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V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) - The Neuromancers. Music inspired by WILLIAM GIBSON's Universe

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Unexplained Sounds Group USG105 Release Year: 2025 Note: compilation dediced to W. GIBSON and his "Cyberpunk" idea, especially developed in his "Neuromancer" novel from 1984, feat. ADI NEWTON (!), DEAD VOICES ON AIR, SIGILLUM S, and many more unknown or fresh projects from the electro industrial scene.. *In his vision, technology is a tool of empowerment and control, a paradox that resonates deeply in our contemporary world.* - lim. 200 copies Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info The soundtrack of a future in flux As the father of cyberpunk, William Gibson imagined a world where technology and society collide, blurring the boundaries between human and machine, individual and system. His novels, particularly Neuromancer, painted a dystopian future where sprawling megacities pulse with neon, corporations rule from the shadows, and cyberspace serves as both playground and battlefield. In his vision, technology is a tool of empowerment and control, a paradox that resonates deeply in our contemporary world. Gibson’s work has long since transcended literature, becoming a blueprint for how we understand technology’s role in shaping our lives. The term cyberspace, which he coined, feels more real than ever in today’s internet-driven world. We live in a time where virtual spaces are as important as physical ones, where our identities shift between digital avatars and flesh-and-blood selves. The rapid rise of AI, neural interfaces, and virtual reality feels like a prophecy fulfilled — as though we’ve stepped into the pages of a Gibson novel. A SONIC LANDSCAPE OF THE FUTURE The influence of cyberpunk on contemporary music is undeniable. The genre’s aesthetic, with its dark, neon-lit streets and synth-driven soundscapes, has found its way into countless genres, from techno and industrial to synthwave and ambient. Electronic music, in particular, feels like the natural soundtrack of the cyberpunk world — synthetic, futuristic, and often eerie, it evokes the idea of a humanity at the edge of a technological abyss. The cyberpunk universe forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the way we live today: the increasing corporatization of our world, the erosion of privacy, and the creeping sense that technology is evolving faster than we can control. Though cyberpunk as a literary genre originated in the 1980s, its influence has only grown in the decades since. In music, the cyberpunk ethos is more relevant than ever. Artists today are embracing the tools of technology not just to create new sounds, but to challenge the very definition of music itself. THE FUTURE OF MUSIC IN A CYBERPUNK WORLD Much like Gibson’s writing, the music in this compilation embraces technology not only as a tool but as a medium of expression. It’s no coincidence that many of the artists featured here draw from electronic, industrial, and experimental music scenes—genres that have consistently pushed the boundaries of sound and technology. The contributions of Adi Newton, a pioneering figure in cyberpunk music, along with artists such as Dead Voices On Air, Sigillum S, Tescon Pol, Oubys, Joel Gilardini, phoanøgramma, Richard Bégin, Mario Lino Stancati, Nyorai, Wahn, and André Uhl, each capture unique facets of the cyberpunk universe. Their work spans from the gritty, rebellious underworlds of hackers, to the cold, calculated precision of AI, and the vast, sprawling virtual landscapes where anything is possible—and everything is controlled. These tracks serve as a sonic exploration of Gibson’s vision, translating the technological, dystopian landscapes of his novels into sound. They are both a tribute and a challenge, asking us to reflect on what it means to be human in a world where technology has permeated every corner of our existence. Just as Gibson envisioned a future where humanity and machines converge, the artists in this compilation fuse organic and synthetic sounds, analog and digital techniques, to evoke the tensions of the world he foretold. https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/the-neuromancers-music-inspired-by-william-gibsons-universe "The Neuromancers. Music Inspired by William Gibson's Universe (USG105 + Book: