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MUSIC FROM MEMORY

Gaussian Curve

Winter Sun / Fever Dream

The return of Gaussian Curve - Gigi Masin, Jonny Nash and Marco Sterk’s much-loved trio are back for the first time since their 2016 sophomore album 'The Distance', presenting two new tracks entitled 'Winter Sun' and 'Fever Dream'.

Both tracks originate from recording sessions that took place in Amsterdam in 2016 for 'The Distance'. Despite not finding a place on the final album and being left as unfinished sketches for six years, the tracks represent an important part of the Gaussian Curve story which the band felt compelled to complete. Coinciding with the decision to perform a handful of live shows in 2022, they finally revisited the sketches, mixing and arranging them with the goal of giving them the full release that they deserve.

The trio’s trademark sound hits from first moments of 'Winter Sun'; a lush slow builder with all the classic GC ingredients; Nash’s airy and spacious guitar lines interplay with Masin’s warm rhodes, underpinned by Sterk’s subtle use of electronics and the minimal rhythm of a CR-78 drum machine.

On 'Fever Dream', the trio subtly expand their palette; a gently building 303 bass line and 808 rhythm form the foundations of the piece, with Masin’s vocals adding to a slow-burning intensity. Arguably a fuller sound hinting at new areas of exploration for the trio, but unmistakably Gaussian Curve.

Graphic art by Qiu Yang, design by Steele Bonus.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Wow, "Fever Dream" - a heart-puncturing piece of electronic-soul futurism. Sultry and lascivious, cloaked in shimmering designer sonics and impossible to resist.

TRACK LISTING

Winter Sun
Fever Dream

2023 marks the tenth year of Music From Memory; a decade of groundbreaking archival releases, cross-generational collaborations and long-standing creative partnerships with their ever-expanding community of artists.

To celebrate this milestone, the label asked their roster of artists to submit a piece of music for an anniversary compilation. As submissions gradually came in, they began to piece them together into what was to become “10”.

Featuring work from artists who were present during the formation of the label, such as Gigi Masin, Joan Bibiloni and Michal Turtle, as well as artists like The Zenmenn, RAMZi and Dea, who have helped the label expand over subsequent years, “10” serves as a natural bookmark of where MFM is musically, whilst simultaneously reflecting on the label's rich musical past.

In keeping with the Music From Memory ethos, the music of “10” spans both time and space, with submissions ranging from Vito Ricci's 'Da Hamptons' (1985) to Yu Su & J. Wilson's 'Mitti Atar' (2023). It crosses the globe, with a total of 10 countries represented across 17 tracks. The final result is an immersive musical compilation that flows perfectly from start to finish.

Tragically, during the last few weeks of finalising MFM066, label co-owner Jamie Tiller passed away in a sudden accident. “10” was always intended to be a way to reflect on the journey of Music From Memory. The fact that it is now also one of the last releases that the team all worked on together adds a whole other level of reflection and makes it all the more special.

* incl. insert liner notes by John Gómez) Artwork by Bráulio Amado. Design by David McFarline.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: MFM compile a thorough and expansive collection looking back at ten years of this highly influential label.

TRACK LISTING

Joan Bibiloni - Nits De La Sultana
The Zenmenn - The Legend Of Haziz
Stroer - When You Stopped Sleeping
Androo - W.I.O. Micmac Mix
Joel Graham - Cool Blue Pool
Jonny Nash - Dream It Right
Terekke - Just Ducking Around
Mei Honeycomb - Squeaky Eye Syndrome
Tombolo - Continental Drift
Kuniyuki Takahashi - Forest Dust
Yu Su J. Wilson - Mitti Attar
Gigi Masin - Panama Girl
Ocean Moon - The Ecstatic Alarm
Michal Turtle - Borrowed Times
Ramzi - Baci
Suso Saiz – Kailas
Dea - Undecenial

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

Gaussian Curve (Gigi Masin, Jonny Nash, Young Marco)

Clouds

Music From Memory's fourth release sees the Amsterdam based label taking an exciting sidestep with the release of “Clouds”, an album of contemporary music recorded in spring 2014. “Clouds” is the debut album of Gaussian Curve, a collaboration between Italian ambient pioneer Gigi Masin, Land Of Light’s Jonny Nash and Marco Sterk (also known as Young Marco).

Each of them established in their own rights, the three musicians from Italy, UK and the Netherlands, came together during a weekend long recording session in April of this year.Without preconceived ideas and developed around often purely intuitive improvised jams, the eight tracks on the album are all 'one take' live recordings. With Gigi Masin on Rhodes and piano, Jonny Nash on guitar, melodica, synths and trumpet and Marco Sterk on synths, rhythmic structures and production duties, the three of them succeed in developing a musical language all of their own.

