Various

𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙈𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝟵𝟬𝙨 𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙅𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙅𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 (𝙍𝙄𝙋) 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙀𝙞𝙟𝙞 𝙏𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙞 - 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙩 𝙖 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜.

Flush with fluttering arps and sanguine grooves, ’Virtual Dreams II - Ambient Explorations 1993-1999’ scans a familiar yet oddly distant sound adjacent to the formative sounds of Warp’s AI series and a whole cohort of ‘90s Western producers. Harvested from Music From Memory’s vast shelves, they introduce the lay ambient fan to a raft of names hardly known beyond their homeland, who still float the imagination to the horizontal and sublime with their contribution to a double refractive dialogue of electronic music influence mutated in translation between East and West since the ‘70s.

Smooth around the edges and clear-eyed in their quest for lushness, all 13 artists share a blissed pathos and effortlessness of execution that will see this set travel to collections across the world. In sequence from the nine minutes of near beat-less burble to ‘Blown Fruit’ by Dub Squad, and thru the twelve minute evocation of Eno or Vangelis’ Bladerunner score in Buddhastick Transparent’s ‘Eras (666)’, they limn a emotive and gently arc taking in Red Planet synth whistles and tactful acid squirm of Akio / Okihide’s ‘Phoenix At Desert’, the chiming carillon of Ambient 7’s ‘Escape’ recalling early Bedouin Ascent and Orbital,

Yukihiro Fukutomi’s centrepiece ‘5 Blind Boys’ can be heard to bridge the prevailing influence of Japanese environmental ambient with its new green shoots in the ’90s, whilst the likes of Web with a slinky ‘The Cycle of Seasons’ remind to analogs in early Dave Mousing and The Black Dog, along with the air-stepping bliss out ‘Pause’ by Katsuya Hironaka. Fans of Susumu Yokota’s early ‘90s gliders will be in their element with Riow Arai’s shine-eyed ’1969’, and likewise fall for the string laden sashay of ‘Sbow Bird’ by Modern Living, and the oh so demure Carl Craig-via-Paddy McAloon sentiment of ‘Poisson D’Avril (Galaxy Dub)’ by Missing Project. Trust it would take years and wads of dosh to source all this stuff yourself, let MFM do the hard work for ya.