Canadian-Ukrainian dream-pop duo Ummagma are releasing their new EP LCD, on September 22nd via Label Obscura (cassette) and Somewherecold Records (CD). The album features Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and Dean Garcia of Curve and SPC ECO make appearances on the EP’s remixes. The duo are streaming the EP, today, ahead of it’s release. The EP follows up their Winter Tale maxi-single with 4AD dreampop pioneer A.R.Kane, released earlier this year.

Ummagma is Shauna McLarnon, hailing from Canada, and Alexander Kretov, originally from Ukraine. McLarnon and Kretov met in the suburban sprawl of Moscow after pursuing many solo adventures and exploring unusual pathways. Bonding over their shared musical interests and fascinated by each other’s divergent musical backgrounds, Ummagma began as an affair with love and sound, their relationship soon developing into both a musical and factual marriage. Now based in Canada, Ummagma won the Alternative Eurovision on Amazing Radio, representing Ukraine among 23 countries.

Shauna McLarnon on working with Robin Guthrie and Dean Garcia:

““I grew up listening to Cocteau Twins, Curve, and so many bands from the 4AD and Creation labels, and then later introduced them to my husband. He learned of them late, having been born in the USSR. We feel incredibly honoured that Robin Guthrie and Dean Garcia have shaped several of our tracks as they personally envision them,””

Dean Garcia is known for sculpting sound to create alternate-universe pop hits that simultaneously straddle several genres. Apart from 15 years with Curve and a decade with SPC ECO, Garcia has also toured the world several times and recorded multiple albums with such established artists as Eurythmics, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Bryan Ferry, Sinead O’Connor, and Ian Dury.

“When listening to the original versions of these two songs, I wanted to make something that was an extension of the psyche n space mood that to me is the heart n soul of Ummagma,” explains Dean Garcia. “The band appeal to my psychedelic nature.”

Garcia continues, “With the ‘LCD’ mix it was a matter of going into the original stems and extracting the most trippy n spacey elements and expanding them into a different zone. ‘Back To You’ was more about enhancing the mood of the song as it stood, but with view to bring out its dark and foreboding nature. I enjoyed working on both mixes for different reasons, the sense of space and oddness within both mixes is the thing that glues it all together. File under Dark Psyche”

TRACK LIST
1. LCD 03:34
2. LCD (Dean Garcia SPC ECO Mix) 08:26
3. Lama (Robin Guthrie Mix) 03:43
4. Back To You (Dean Garcia SPC ECO Mix) 06:33