Recorded in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light district, the album reflects the unusually warm spring and the buzz from the open windows that filled the derelict downtown studio space during that particular weekend. Whilst on the more introvert late night compositions the music quietly soars, reflecting the brooding melancholy of an evening in that particular part of the city. With a heartfelt simplicity “Clouds” is a record of an inspired meeting of unique souls and unique surroundings.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Talk To The Church 
2. Impossible Island 
3. Dewdrops 
4. Ride 
Side 2
1. Broken Clouds 
2. Unsolved 
3. The Longest Road
4. Red Light 

The Italian’s ambient and minimal electronic compositions are the subject of forthcoming retrospective from the Amsterdam label.

The Music From Memory label was launched by Redlight Records founders Tako Reyenga, Abel Nagenast and Jamie Tiller earlier this year, sporting a proud mantra of “giving overlooked and unreleased music that we love a second chance”. Music From Memory’s debut release 'Liquid Diamonds' collated material from the 1980s private press output of Rhode Island resident Leon Lowman who had a penchant for detailing his romantic exploits over a backdrop of languid synth funk.

The focus of attention for Music Of Memory’s next release falls on the works of celebrated ambient composer Gigi Masin. Born in Venice, Masin’s work has been sampled by the likes of Bjork and To Rococco Rot and his albums attract feverish acclaim, with Wind, Masin’s privately pressed debut LP a desired rarity for the only the most well-heeled of second hand collectors. It’s from this album and a selection of Masin’s other released works that Music From Memory draw from for the forthcoming double LP retrospective 'Talk To The Sea', which also includes a healthy amount of unreleased material.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Gigi Masin, realigning chakras in South Manchester since 2014. Essential, immersive ambient music from the ever on point Music From Memory.

TRACK LISTING

Snake Theory
The Word Love
Still
Fata Morgana
Redanzen
Talk To The Sea
Music For Chameleons
Little Faith
First Time Ruth Saw The Sea
The Nylon Dollar
The Kasparian Circle
Nadir
Stella Maris
Call Me
The City Lights
She Wears Shades
Almanac

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 

Becker / Stegman / Zeumer

Ich Traume So Leise Von Dir

    Music From Memory cap off a pretty neat 2016 with a reissue of something unique, unusual and largely unheard outside of elite digging circles and the Wuppertal town hall. As key figures of the Wuppertal jazz scene, trumpetist Heinz Becker and painist Karl-Heinz Stegmann were well acquainted by 1987 when they met the actress Isabel Zeumer at an exhibition opening. Soon after this chance meeting, the trio were asked put together a programme on Else Lasker-Schüler. A unique figure in her time Jewish poet Lasker-Schüler embraced a bohemian lifestyle and became a leading exponent of Germany’s expressionism and avant-garde poetry movement before fleeing the country in 1937. Becker, Stegmann and Zeumer’s programme would combine readings of Lasker-Schüler’s works with experimental music and imagery. These performances were met with great enthusiasm at the time in Wuppertal and were even televised. Following on from the strong response to the music and performances, the trio were invited to release the material on local label ITM Records. Embracing Lasker’s avant-garde sentiments within their own musical compositions, Becker, Zeumer and Stegmann’s album "Ich Träume So Leise Von Dir" LP blends jazz and electronics to create a wholly unique sound. "Mein Tanzlied" opens this reissue with precision drum programming, thrusting sequences and fat fusion bass, packing the dancefloor before the spoken vocal, glassy keys and muted jazz trumpet erupts overhead. An undeniable NDW killer, this sounds like a Germanic, avant associate of James Mason's "Nightgruv", Enzo Avitabile's "Blackout" and Hugh Masekela's "Don't Go Lose It Baby", but much weirder than that sounds. Essential deep dancefloor bizniz. "Dir" takes a different approach to audio enlightenment, transporting us into a North Rhine film noir with swelling synth tones, muted jazz trumpet and sultry spoken vocals from Isabel Zeumer. If you got lost in Vangelis' Blade Runner score, then you should seriously check this unsettling vision of atmospheric ambience. B-side opener "Der Schnupfen" sees the trio layering Isabel's spoken vocal and Becker's trumpet over a bubbling boogie rhythm section, before Stegman fully freaks out on the synth in the second half. "Abends" closes the set in subdued fashion, gentle Rhodes motifs creating a watery calm while the sustained synth drones and moonlit trumpet wax and wane around the intimate vocal. Embracing and experimenting with elements of ambient and even new wave, the four tracks selected here, seem to take music and spoken word into an entirely unique musical realm. It's yet another gift from Music From Memory.


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