In many ways, James Bernard’s Unreleased Works are one of ambient music’s biggest crimes. They’ve been sat in James’ DAT archives for years now, with only a few close friends experiencing their greatness through a very limited CDr. After going through the process of this release, I came to understand why. Not only are these extremely personal to James, and remind him of tough times in his life, but being the perfectionist he is, maybe he didn’t see them worthy of a full release one day. How wrong he was!
These are, unbiasedly, some of the greatest ambient electronic tracks I have ever heard. And, yes, quote me; up there with the best of FSOL, The Orb or any 90’s pioneers that nailed that era of classic chill-out sound.
Needless to say, I am beyond proud to finally be releasing James’ Unreleased Works, primarily as a listener, but also as a label.
It was an exciting process to get to this point. The original album has 27 tracks, which wouldn’t work even on two 2LPs. So we cut-out some of the originals, and then sequenced the remainder across two thematic editions - a more ‘Acid;’ leaning 2LP (Acid Dreams) and a more organic, other-wordly edition (Elemental Dreams).
A big thank you to Rafael Anton Irisarri for mastering, and Steve Hyland (Geometric Love) who created some magical artwork for this release - taking our brief and ideating a box, unearthed after years, and coming back to life through various states of decay and forms. This is also our first 2LP presented in reverse-board (to some people’s questions!) to imitate the old sketch-book feel and match the concept.
Both versions combine in one 20-track digital album, and individually across two 2LP editions, now available.
See the release page for more info and links to buy.
