Sunroof (Daniel Miller & Gareth Jones) Share New Track 'November'

Sunroof [Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones] have shared a new track from their forthcoming album, Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2, that is due out digitally on February 17th and on vinyl and CD on March 3rd via the Parallel Series of Mute.

Listen to the dubbed-out electronics and frequency-scanning synths of "November" and watch its accompanying video.

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 Vol. 1 (2021). 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 and then disintegrating before re-forming, and while they do so, uncovering minimal glitching rhythms.

The video imagery, 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 around Vol. 1's release.

The album artwork, a watercolor painting by Gareth, draws an extra line between the visuals and the music, as Gareth explains, "the watercolor paintings take on their own life when the water interacts with the color, 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 practice that continues to this day. By the mid-nineties Sunroof had emerged as a remix project going on to rework the likes of Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp, their first recordings appearing on a compilation paying tribute to Neu!

The eight pieces that make up Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 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.

Watch the new music video here:

Photo credit: Paul Heartfield