“Memotone’s sublime, world-building ambient-jazz-fusion project yields a total gem for Accidental Meetings, perfused with the presence of Ugné Uma, Typesun & Jabu on a new highlight of his personalised microcosm, tipped for anyone on the line from Savath & Savalas to Moritz Von Oswald Trio, The Necks to Laurel Halo.
Active since 2011, it’s been a real pleasure to hear Will Yates cultivate his memotone sound into something more complex, yet not necessarily more complicated, on a slew of LPs for the likes of TTT, Sähkö, and World of Echo, plus that ace cut on Carrier’s debut LP. Club music is now long in the rearview, while ambient and jazz musics have taken precedence as the multi-instrumentalist continues to diversify his creative binds across more free-formed, expressive soundscapes, breezing with elements of spiritual jazz as much as psych folk, post rock,contemporary classical and strands of electronic music.” – BOOMKAT 2026
“Sublime fantasy exotica by Memotone, one of the UK’s shapeshifting best” Boomkat 2023
“What’s most convincing about How Was Your Life? is neither the technological tricks nor the record-collector references, but rather its understated emotional register. The precise mood is as impossible to pin down as a spring breeze, but it is by turn gently euphoric, whimsical, and bittersweet. The album’s title suggests a deathbed glance back, and, given Yates’ ecological interests and the perilous state of the planet, perhaps that’s just what it is: a fond sunset appraisal of a beautiful place out in the country, before the skies darken one last time.” Pitchfork 2023
“Sounds like it was snatched from a dub version of some late 60’s session recorded by Rudy Van Gelder for the Impulse! label. It’s the sound of the wee small hours, reverbarating across time and place; everywhere and nowhere.” WIRE magazine 2020
“Chime Hours; oscillating from tortuous passages of hyper tech-noise to sleep-paralysis doom jazz tension via field recordings and inverted tech-step mutations with the kind of lucid vision that leads to a genuinely suspended disbelief.Â
Some mistily layered phantasia or sonic uchronia where the middle ages bleed into the future, and vice-versa.” Boomkat 2016
“From his suitably bleak vantage point, Yates deftly triangulates the English folk music of his rural upbringing that draws out sinister undercurrents. He blends in and responds to field recordings with the same restraint that makes his techno/classical meeting a rare success.” WIRE magazine 2016
“Blending a passion for experimental classical music with a clear understanding of bass music, Yate’s vision is quite strikingly unique,” Boomkat 2012
“Acoustic Abstraction one of the most inspirational sample libraries we have released to date. Developed by the insanely talented multi-instrumentalist Memotone, this beautiful collection of loops and samples has such a range of wonderful and diverse sounds, the first time we played it in the office, we were literally stunned to silence.” Samplephonics
ACOUSTIC ABSTRACTION SAMPLE PACK
“One of the most astounding pieces on the release (Life Between Screens) is Memotone’s ‘Abbots Bromley Horn Dance’, a thrillingly bizarre piece of music that blends moods, eras and styles in a single unit. Built around a chilling recorder melody that’s straight out of the May Day celebrations of The Wicker Man, Memotone undercuts this playfulness with large swathes of distorted noise before injecting dolor with mournful clarinet harmonies. It’s a truly singular piece that takes the listener into realms uncharted and unexpected, in the same way that Manni Dee hoped to draw the assembled producers away from the norm.” Truants – truantsblog.com
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memotone is one alias of Will Yates, a composer and musician working at the fringes of the music
industry. Leaning into jazz, folk, contemporary classical, ambient and esoteric fourth-world music.
Memotone’s live show is part pre-prepared/part improvised performance, using a mix of live
instrumentation, samplers, effects and loopers to build a window into his singular soundworld.
Although self-taught, with a ‘learn-by-playing’ approach, Will is an experienced composer and
musician, having written music for chamber ensembles, jazz trios and pop bands alike, and has worked
with many artists and professionals over the years, most recently on both Yu Su and Carrier’s latest
albums, but also with Dmitry Evgrafov, Batu, Mister Water Wet, Time Is Away, Tara Clerkin, Phaeleh,
Tarotplane and commercially with brands like PALACE (Adidas, New Balance, Oakleys, Rimowa),
the BBC and many more, branching into both pop and the hidden recesses of the verdant underground
as a satellite member of Bristol’s ‘Avon Terror Corps’ and ‘The Pheasantry Society’. He recently
featured on 6 Music’s ‘Dream Time’ show with an interview and half-hour mix, including a handful of
his own music. He’s a semi-regular contributor to NTS and just finished a 6 month residency on
Worldwide FM.
Memotone has released music with labels: World of Echo, The Trilogy Tapes, Sahko Recordings,
Discrepant, Soda Gong, Accidental Meetings, Patience/Impatience, Folklore Tapes, Termina, Muscut,
Tax Free, Black Acre, Diskotopia, Industrial Coast and more.
AKA O. G. Jigg (with releases on PLAQUE, EFFICIENT SPACE, Earth Memory Recordings, Folklore Tapes, Tax Free Records and through Memorecs)
REVIEWS FOR DEBUT ALBUM ‘I SLEEP. AT WAKING’ (2012)
“Like a great art-house movie memotone’s music can take you places you never knew existed.” – Q Magazine
” **** Arvo Part, Gorecki and DJ Shadow combine on this extraordinary neo-classical electronica album by multi-instrumentalist William Yates. Zithers, clarinets, ping-pong balls or samples from distant conversations are all employed as part of his arsenal. Often using field recordings to set a mood, Yates layers on live insturments, sometimes playing gorgeous melodies, at other points adopting a groove-laden, dissonant approach” – Mojo Magazine
For Bookings (Live Set) email: will@memotone.co.uk
If you need to get in touch with me directly you can do so via email or social media
Email Address: will@memotone.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/will_memotone/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/memotone
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/memotone/82540332339
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/memotone
Extreme Music: https://www.extrememusic.com/search?query=%22william%20yates%22