"Sunmachine" is a song by English electronic music trio

Dario G Dario G is the stage name of English musician Paul Spencer. Dario G was originally a trio, who are best known for their 1997 hit " Sunchyme", which reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The group formed in Cheshire, England and consisted of ...

. It was released on 31 August 1998 as the third and final single from the album of the same name. It is a reinterpretation of a section from the

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

song, "

Memory of a Free Festival "Memory of a Free Festival" is a 1970 single by English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The song had originally been recorded in September 1969 as a seven-minute opus for Bowie's second self-titled album. It was reworked in March–April 197 ...

", from his 1969 album release of ''

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''.

Background and writing

The idea for "Sunmachine" came about when the trio thought of putting a section of David Bowie's "Memory of a Free Festival" over an

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

version of "

Sunchyme "Sunchyme" is the debut single of British electronic music trio Dario G. It was released on 15 September 1997 as the lead single from their debut studio album, '' Sunmachine'' (1998), although early editions were stated to be from an album named ...

", but the band realised they wanted to do more with the track and that idea was scrapped. This early version, however, ended up becoming the album closer, "End of the Beginning". The final "Sunmachine" track featured new instrumentation over Bowie's vocals. The band ran into problems with the song when they realized the section had too much instrumentation and they could not isolate the vocals. The band explained the idea of the song to Bowie, who fixed the problem by sending them the original master tape of the song, allowing the band to

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

Bowie's vocals only.''Footsteps on the Beach: Soundtracks from the Beach''
retrieved 22 June 2007 The track features a flute-accompaniment by Bowie's producer,

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

Charts

Notes

{{Authority control 1998 singles 1998 songs Dario G songs Songs written by David Bowie