Sunroof!

Sunroof! is the solo project of Matthew Bower, an England-based musician from Bradford who has worked in the experimental, post-punk and noise underground for more than 25 years. Across more than 60 albums under different names, Bower builds a large body of free drone-rock that moves between drone, noise and psychedelic rock, with links to ambient and psychedelic sounds.

Bower first appears in the UK power-electronics and noise scene in 1982 with Pure, which releases one limited cassette before becoming Total. By 1987, Total has become Skullflower, with Bower continuing it as his own project and working with guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn and drummer Stuart Dennison. Skullflower uses conventional instruments, high volume and loose, near-formless structures that remain tied to rock. Its lineups include musicians from Ascension, Terminal Cheesecake, Whitehouse, Total, Ramleh, Breathless and Coil.

Total begins as a calmer, more isolationist and ambient counterpart, but later releases become noisier and more chaotic than Skullflower. After Total ends in the late 1990s, Bower revives Skullflower in 2003 as a solo vehicle. Sunroof! follows from 1999 and develops a more varied sound, moving from pulsing drone to feedback, freeform solo guitar, dreamlike textures, traces of acid-damaged British folk, and high-pitched psychedelic drone.

Sunroof! includes collaborations with Richard Youngs, Mattin, C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core, John Moloney and Marc Orleans of Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Mick Flower and Neil Campbell of Vibracathedral Orchestra, and Phil Todd, whose Anna Planeta project appears on a FatCat split 12-inch.

Bower also works in Hototogisu with Marcia Bassett and in Mirag, a project focused on material with a black-metal character.

Sunroof

Sunroof is also the electronic duo of Daniel Miller, founder of Mute, The Normal and Silicon Teens, and producer, engineer and artist Gareth Jones. After four decades of friendship and collaboration, they release Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 1 in 2021 and Electronic Music Improvisations Volume 2 in 2023.

The pair meet in late 1982, when Miller asks Jones to work on Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again. They continue to work on their own sessions in the studio after the band leaves for the day, and that practice continues over the years. By the mid-1990s, Sunroof has become a remix project, reworking tracks by Can, MGMT, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Goldfrapp, and appearing on a compilation tribute to Neu!. The duo also perform occasional live shows, drawing on early electronic experimentation and improvisation.