (clicks, clips, ticks, tocs, pluks, crashes) that we normally discard, generate beauty? This question has also accompanied the entire whole project.”

The transit of sound through various materials is also central to the work, with Saiz using water, wood, and metals as filters and sound-transforming pedals. The album was created without the use of synthesizers, relying entirely on acoustic sounds that were transformed in an unnatural way to achieve something completely new.

Spanning eleven compositions, Saiz's mastery of timbre and ability to paint layers of sound with the subtlest of touches stand out unmistakably to the listener. As always, his radiant drones are a nest of hidden feelings; they glisten with complex emotions and textures, teasing out moods of vulnerability and hope.

Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

TRACK LISTING

Distorted Clamor
Sweet Elephant
The Horizon Did It
Memory Crusher
Electromagnetic Ride
Your Hand In My Peace
And The Volcano
That Lives In Me
Quiet Races
Green Stones
I Look For What Is In Me From The Earth

Music From Memory is pleased to announce the upcoming release of ‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’, a collaborative album from Tim Koh and Sun An.

Tim Koh is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles. He has been touring, releasing music and showing art works internationally for nearly two decades. Sun An is a Southern California-based graphic designer, art director, and sound designer who has self-released music since 2012.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ plays somewhat like a dreamlike collage; across 18 short compositions, finger-picked guitars melt with electronics and warped samples to create a form of American Primitivism bent and refracted through Tim and Sun’s unique lens.

Their collaborative journey unfolded gradually, exchanging snippets via email over the span of a year or so, Sun in LA and Tim in Berlin. Amidst personal struggles and uncertainties, the act of recording and composing became a refuge, a safe space where they could navigate life's complexities together. Though they didn't converse much, mostly just sending music, their musical dialogue spoke volumes, shaping a narrative that evolved naturally over time. As they shared their musical ideas, they discovered a profound sense of connection and understanding with one another. The music became a conduit for healing, bridging the gaps between them and offering comfort in times of need.

Their musical influences and backgrounds anchored them. From reminiscing about past scenes to exploring cultural intricacies of being Korean American in Los Angeles, infused with a natural sense of shared identity, their collaboration reflected a mergence of old and new memories into a hallucinatory, dream-like experience. Across the 18 compositions that make up the album, incense emerges as a poignant motif, symbolizing the passage of time. Each incense stick becomes a vessel carrying the essence of moments gone by, while the holder becomes the custodian of these ephemeral memories.

‘Salt And Sugar Look The Same’ invites the listener on a boundary-transcending journey of introspection, joy, and pain, creating an experience that lingers long after the last note fades.

Sleeve art by Brian DeGraw, design by David McFarline.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Music From Memory follow up that beautiful Contours long player with another fabulous excursion into semi-electric dream world. Peppered with reverberated finger picking, charged with low voltage currents, and drifting along like a canoe trip through the Mississippi Delta set in an alternative universe. Sublime.

TRACK LISTING

Bye Bye Betty
Moments Of Joy
Lemongrass Citronella
Cant Stand In The Past
Besafe Airtel
Today Only Happens Once
Incense Holder
Salt And Sugar Look The Same
A Lead Balloon
Sandalwood In The Summer
How They Made It
Somewhere In Time
Old Plates And Desirable Traits
Drawing To Relax And Pass The Time
The Maybes Are Endless
Yume-No-Yume
Twice
Expected To Fade

Music From Memory is delighted to present ‘Elevations’, a new album from Manchester based artist Tom Burford, aka Contours.

Drawing heavily on his background as a drummer and percussionist, ‘Elevations’ began as an exploration of the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, before organically growing into its final form; a delicate suite of compositions centered around rhythmical interactions of percussion, synthesizer and strings.