Stories Inspired by William Gibson's Universe) is an homage to the phantom- and cyberspace envisioned by Gibson, into which I, too, stumbled with Neuromancer and Virtual Light. After all, BA shares its birth year—1984—with cyberpunk. Here, Adi Newton (Clock DVA, The Anti Group) opens access to the uncertainty of space, time, and consciousness with Intercepted Quantum Entanglement Transmission. NYORAI in Tsukuba, Oubys in Hasselt, Mario Lino Stancati in Mesagne, Joel Gilardini in Zurich, Tescon Pol (a duo from North Carolina), phoanøgramma (Angelo Panebianco & Matteo Mariano, known for The Void of the Sun), Mark Spybey aka Dead Voices On Air with Gullfire Over Leningrad, Wahn (in Brittany), SIGILLUM S with Kuromuaidolu Shuhen Kiki, Richard Bégin (aka Machine Mycelium in Montreal), and André Uhl (a futurologist in Berlin) follow the trail and the pull of this vision. Five of these "Neuromancers" were also among the admirers featured in Cut UP. Deconstructing W. S. Burroughs (UGS 096). If, as Heimito von Doderer demanded, art is about "the discovery of shadowy hollows, unknown halls, and hidden rooms in the arduous mining crawl of life," then alongside Burroughs, Gibson must also be counted among those miners who, with Babylonian prosthetics, drilled tunnels into consciousness and its subterranean chambers. The dozen "Console Cowboys" assembled here evoke—while stock markets and the consumerist Brave New World celebrate the AI wedding of Wintermute and Neuromancer and the metastases of the Matrix spread—throbbing surges, drilling rotations, trilling and buzzing frequencies, hauntological chimes, submarine gongs, mycotoxic spatial distortions, epileptic beats, and paranormal voices. Yet there is enough melancholic minor key to suggest remnants of skepticism regarding self-zombification and the posthuman escape accelerated by phantasms of virtual omnipotence and immortality. Gibson’s super-AI gazing toward Alpha Centauri—just as Musk eyes Mars—is fantasy. His 'future,' populated by defective hackers, prostitutes, Yakuza, sociopaths, and drug- and voodoo-fueled art-collecting oligarchs, remains as 'noir' as it threatens to become. Against the acceleration of Californian and Chinese brainfuck, accompanied by gerontocratic Caesarism and collective regression hysteria, this music stands as powerless as any other." [Bad Alchemy 127 / rbd] "Fans immediately spot the William Gibson reference in the title; even I did, and I never read any of his books. I know, you expect the music reviewer to be a polyglot, the know-it-all, throw him a CD compilation with music inspired by Stephen King, Adolf Wölfli, ACDC or early Gregorian chant, and the reviewer will pipe up with something along the lines, 'read it all', 'found their early stuff best' or 'only his musical compositions'. I am no such homo universalis. Such is life. And while there is, seemingly, less on my desk to review, that doesn't mean I went straight into 'let's read everything by William Gibson and while I'm at it, every film or documentary about cyberpunk'. What I know is relatively superficial and I hope enough to say something sensible about the music here. Is it a surprise to note every track deals with synthesisers and electronic sounds? Maybe it's the instrument of science fiction? It's an easy choice, but imagine a rock band playing cyberpunk? Well, perhaps that is possible, but not on the radar of the Unexplained Sounds Group. They say "It’s no coincidence that many of the artists featured here draw from electronic, industrial, and experimental music scenes—genres that have consistently pushed the boundaries of sound and technology." What I found particularly interesting is that many of the music pieces here have a more or less ambient approach, with few allowing for a bit of rhythm or noise. Still, it is always part of the highly atmospheric and mostly dark music when it happens. Lots of names I had not heard of (cyberpunk being indeed an alternative universe?), such as NYORAI, Oubys, Tescon Pol, Wahn, Richard Begi and Andre Uhl. Others are musicians whose work I reviewed before, some only once, such as Adi Newton, Mario Lino Stancati, phoanøgramma, Dead Voices On Air, and Sigillum S (quite a surprise to hear something from them; I didn't know they still existed). It's a lovely soundtrack of dystopian music and something more I put on the to-do list: investigate Gibson more than I have done." [FdW/Vital Weekly]