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The first in a series of various artist 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 within a new setting, created often by House and Techno producers for a world beyond dance floors but made very much with the pre-clubbing and post-clubbing listener in mind.

When House and Techno exploded out of America in the mid 1980s a whole generation was transformed not only musically but also culturally and chemically speaking. Peaking, quite literally, with a second ‘Summer of Love’ in 1988, millions of young people would experience the life-changing ups of a 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 sound-tracked by music such as reggae and soul, slowly young Techno and House producers themselves became 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 soundscapes steered away from the pastoral, often dreaming of outer-space and technology as opening up transformative 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. Now though the tracks would be accompanied by music videos, often utilising early CGI techniques, and they would look almost entirely to the future: envisioning technology, nature and humanity intertwined in a new Utopia. These were the Virtual Dreams of a new 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, David Moufang, LA Synthesis, LFO, Marc Hollander, Mark Pritchard & Kirsty Hawkshaw, Richard H. Kirk and more. — (via Label)

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Compiled by Music From Memory cofounder Jamie Tiller, the collection looks over the mid-period of a genre that had its roots in chill-out rooms, music that by the mid-'90s attempted to reconcile the spacey futurism of Detroit techno, the starry-eyed cosmic music of the Germans and the hippie-tech utopia of the early internet. In many ways—prior to the home-listening intent brought on by IDM—it was the music of fantasy. 

"It seems somehow fitting that this mind music, big on emotion and dreams, would always exceed its physical habitat," Piers Harrison writes in Virtual Dreams' liner notes. "Often due to the quieter volume levels, chill-out zones would suffer from an appalling sound bleed of the 4/4 beat from the main room. It might have also acted as a de facto coat room, and the number of people overwhelmed by their chemical exuberance might have meant that the atmosphere wasn't as reverential as it could have been."

How lucky are we, then, to reassess this music away from the difficult logistics of the chill-out room, amidst a renewed interest in ambient music, chill-out, downtempo and trance. The best tracks on Virtual Dreams haven't aged a day. David Moufang, best known as the house DJ Move D, is featured in his previous ambient house guise with the incredible "Sergio Leone's Wet Dream," a beatless cut that strongly reminisces Ashra's 1977 landmark Kraut synth odyssey, "Sunrain." Midway through the compilation, Tiller blesses us with some slo-mo bangers like Sideral's "Mare Nostrum," a loping, 100 BPM acid track reminiscent of Mr Fingers' romantic early '90s material. Then there's Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke's blissful "Levitation," released in 1994 on their self-titled LP as The Primitive Painter. The eight-minute cut smears a sample of A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray" with analog synthesizers.

Building on a long tradition of chill-out compilations, good and bad, Tiller benefits from hindsight and modern digger culture, picking the cream of the crop from CD-only compilations, early 12-inches and legendary collections like Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence II. The result is timeless. This is music to trip out to, to dance to, to doze off to. A soaring pitch-bent synth lead might wake you up like some blissful, half-remembered dream. — (via Resident Advisor)

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 MLO - Birds And Flutes
A2 Pulusha - Isolation (Part Two)
A3 Space Time Continuum - Fluresence
B1 David Moufang - Sergio Leone's Wet Dream
B2 LA Synthesis - Frozen Tundra Dub
C1 Richard H. Kirk - Oneski
C2 A Positive Life - The Calling (Loved'Ub Mix)
D1 Sideral - Mare Nostrum
D2 The Primitive Painter - Levitation
D3 Sun Electric - Love 2 Love
E1 LFO - Helen
E2 Dubtribe Sound System - Sunshine's Theme(Sunshine's Remix)
E3 Human Mesh Dance - ∞
F1 Link - Arcadian (Global Communication Remix)
F2 The Arc - Orphic Mysteries
F3 Bedouin Ascent - Joyriding III

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Label: Music From Memory
Format: 3 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Limited Edition, Repress
Released: 2020
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Techno, Downtempo, IDM, Acid

File under: Electronic // Ambient /  Experimental / IDM
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