Recorded during the pandemic and the period following, the album reflects a desire to lose oneself in the expanse of nature - the title ‘Elevations’ being a direct nod to the mountainous area of Cumbria where Tom grew up. The album also represents the joy of creating with friends; it features performances from several of his musical contemporaries, many of which were recorded at his home in Manchester. Slowly taking shape, the final result is a record that seamlessly blends electronic and acoustic, operating at the intersection of minimalism, jazz, fourth world and contemporary classical music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Serenity, decadence and Reichian repetition combine when Manchester whizz kid Tom Burford tinkers with his instruments. A widely educated and well travelled muso with a keen love of nature - all these influences and inspirations combine to a natural zenith on "Elevations" which finds a spiritual habitat on the esteemed Music From Memory. Magical.

TRACK LISTING

Bike Shed
Elevation 2
Elevation 2
Elevation 3
Balafon C
Pots
Arp Phase

The new LP by Krefeld-born, Berlin-based artist Philipp Otterbach entitled 'The Dahlem Diaries'.

Recorded in a little-visited corner of the German capital, 'The Dahlem Diaries' is a convergence of ideas, sketches and tracks, both old and new, most of which were produced between 2020-2022. Whilst eerie atmospheres, electronics and drums have played a pivotal role in Philipp’s earlier releases, his latest is a rather more introspective affair, in which the guitar takes a leading role. A role Otterbach uses to quietly bring light and hope to his music.

Speaking about his writing process, Philipp explains that, based around his original compositions, “Friends were nice enough to contribute additional parts on their instruments which I then reworked, put together and re-contextualized. The recordings encapsulate a very specific moment in time, one that would have sounded perhaps very different the day before or after.”

Combined with a strong use of effects and field recordings, 'The Dahlem Diaries' feels somewhat like a scene or fragment from a story, in which the narrative remains undefined. It is a playful album that is something of a blurred underwater adventure, sounding as bright as it is hazy, even psychedelic at times, yet with an almost melancholic positivity. In Philipp’s own words: “It could be an album about friendship and being at one with myself, whilst at the same time bringing a certain seriousness to my music, but not necessarily to myself; there is also a playful humour hidden in there. ”

Artwork by David McFarline.

TRACK LISTING

The Dahlem Diaries Pt. 1
Half Brain Naked
Left Hand Society
Talkoot
Small Town Nights
Geoluread
Gottischlag Ft. Gatto Fritto
Solid Maybe
Malarkeys
Happy And I Skipped

Swiss based artist Androo, who previously released on MFM sub label Second Circle, returns with his debut LP 'Club Salon Theatre'.

Far from an album in traditional form, 'Club Salon Theatre' explores its potential as a musical collage of sound. Recorded during 2021 and the beginning of 2022, it is the result of Androo's desire to draw connections between diverse fragments of music and art.

Originally born out of the Dub sound-system scene in Geneva and with a continued love for the modal music of the likes of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, Androo has long put improvisation at the center of his practice. His understanding of dub music as an integral part of the experimental music tradition, with ties to the school of Musique Concrète for instance, and with trap music as another vital ingredient, has as much to do with the form as with the method. With the studio as a laboratory for experimentation, Androo utilizes a variety of outboard instruments as well as working in-the-box, but it’s his classic “dub style” technique of mixing at the hardware console that leaves its quintessential mark throughout the whole record.

'Club Salon Theatre' is a rich patchwork of imagined scenes, emotive melodies, flying rhythms, harmonic changes, loose improvisations, with an almost romantic thread running through it. Like a collection of musical poems, gently arranged in what is sometimes sparse musical language. Far from a patchwork of scattered and disjointed inspirations, there is a real unity and singularity at work, resulting in a record which can be enjoyed as a collection of sonic poems, simultaneously nonchalant and earnest, sentimental and playful.

