MUSIC FOR THE DREAMACHINE

Last year, the success of Sunray’s ‘Music For The Dreamchine’ brought the work of Brion Gysin to a new audience. Receiving excellent reviews, radio play in the US and featured on the Channel Four series Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture, the track is a contemporary underground classic. Here, Jon Chambers, the creative force behind Sunray and owner of Strawberry Recording Company explains how the project came about.

How did you become aware of Brion Gysin and his Dreamachine?

I first became aware of Gysin’s work through the books of William Burroughs. I’d read early works like Junky and Queer, but it was the unconventional narrative style of Naked Lunch that I found most interesting. Wanting to find out more about Burrough’s working method I got hold of a second hand copy of A William Burroughs Reader, edited by John Calder.
The introduction to the book, written by Calder, answered many of my questions concerning the cut-up style of Burrough’s later novels, and it also contained extracts from The Third Mind - a book of great magic. Burroughs and Gysin’s experiments with cut-ups were a revelation.
In particular Gysin’s notion that "writing is fifty years behind painting" really appealed to me. I love collage techniques, both in music and in the visual arts and the idea that collage could be applied to writing seemed to me revolutionary. It’s a very ‘punk’ idea, very ‘do-it-yourself’: cutting up books to create new works, physically destroying the old to create something totally new and beautiful - it was very exciting. I did a lot of cut-ups, poetry mainly.
This was around 1992 and unfortunately there were very few Brion Gysin books in print. I wanted to find out more about Gysin but the only book I was able to track down was called "Dreamachine Plans" which I ordered from Temple Press - the booklet contained full instructions of how to build the Dreamachine.
I thought the whole concept was just amazing: a machine that you look at with your eyes closed to evoke waking dreams. A machine you can build at home. I’ve always been interested in space, both inner and outer space. The opportunity to explore inner space without using chemicals was perhaps the most interesting aspect to the device.

You’ve obviously constructed one…

I built my Dreamachine in 1993. Bought an old Dansette record player from a car boot sale, checked it rotated at 75rpm, got a thick sheet of card, cut out the pattern according to the plans, and had it constructed in about two hours. It really is that easy. The plans have been recently re-created for use with a 45rpm deck but whoever did it got their sums wrong. I would stick with Gysin’s 78rpm plans.

How effective is it?

I experience a lot of archetypal images, the kind described by Jung and Gysin. Many of the images become more detailed the longer you spend with the machine, architectural structures and faces appear. Aside from the visuals, the machine promotes a hightened sense of awareness combined with a sensation of calm and peace not dissimilar from a state of hypnosis. I find it very relaxing and stimulating. Other users report similar experiences to varying degrees.

‘Music For The Dreamachine’ does have a dreamlike quality…

Thank you - a reviewer in Germany wrote that it is "spacey…like an endless dream". It certainly is ‘spacey’ and hypnotic but it was never my intention to write a piece of music that evoked a dreamlike state - that is the function of the dreamachine: to evoke waking dreams. ‘Music For The Dreamchine’ is a soundtrack for (inner) space travel.

Do you think you got anywhere near replicating the quality you were looking for?

