adham shaikh: early works 1992-1994

Dear listener, On behalf of re:discovery records, it is with great excitement that we announce the Adham Shaikh compilation titled 'Early Works 92-94'. Adham Shaikh is a treasured ambient, dub and keyboardist artist out of Vancouver Canada who's early to mid-90's tracks found their way to seminal labels like Instinct, Dossier, Interchill and his own label Modulation Elektronik. This collection represents a choice selection of key early works that begins with 'Ascend', whose spacey dub atmosphere is one of the 1990's hidden ambient dub gems. 'Vapor' completes the a-side with it's other-wordly trip into organic and spatial dub ambience. The b-side features the 16+ minute magnificent ethereal odyssey 'Windgate 11:11', that has been a fan favorite for over 25 years now. The 22-minute peak track named 'Oberon (Greymatter) that spreads across the C side was taken from his debut EP 'Realignment' of his Modulation Elektronik label in 1993. Perhaps the most proto-techno track on here, it is prime example of the freeform expression of the time in ambient dub. The last track featured here is one that shares the same title; Adham Shaikh's most revered and most beloved album 'Journey to the Sun'. It is our hope that they bring you as much happiness as they have brought us and that this release gives them new life to a new audience and a special fond memory to those that knew them. Modulation Electronik. Label story evolution "The year is 1994 and the underground music scene in Vancouver is thriving. Warehouse parties every weekend with Chill-Out Rooms that actually Chilled. The birth of the chill out scene in Vancouver really gave me the opportunity to play lush wide open audio experiments to rooms of chilled people in expanded states. Often I felt I was an elevator operator bringing people up and down thru the psychedelic spaces and more often than not a lifeguard/spaceship captain guiding people back to earth. Inspired by the ambient musings of Brian Eno and company along with the contemporary Ambient Dub artists of the time KLF , The ORBs and Aphex Twin. The early nineties in Vancouver really amplified my passion for chill out music. I spent the majority of my time creating ambient music for the weekend adventures . During this time my friend and manager Michael Johnson was working for network records and befriended a guy at the burgeoning instinct records in New York. Michael had always been a fan of my ambient stuff and encouraged me to submit some tunes to instinct. I spend some time refining a collection of explorations and sent them to Gerald at Instinct. He loved them and began including various songs on the infamous Instinct Ambient series and kept encouraging me. A friend decided to go to India for an adventure and asked me if I wanted to come along. I decided a trip to india with my portable dat machine would be an amazing way to create and capture new material for an album and Gerald at instinct hinted they would be interested in what I might create from such a trip. Even going as far as to offer me an advance for the album. This allowed my to further fund my trip and Journey to the Sun was the resulting creation. As a lot of the music I was creating was pretty underground and niche. Releasing music independently presented some appealing options and thus was born my first imprint Modulation Electronik. ME. I released my first cd in 1993 of mostly ambient music with financial support from some local vibe creators and lots of help from friends. Robert Shea ( got me distribution thru silent records in SF) , Lisa Walker who designed the album cover on Photoshop V 1 wow!!.. And Todd Fuller who sold so many of them at his independent record shop Otis Music in Vancouver that I was able to continue my pursuit of craft. Now some 25 years later to see these songs getting pressed on vinyl for a whole new audience is very exciting. I have not stopped making music and my label evolved into Sonicturtle Music and my ambient music catalog has become quite popular globally thru streaming sites but none of it has never been on vinyl. A physical tangible thing that exists !!! Very exciting. So exciting that this re issue will only be available on Vinyl. I am not going to put these songs up on streaming sites as I think this vinyl time capsule is special and I want to honor it. I hope you enjoy." - Adham Shaikh (2021)