Sunroof - Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1 (LP) - Clear Vinyl

Sunroof’s Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1 arrived on Mute in May 2021, and it feels like a rare window into the playroom of two people who have spent decades shaping the sound of modern synth music. Sunroof here is Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones, a pair whose fingerprints are all over the history of Mute. Miller started the label after releasing The Normal’s Warm Leatherette in 1978, and Jones co-produced Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward and Black Celebration, among many others. Put them in a room with modular systems and a recording setup, ask them not to overthink it, and this is the living, twitching result.

The album grew out of regular sessions in 2019 where the two met to improvise with modular rigs and a few trusted toys, hit record, then later sifted for the parts that crackled with life. You can hear that process in the way these pieces breathe. There is no songcraft in the verse chorus sense, just focused electricity and human hands on knobs. Oscillators slide into tune like a camera lens finding focus, sequencers nudge patterns forward, then a filter movement or a spring reverb splash flicks the room open. It is music made in the moment, and it wears the grin of that moment proudly.

What makes it stick is the ear for tension and release they bring from a lifetime behind the console. A brittle high pulse will run for a minute, then a warm, rubbery bassline will lean in and suddenly there is groove. The duo are too experienced to let jams meander, so phrases arrive in arcs, little scenes that play out and fold away before the idea turns stale. You get the giddy repetition of classic Berlin school workouts, the splintery texture of early industrial, and that Mute sense of economy where every click and hiss feels placed, even if it was just captured on a good day.

If you have ever watched a modular player on stage and wondered what it is like when there is no audience, only the thrill of discovery, this gets close. The tuning drift, the slight roughness as a waveform bites a little too hard, the way a delay tail smears into a new rhythm, all of it is present. There are moments that echo Conrad Schnitzler’s cool geometry, and others that nod to the oddball sci fi of BBC Radiophonic Workshop cues. But the record never sounds like a museum piece. It has the bite of contemporary hardware, the saturation of modern recording chains, and the editing sense of two producers who know when to get out of their own way.

Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1 also reminds you that minimal gear choices can be freeing. The palette is pretty lean, mostly modular voices, sequencers, and outboard that adds space and grit. With that, they sketch whole worlds. One passage becomes a glinting lattice that could run forever. Another sinks into a low, breathing drone that makes the air feel heavier. It is easy to imagine the pair clocking each other’s body language across the room, smiling when a pattern locks, and silently agreeing to push it a little further.

On vinyl, the album blossoms. The low end has that rounded weight that suits this kind of music, and the slight texture you get off the needle plays nicely with the sparkle and sizzle of the patches. If you are crate digging for Sunroof vinyl, or lining up Electronic Music Improvisations Vol. 1 vinyl next to your Cluster and early Cabaret Voltaire, you are on the right track. It is the sort of record that becomes a favourite side in late evening listening, when you want motion without chatter. And if you like to buy Sunroof records online, you will find a healthy run of copies floating around, since Mute did not treat this like a secret handshake release.

There is a quiet, pleasing irony that two studio lifers known for helping bands find their voice ended up making one of the year’s most purely electronic sets by trusting instinct. No heavy concept, no guest list, just two friends and a room full of voltage. If you are in a Melbourne record store flipping through the experimental section, you will spot it easily enough, and it slots neatly into the kind of collection that values feel over fuss. For anyone building a shelf of Sunroof albums on vinyl, it is a cornerstone, and for fans of modular synthesis who live for happy accidents, it is a bit of a treat. While we love our streaming, there is something right about filing this among your vinyl records Australia finds, ready for an afternoon when the room needs a little electricity.