Yeah, sure, I have now - I think the Sonic Boom mix is just perfect. Although many people, including Sonic, prefer the original four-track version.
Originally all I wanted to do was write a piece of music I could listen to while experimenting with the machine. My criteria was that the piece had to be fairly long because I didn’t want to have to keep getting up, it had to be instrumental as I thought words might detract from the experience, and it had to be as dynamic as possible. I wanted to avoid making an ambient record in the traditional sense. I wanted it to be a demanding piece of music.
While ‘Music For The Dreamachine’ was written to accompany the Dreamachine experience, and in a sense is a soundtrack, I was also keen that the music should be able to stand up on its own merits. Just like a good film soundtrack can be just as enjoyable without the film, or a good dance track can be enjoyed outside the context of a club.
An additional factor was that I didn’t want the music to be ‘tied down’ by a beat. I felt that would ground the music and I wanted it to lift off. There’s a quote on the original Acid Tapes release of ‘Dreamachine Music’, by the composer Arthur Russell: "Music without drums is successive to music with drums. In space you can’t take your drums, you take your mind." I like that.
The original version was recorded at home on four-track with John Lewis, who left Sunray soon after to record sound for film and television. Split into two parts, ‘Dreamachine Music’ was released on Acid Tapes (TAB 122) in 1994; and while I was pleased with the finished result, I felt the recording was limited by our resources.
The version released last year through Earworm records, ‘Music For The Dreamchine (Phase One)’, is really the definitive version as far as I am concerned. The original version was influenced by the sound experiments carried out by bands like Kraftwerk, Suicide and Spacemen 3 and I was keen to work with a sympathetic producer/remixer. Sonic Boom seemed the obvious choice so I approached him and he agreed. Sonic said he thought the track sounded like something off Suicide’s second LP.
‘Music For The Dreamachine (Phase One)’ was recorded at Great Central Studios in Rugby over two days using some nice old analogue equipment including a Fenix modular voltage synth, EMS Synthi, Korg Electribe and a modified Speak & Spell from Texas Instruments which provided the weird ‘click’ on the record.
We did three mixes, the first (Phase One) is the version that appeared on the 12" and the CD EP. I might get round to releasing the second Sonic Boom mix sometime next year - I’m planning an LP of various Sunray material from the past ten years called ‘Retrospective’ to be released through Strawberry.

Where can people expect to be taken is listening to the music of Sunray alongside the Dreamachine?

Space. Burroughs said: "Brion Gysin paints from a viewpoint of timeless space." I write music from the viewpoint of timeless space.
Sunray’s ‘Music For The Dreamachine EP’ (Strawberry Recording Co) is available from all good independent record stores, distributed through Cargo. The EP contains nearly an hour of music including the Sonic Boom mix, the original version and the Bob Bhamra Remix.
A new CD, ‘Sunray Perform Incantation Live’ will be out midsummer’s day, June 24, also distributed by Cargo. You can contact Sunray by writing to Strawberry Recording Co, 36 Albert Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1LX or jonchambers711@hotmail.com

SUNRAY DISCOGRAPHY AND PRESS COVERAGE

SUNRAY c/o Strawberry Recording Company
36 Albert Street, Aylesbury, Bucks, HP20 1LX, United Kingdom.
Telephone: 01296 431789 Email: jonchambers711@hotmail.com

September 1995 Dreamachine Music (Acid Tapes TAB122)

"Sunray come across as a hybrid of Pink Floyd and Spacemen 3. The early demo tapes are quite rough but ‘Dreamachine Music’ is altogether more sophisticated. The inspiration for the tape and the dominant piece ‘Music For The Dreamachine’ is a device called the Dreamachine which is a bit like a magic lantern designed to hypnotise the viewer and produce visions when it is spun. The music is suitably hypnotic and very spacey; it is long too, weighing in at around thirty five minutes and split into two parts."

(Christopher Williams, Adrift In the Ether: The Complete Guide to British Psychedelic Music in the 1990s)

November 2000 Music For The Dreamachine (Phase One) Sonic Boom Mix 12" (Earworm Records Worm 68)

Sonic Boom teams up with Sunray to thoroughly trip and rip through this one sided vinyl slab. If one can imagine Spacemen 3’s ‘Dreamweapon’ performed by two vintage synths and a tremelo pedal, you are pretty close. The sounds are dense and resemble a high speed repetition of light dancing across your speakers. This is exactly what was intended, judging by the explanation of the music that graces the back of the 12" cover. Suffice to say this release is beautiful in its repetitive complexity and marks a return to greatness for Sonic Boom."

(Arron Snow, fakejazz.com)

June 2001 Music For The Dreamachine EP CD (Strawberry Recording Company STRAWBCD003)

"The success of Sunray’s ‘Music For The Dreamachine’ has brought the work of Brion Gysin to a new audience. Receiving excellent reviews, radio play in the US and featured on the Channel Four series ‘Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture, the track is a contemporary underground classic."

