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Various Artists - Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997

species8472

By species8472
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species8472 Veteran

species8472

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new music from memory comp (which have always been great). this one in particular seems like something everyone here would enjoy ?

"Music From Memory is delighted to be turning 50 with a special release: MFM050 - V/A - Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993-1997 (3xLP/2xCD). 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.

Volume One of ‘Virtual Dreams’ is released Dec 7th.

To celebrate our 50th release the first 1000 copies include a holographic 'Virtual Dreams' sticker plus a special insert poster with artwork by Victoria Pacheco and design by Steele Bonus.

First 150 orders through the musicfrommemory.com webstore come with an exclusive promotional mix CD, mixed by Tako Reyenga."

 

https://www.musicfrommemory.com/release/6879/various-artists/virtual-dreams-ambient-explorations-in-the-house-techno-age-1993-1997

 

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Edited by species8472
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outhud Rookie

outhud

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Thanks for heads up.

Do you know if this link just went up yesterday? Or has it been on their website for a few weeks? Wondering if it's still early enough to get one of the 150 mix CDs with the first orders.

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mcbpete Grand Master

mcbpete

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5 hours ago, geosmina said:

woaah this one is massive!

Despite being a fan of the genre shockingly not heard of a single one of those artists before - but the previews are lovely. Gonna pick up the digital version for sure when it's (hopefully!) on Bandcamp

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NI64 Mentor

NI64

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On 8/20/2024 at 9:09 PM, species8472 said:

part 2 incoming! "Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999"

https://www.musicfrommemory.com/release/8986/various-artists/virtual-dreams-ii-ambient-explorations-in-the-house-techno-age-japan-1993-1999x

This is incredible! I was worried that Virtual Dreams was dead.

Going to buy this totally blind. The first comp led me to so many amazing artists I had missed out on before. 

 

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species8472 Veteran

species8472

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yeah this is a great rabbit hole to explore. really excited about this comp. some of the artists have albums that were recently reissued. 

 

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Extralife Grand Master

Extralife

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Akio Okihide and Virgo are also essential.  For those of you who don't know, form@ records has had a bit of a comeback lately...

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NI64 Mentor

NI64

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On 8/22/2024 at 7:11 PM, Extralife said:

Akio Okihide and Virgo are also essential.  For those of you who don't know, form@ records has had a bit of a comeback lately...

Seconded on Akio / Okihide (I haven't heard Virgo before). I recently went through and listened to everything they put out as Tanzmuzik in the 90's. Really underrated stuff - they were a fantastic duo. I came across this YouTube upload from 2011 of them performing live in 1994. To the best of my knowledge this is the only live footage of them that exists. Would love for somebody to prove me wrong!

 

 

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