TRACK LISTING

A0. Préface, Bonjour
A1. (shhhht) Introduction
A2. Wyatt Revolt
A3. Or,
A4. Autonomia
A5. – Ah Balbec!
A6. Obsessions. étoiles. Neurones
A7. Giant Steps (alternate Take)
A8. Bcp De Bruit Pr Rien (si Jav Sus)
A9. Pensées
A10. Equipments (guattarix Mix)
A11. Clou, Vis
A12. Moment’s Notice (part 1)

B1. Moment’s Notice (part 2)
B2. Judso Danc Theate
B3. Club Géography
B4. Original J Dub
B5. Djs, Argen, Capital, Plus-valuxe
B6. Subversion, Seduction
B7. Histoires Sans Livres
B8. Tout ça
B9. UZI
B10. Outro (en Finir Avec Les Clubs)

Music From Memory are excited to present the latest chapter in their ongoing collaboration with seminal Spanish ambient musician Suso Saiz. 'Resonant Bodies’ is Suso’s seventh album project with the label and again raises the bar of his musical output, embracing a conceptual approach of which Suso himself says the following: “A body vibrates producing a sound that reaches another body and makes it vibrate and generate a new sound that makes another body vibrate that generates another sound... Imagine an infinite orchestra of bodies multiplying their sound vibrations creating the symphony of RESONANT BODIES. Resonance as a principle of COMMUNICATION; sound as a builder of ties and interrelations between men. RESONANT BODIES pieces are part of a whole and are both generators of it. Unlike other works, during the approximately two years it took me to finish RESONANT BODIES, the pieces were gradually completed and small sound particles were added caused by the vibrations generated by the previous layers until creating imperfect and synchronized sound objects. COMMUNICATION.”

TRACK LISTING

Inside The Egg
Tarde De Agosto 2019
Sweet Instability
Two Souls
El Espejo
Brushed Thoughts
Looking You In Silence
Floating Into The Avalanche
Abrazo 2020
Resonance Necklace
Vertidos & Songs
If I Close My Eyes
Purple Trains
When I Sleep
Changes And Reality
Watching Walk
Paseando El Encierro
Outskirts

Music From Memory are excited to introduce another new group for 2021, this time presenting the self-titled debut album from Loveshadow.

Currently based in San Francisco, the duo of Anya and Izaak initially met whilst working in an Oakland cafe in 2016. The two Californians quickly bonded over a track by the ’80s disco band Aurra which was playing over the radio and almost immediately their separate journeys in music became interwoven. They soon began to write music and creating their own work would become a way for the pair to get closer to the sound they were searching for, as well as enabling them to discover the healing power of making and listening to music.

‘Loveshadow’ was recorded predominantly in the Bay Area between 2017-2020 as well as whilst traveling to NYC, Chicago and around Portland. Having released previously as the outfit ‘S Transporter’ alongside Detroit friend Ryan Spencer, Loveshadow is formed of Anya as singer and song writer alongside Izaak on synthesizers, bass and percussion. This eight track album is the duo’s first release; exploring emotive Pop and DIY Funk leanings it stands as a joyful homage to the music they bond over, as well as an ode to their own love and friendship.

TRACK LISTING

A1. 7
A2. No Control
A3. Passthru
A4. Severance
B1. More
B2. Pleasure Idler
B3. Tableaux Vivant
B4. Wildflowers

'Music For Theatre And Dance – Volume Two' is the second in a small series of EPs that will focus on music which was initially created for or inspired by dance and performance. Created as a dialogue with the avant-garde and highly experimental work in dance, theatre and art evolving at the time, the music was in turn at times greatly innovative.

That it was created for a dance or performance though means that such music was also often highly rhythmic and a number of pieces from this time stand out and seem greatly deserving of a new context.

Whether it's more ambient or atmospheric works or whether it's in the more rhythmic or percussive pieces, Music From Memory brings together another selection of tracks that aims to highlight this highly innovative direction in music.

TRACK LISTING

Craig Kupka - Electric Piano Vibraphone And Percussion
Ray Lynch - Cooking Till Its Hot
Scan Lines - Scan Lines Part I

Music From Memory are happy to finally announce MFM045 - VA ‘Music For Theatre And Dance’ (EP).

This will be the first in a small series of EPs which will focus on music which was initially created for or inspired by dance and performance. Created as a dialogue with the avant-garde and highly experimental work in dance, theatre and art evolving at the time, the music was in turn at times greatly innovative.

That it was created for a dance or performance though means that such music was also often highly rhythmic and a number of pieces from this time stand out and seem greatly deserving of a new context.

Whether it’s more ambient or atmospheric works or whether it’s in the more rhythmic or percussive pieces, Music From Memory brings together a selection of tracks which aim to highlight this highly innovative direction in music.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Gerard Stokkink - Yellow Turtles
A2. Ivory Playground - Ivory Playground
B1. Atlantis Transit Project - Bird Perspective
B2. Ramuntcho Matta - Zoique III

In the lead up to part two of the highly anticipated Outro Tempo compilation, MFM drops this teaser EP with the never before heard cassette madness of São Paulo’s Bruhahá Babélico and Individual Industry’s ethereal electro pop on the flip.

Music From Memory embark on a series of Brazilian releases for this Spring that pick up where their 2017 Outro Tempo compilation left off. Circling around the musical projects that emerged out of the art world in Brazilian cities during the late 1980s and 1990s, “Outro Tempo II: Electronic and Contemporary Music from Brazil, 1984-1996” takes another dive into the depths of the Brazilian underworld, exploring the rhythms that lurk beneath the Ipanema sunset. It shines light on more illustrious unknowns and on the genre-defying music that maintained asymbiotic, yet uneasy, relationship with mainstream popular culture.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Music From Memory herald the arrival of a second volume of Brazilian electronics with this limited 12" featuring demented cassette funk and weird wave pop from Bruhahá Babélico and Individual Industry. Already in the bags of our most future facing customers, this is gonna be a look for 2019 - don't get left behind.

TRACK LISTING

Bruhahá Babélico - Bruhahá II
Individual Industry - Eyes

After chilling us out with last year’s Suso Saiz retrospective, Music From Memory mark their 20th release in gleeful style with an album of new works by the Spanish electronic music pioneer. Recorded in Madrid between January and February 2016, this is Suso Saiz’s first release of new music in nearly 10 years. Titled "Rainworks" this double LP release was originally part of a commission from a Canary Islands water company. The first ideas for the compositions developed from a documentary that Suso had seen suggesting the possibility of water molecules having their own ‘memory’. As Suso himself explains, he became fascinated with the “possibility of an eternal being, changing its cyclical condition from solid to gaseous state, travelling through and between the Earth and the Sky, as a witness and keeper of the true history of Earth and Mankind”. Suso, his son Emil Saiz and pianist Raph Killhertz set out to explore this metaphysical process of cyclical movement through music in "Rainworks". Developing from the original commissioned tracks into a much more elaborate project, the album’s process became something of a mystical journey, drawing on aspects of minimalism and modernism. The music is also embedded in textured natural soundscapes and spoken word passages which were recorded and processed by Suso himself. Despite having the immediacy of an improvised piece, "Rainworks" was entirely composed by Suso. Though it appears at first inspection to be electronic album, if you dig a little deeper you'll find plenty of acoustic elements to the recording. A resonant piano (a grand piano re-amplified using its resonant box and harp to generate effects) as well as guitars (with simple effects) are played in Suso’s inimitable hypnotic way, slowly drawing the listener into a transportive state or lucid dream. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: I loved the MFM collection of archival records from last year, so I was a right giddy kipper when I saw there was soon to be brand new material. As they say, class is permanent and Saiz' first release in ten years is every bit as good as his old compositions. Immersive, aquatic and in places experimental, "Rainworks" first challenges, then rewards. Check out the stunning "The Way Of Water" if you need a little beauty in your life!

TRACK LISTING

1. From Memory And The Sky
2. The Way Of The Water
3. The Hiding Place
4. They Don't Love Each Other
5. Nothing Ends
6. A Rainy Afternoon 


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