(Beat Scene Magazine No. 40)

August 2001 Shake It/Shake It Demo 7" (Earworm Records WORM 72)

"Second single and first on 7" by Jon Chambers’s psych project Sunray, after the quick-fire sell-out of his debut. Beginning with gently strummed acoustic guitar and buzzing moog, this slowbuilder will further delight fans of the kind of hazy psychedelic pop mastered in the late 80s by Sonic and Jason Pierce. As the track builds amid the backwards phased guitars, the piece takes on a beautiful ambience of drones and sonic otherworldliness."

(opalmusic.com)

"Simple but hypnotic melodies with cyclical guitar lines and a dazed ambience."

(apexonline.com)

"With a guitar line vaguely reminiscent of Spiritualized’s ‘All of My Tears’, Sunray’s Shake It’ saunters into the Singles Bar with the kind of arrogance usually associated with bands much more experienced. Aural pilot Sonic Boom has already worked with this band by re-mixing their last offering - their previous 12" was a whopping 25 minutes long. You know what to expect then. If you’re a fan of top-quality, semi-experimental, blissed-out guitar you will in no way be disappointed with this little corker."

(Record Collector Magazine No 264, August 2001)

December 2001 Fire Inside (More Tell-Tale Signs of Earworm, Earworm Records WORM 70 2-CD)

"...Disc two is even more experimental, with synths and noise-scapes aplenty. Southhall Riot keep up the shouty ante, however, and Sunray give the nod to Earworm’s forthcoming Spacemen 3 exclusive...Encouraging stuff."

(Record Collector Magazine No 268, December 2001)

June 2002 Incantation Live CD (Strawberry Recording Company STRAWBCD004) - New release

SUNRAY’S DEBUT LIVE PERFORMANCE ON STRAWBERRY

The latest Sunray release - ‘Incantation (Live)’ - is a 23-minute long rendition of ‘Incantation’ recorded live at the Vertigo Club, London in 1993. Featuring Jon Chambers, Bob Bhamra and Bevis Bevis, the recording is a perfect document of Sunray’s only public appearance to date.
Influenced by the Space Music of Sun Ra and the electronic experimentation of bands such as Kraftwerk, Can and Suicide, this improvised performance combines hypnotic guitar riffs, other-worldly keyboard melodies and trance-inducing percussion to startling effect. ‘Incantation (Live)’ is as engaging today as it was when first performed almost ten years ago.
‘Incantation (Live)’ is limited to 500 copies and includes comprehensive sleeve notes explaining the inspiration behind the piece (see attached).

Note to editors:

‘Incantation (Live)’ follows the success of last year’s ‘Music For The Dreamachine EP’, which received extensive airplay in New York and Detroit and was featured in the seminal Channel Four documentary series ‘Andy Warhol - The Complete Picture’.

Future Sunray releases include ‘Song For Brion Gysin’ on the forthcoming Bedroom Ambience Volume Four (Enraptured) and the double A side 7" ‘Open Your Mind/Time To Fall’ (Strawberry Recording Company).

SPACE MUSIC

The following is taken from the sleeve notes of ‘Incantation (live)’:

Over a decade before the psychedelic revolution, Sun Ra used his music as a medium to "present and project a/live image(s) of Other/ness, to the listener and re/viewer". Breaking through to the open space of free tonality, he significantly influenced the music of the 1960s and in particular the free jazz of the New York avant-garde scene. The new music, characterised by the disintegration of meter, beat and symmetry, the extension of musical sound into noise and the influx of world music, was played with ecstatic - even religious - intensity. The music combined swing riffs, the oldest blues signatures, African highlife dances and Egyptian marches, with black percussion music and trance.
Artists of the new wave such as Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane spoke of their cosmic sounds as music of the outer galaxies, songs about the spiritual principles of the universe, prayers to the creator. For Coltrane, music was a way into God. Coltrane saw religion as a hymn of praise to the cosmos which is God and to God which is the cosmos. Like Incantation (Live) the psalm-like monotony of ‘A Love Supreme’, which builds whole movements on a single chord, and seems to lead from nowhere to everywhere, is an expression of infinity. Sun Ra said: "I paint pictures of infinity with my music". It is the expression of infinity as sound which is the essence of Space Music.

Jon Chambers (Sunray) 2001