Art of the Memory Palace - This Life Is But a Passing Dream (2015)

“This Life Is but a Passing Dream” is the debut album from Art of The Memory Palace; a group ascending through a cosmic void of pulsing synthesizer oscillation, narcotic soundscapes and enigmatic vocal echoes. The 9-song limited edition cassette reveals an opulence of shimmering drone, tidal waves of Kosmiche rhythm and cascading sheets of glistening electronic noise: silver sounds transmitting from a ghost radio station in the hinterlands where all is found and all is forgotten forever.

Conceived by an Anglo-Scottish duo – Raz Ullah and Andrew Mitchell – and buoyed by their collection of vintage analogue recording equipment, “This Life Is But A Passing Dream” serves up the kind of free-flowing sonic adventures that came from the studios of Popol Vuh, Harmonia and La Dusseldorf and embraces the tape experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen and Steve Reich, as well as a commitment to improvisation as compositional process. “Raz and I recorded hours of freeform music. Jams, essentially”, recalls Andrew. “We revisited the recordings and built the album up layer by layer from the collection of reel-to-reel tapes we had accrued, bouncing tracks back and forth, giving them an analogue vapour quality.”

From the nose-diving synth arpeggios of album opener, ‘Sunblinded Capsule Memory Haze,’ to the heavy Motorik sprawl of ‘The Ghost Of Benno Ohnesorg,’ through to the soaring, euphoric release of ‘Waalhaven,’ it’s evident that the duo’s dedication to sonic adventure set the tone. “We wanted to explore the darker side of themes like morality, human nature’s intrinsic desire to ‘belong’, as well as both our collective past and the spaces in between”, explains Andrew. “Living on Scotland’s east coast with its history of ship building, seafaring tales, faded grandeur and proud, surviving-against-all-odds spirit provided quite a well of inspiration to draw from as well.