out now: Sunroof – Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 [The Parallel Series / Mute]

Artist:
Sunroof

Title:
Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2

Label:
The Parallel Series / Mute

Cat#:
PSST6

Release Date:
17th February 2023

Format:
CD, vinyl, download & streaming

Tracklist:
01.
January #2

02.
July #2

03.
November

04.
July #3

05.
October

06.
September

07.
July #1

08.
January #1

Press Info:
Sunroof [Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones] have announced details of a new album, Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 – out on limited edition white vinyl and digitally, via the Parallel Series of Mute on 17 February 2023.

The new album is a set of eight improvised modular electronic music instrument pieces recorded at the duo’s respective home studios following the release of their debut, Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 (2021) and where Vol. 1 was the result of four decades of friendship and collaboration, this new album came together in a relatively short space of time. Recorded in the same spirit as their previous sessions – with no pre-planning and no rehearsal – they met up with “unpatched” modular systems, and began improvising. Without any of the parameters they followed in the first sessions, the duo allowed the pieces to expand naturally, keeping editing to a minimum.

“I suppose this is the difficult second album,” jokes Gareth, “it took 40 years to make the first album and just nine months to create this one!” Daniel expands, “We got on a roll and didn’t really stop recording once we had that momentum.”

During the sessions they found themselves aiming for more clarity and space within their improvisation, allowing the listener to be drawn into the pieces in a different kind of way. Textures glide, while random sequences knock against one another – forming then disintegrating before re-forming, and while they do so, uncovering minimal glitching rhythms.

The video imagery of “January #2” (see below), created by Sunroof, depicts manipulated sequences triggered by software connected to the audio – a technique that they introduced into their live performance during a short run of live shows Vol. 1’s release. The album artwork, a watercolour painting by Gareth, draws an extra line between the visuals and the music, as Gareth explains, “the watercolour paintings take on their own life when the water interacts with the colour, bringing a creative connection to how the electronics react to our interaction.”

Daniel Miller (founder of Mute, the “accidental label” that began with the release of his own 7” single The Normal’s T.V.O.D / Warm Leatherette) met Gareth Jones, (the innovative and influential producer, engineer and artist) back when Miller asked Jones to work with him in late 1982 on what became Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again. After Depeche Mode had gone home for the day, they would stay on to work on their own sessions, a practise that continues to this day. By the mid-nineties Sunroof had emerged as remix project going on to rework the likes of Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp, their first recordings appeared on a compilation paying tribute to Neu!

The eight pieces that make up Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 are imbued with the experimental playfulness of early electronic pioneers but retain their modernity thanks to their creator’s constant explorations in electronic music.

Snippets: