Great old music, love this stuff. Where can I hear more like it, or like your ‘Fluresence by Space Time Continuum. Reflective Records, US 1993’. Do you have any old mixes available from the 1990s?

What genre of music do you consider this mix to be?

The last mix of 2020 comes from Jonah Sharp (@reflecto), electronic mainstay and part of 'Virtual Dreams' as Space Time Continuum. Interview (excerpt) down below.

www.musicfrommemory.com

MFM: Welcome to the series Jonah. Originally from Edinburgh, San Francisco resident since 1992, do you still live in San Francisco?

JS: Actually I recently just moved back to SF after spending most of 2020 in the UK. I had planned to be in Europe for an extended break from the US but Covid saw an end to that and my plans had to change. I miss British and European culture. I have family and friends there so I intend to be back over as soon as I can!

MFM: According to your discography the majority of your output started to shape up right after you moved abroad, in '91. How would you explain this creative outburst? 

JS: Before I arrived in San Francisco i was still figuring out how to produce the music that I wanted to make so when I got here I started to collect gear in earnest - it was a little moment in time when most people thought analog synths and drums sounded shit so I managed to find a TR-909 for $150, a Roland SH101 at the flea market and so on. So yes, suddenly having some decent gear and fun gigs to play was very inspiring! I did feel a kind of creative freedom being so far from South London and the pressures of living there as an artist. SF in the 90’s was very affordable for artists and it gave us the freedom to really focus on the music.
 
MFM: You started your own label Reflective in '93 and had quite a busy release schedule, especially during '95/'96, before it suddenly seemed to stop right after. What happened? 

JS: I started Reflective in '93, the year my first son was born. Flurescence EP was my first solo release and it got noticed around the world so that enabled me to keep putting releases out. With the momentum of the Terence McKenna collab album, things were going pretty well. But what we found was that even though there are lots of amazing labels in the US, it was actually pretty hard to sell them domestically so most of our stock was exported to Europe and Japan. We ended up pressing in the UK and running the label from SF and that presented problems so I had to put the release schedule on hold. At that time I had also signed a deal with Astralwerks so had contractual obligations to deliver albums and tour. It was a very busy time and by 1997 when our second son was born we decided to take a hiatus from the label. Not to say the label is gone forever though!
 
MFM: Flurescence, now found its way to the Virtual Dreams compilation, almost 30 years later. How does it feel that your older music is being re-released and rediscovered by newer generations?

JS: I am very happy and honored to be part of the Virtual Dreams compilation. Yes, there seems to be a bit of attention for this time period of electronic music at the moment, and the chill out thing in general. With so many online resources, everything is discoverable by anyone so all those tiny labels like Reflective that were putting out small runs of 1000 records (that was a small run then) are maybe enjoying some retroactive attention now. 
 
MFM: Does this new interest change your motivation and/or inspiration in the studio maybe?

JS: I follow my own interests and direction when it comes to making music but reaching new audiences has to gratify the artist whose work was made for sharing. My development as an electronic musician has come through thirty years of studio experimentation, initially with hardware and then incorporating digital software. When I made Fluorescence in 1993 there was no computer in my studio, but by the early 2000s San Francisco was the epicenter of computer innovation, people like my friend Josh Clayton were writing amazing software and so I went off on a long exploratory trip to integrate digital technology both in my studio and in my live rig. My aim right now in the studio is the same as always: make sounds and keep the good ones.

MFM Mix 023: Jonah Sharp

PLEASE DON'T SEND DEMOS

www.musicfrommemory.com

Amsterdam based record label releasing visionary electronic music from both past and present.

Sublabel: @secondcircle

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