Gaia: Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996-2003)’ is a new in-depth compilation of works by Japanese musician Dream Dolphin. Co-compiled by Eiji Taniguchi, it draws from a vast discography of music oscillating between IDM, Pop and Electronic Dance Music. First appearing on Eiji’s compilation ’Heisei No Oto - Japanese Left-field Pop From The CD Age (1989-1996)’, this selection of rediscoveries, further shines a light on the singular musician known as Dream Dolphin and her place in Japan’s rich electronic music legacy.

Dream Dolphin was originally an Ambient and Electronic project by the Japanese artist referred to simply as Noriko, who moved from studying classic Italian songs as a child, to increasingly being inspired by artists such as PIL, Yellow Magic Orchestra, KLF and movies such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Le Grand Bleu’. The music she released under the name Dream Dolphin, from the age of sixteen, is unique and versatile in style, encompassing Ambient, IDM, Techno, Trance and Drum & Bass, whilst fusing natural sounds with her own spoken word lyrics.

Dream Dolphin released an incredible twenty albums in just eight years. In addition to her own projects, she has also put together a number of fascinating compilations herself, as well as composing ambient music to be used in hospitals and other caring contexts. ‘Gaia: Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996-2003)’ contains 15 tracks thoughtfully selected from various albums that until now were only released on CD format.

TRACK LISTING

Gaia (Ethereal Fantasy)
Stars
Tour 5 Modern Blue Asia～Soundscapes For Ocean Therapy (Like A Music Therapy)
Healing Moon - Tsuki No Iyashi Umi No Mahou
The Genesis: Yoga (New Age Ambience)
Voyage (Dive To The Future Sight)
Iruka Tachi To Asonda Kioku / Under Water
Rain
L.E.A. (Mirror Coordinate Mix)
The Rebirth / (Jinsei Nante Konnamono) Sou Omotta Shunkan Ni Jinsei Wa Owaru
Cosmic Blue
Image-Respect-Love Anata Ga Jiyu Ni Naru Toki / Into The Blue (Haha Naru Umi Ga Rhythm De Oshiete Kureru Koto)
Love Ate Alien
Daichi No Uta
Island Humming

Music From Memory turns 50 with a special release "Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997". The first in a series of compilations, alongside more in depth artist-focused releases, "Virtual Dreams" will delve into music produced during the 1990’s that redefined the boundaries of ‘Ambient’. This was music that explored the possibilities of Ambient music within a new setting, created often by House & Techno music producers for a world beyond dance floors but made very much with the pre and post-clubbing listener in mind.

When House and Techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was redefined not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second ‘Summer of Love’ in 1988, millions of young people across the world would experience the life-changing ups of a brave new world but with it of course came the downs; enter the concept of a ‘Chill-out’ room. Whilst early Chill-out rooms lacked a specific sound and were often soundtracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young Techno and House producers themselves would become increasingly interested in developing a futuristic ‘Ambient’ soundtrack to a world beyond the thud of the main room.

‘Ambient’ in this new age now though had sharper teeth than in Brian Eno's key text for ‘Music for Airports’, instead here the sounds were the mode of transport rather than the backdrop. While the melodies were pretty, the soundscape steered away from the pastoral, dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up exciting new dimensions. Much like in the first Summer Of Love; the musicians were again exploring psychedelic, mind-altering and transcendental possibilities of music. And also much as in the first Summer Of Love, a psychedelic visual language would accompany the music. Though now the tracks could be accompanied by music videos, utilising early CGI techniques, they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopian future. Virtual Dreams of a better world.

From Ambient and early Chill-out classics, to lesser known one-off projects, as well as Ambient deviations by some of House and Techno’s leading producers, Volume One of Virtual Dreams features tracks by Bedouin Ascent, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. MLO - Birds & Flutes
2. Pulusha - Isolation (part Two)
3. Space Time Continuum - Fluresence
Side 2
1. David Moufang - Sergio Leone's Wet Dream
2. LA Synthesis - Frozen Tundra (dub)
Side 3
1. Richard H Kirk - Oneski
2. A Positive Life - The Calling (Loved'Ub Mix)
Side 4
1. Sideral - Mare Nostrum
2. Primitive Painter - Levitation
3. Sun Electric - Love 2 Love
Side 5
1. LFO - Helen
2. Dubtribe Sound System - Sunshine's Theme (Sunshine Remix)
3. Human Mesh Dance - 8 (Infinit)
Side 6
1. Link - Arcadian (Global Communication Remix)
2. The Arc - Orphic Mysteries
3. Bedouin Ascent - Joyriding III

New album by Montreal based artist Phoebé Guillemot aka RAMZi. Featuring ten mind-melting tracks 'Hyphae' is RAMZi's latest sonic quest and is based around sketches she originally made as a score for a documentary about mushrooms called 'Fun Fungi' (directed by Frederic Lavoie).

Recorded between November 2021 and May 2022, writing 'Hyphea' began as an attempt to transcend boredom and frustrations imposed by severe restrictions during the pandemic. For Phoebé the album was a way to reconnect with her alter ego RAMZi; who's energy brought her back to uniquely mystical feelings and hope for future magical adventures.

RAMZi is a uniquely wild spirit from the forest and refers to a parallel autonomous world that keeps evolving. In Phoebé's own words: "The music remains as a doorway to that world. It has never been about me, I always see that entity bigger than myself. The process of writing 'Hyphea' was rather intuitive. I don't think about styles of music before producing tracks. Those are more like an adventure in itself, each one set in a different ecosystem."

Artwork by Marinka Grondel.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Beguiling plasma-pools of hypnotic downbeat, breaks, smudged bass and abstract textures. It's the RAMZi formula alright, but refined to an even greater purity.

TRACK LISTING

Awakenin
Foggi Ft. Priori
Mille Et Une Nuits
Chantilli
Smooshi
Megafauna
Égrégores
Fly To Me
Nightquest
Afloat Ft. Nap

'Hidden Gem' is the Zenmenn's first full album produced together with songwriter and vocalist John Moods and follows their much-loved debut record, 'Enter The Zenmenn'. Named after a country song that didn't quite make it to the final selection, 'Hidden Gem' is the result of an extended jam session at a friend’s studio, in a field of mystical meadows somewhere south of Hamburg, in which the band would experience a series of inexplicable phenomena.

It was their earlier collaboration on the future classic, 'Homage To A Friend' that kickstarted their idea to team up with John Moods again, and in the late summer of 2021 the band set to work on a full album of material together. Using The Zenmenn's trusted drum kit, good old DX7, an unusual Ukrainian bass and an almost discarded pedal steel guitar, combined with Moods’ uniquely fragile voice, the outcome resulted in six timeless songs. The resulting harmonic sound is, as the band put it, “something like Adult Oriented Rock with a teaspoon of Celtic sentimentalism, a pinch of big city Country wrapped in a late night '70s style jam”.

'Hidden Gem’, much like their previous LP, was recorded without pre-arranged songs or any fixed musical concept. Instead, it captures fleeting moments of creativity and reflects the joint musical sentiments of the band members at the time. “Some artists are amazing at vision and curating, our work-flow is opposite to that. We are pretty messy and all over the place in our creation, as in life. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but hopefully it comes out all right in the end.”

TRACK LISTING

Out Of My Mind
Into The Heart Of The Matter
The Invisible Landscape
Fantasy Again
Ordinary Time
Everytime

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 

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.