Album release date – 25th September 2025
Album Launch party – 4th October 2025
Noz, Tom, and an extraordinary group of ten collaborating musicians from around Australia, invoke a prodigious number and variety of instruments: more keyboard percussion than you could shake a stick at; frog guiros; thunder tube; guzheng; baryton; rebek; gamelan; timpani; classical guitar; coral; an antique Swiss music box; prepared piano; toy pianos; rain; wind; and an unfathomable multiplicity of electronic instruments and processes; which doesn’t even name all of what went in.
Memories of Magic—魔法の記憶—Mahō no Kioku is a spellbinding new album from Shugorei – the genre-defying collaboration between percussionist Nozomi Omote and composer/producer Thomas Green. Bell-like vibes, ritual drums and glitching electronics merge under projected visions of ancient forests and neon-lit spirits. Shugorei’s new album weaves mythic narratives and urban animism into a tapestry of beat‑driven ceremony and classical lyricism. Experience pulsing percussive textures, delicate melodies and boundary‑defying soundscapes, while projected visuals guide you through dreamscapes where past and future entwine. Dance among memories, awaken your senses, and step across the threshold into a world where sound becomes sorcery, and memories are of magic.
For Shugorei, “magic” is transformative moments where sound alters time, place, and memory. Across the album, listeners are invited into sound worlds where textures glow, rhythms pulse, and melodies unfold like fragments of forgotten dreams.
The recording brings together an extraordinary group of collaborators from around Australia:
Shêm Allen – voice
Camille Barry – violin (Black Square String Quartet)
Aaron Brown – rebek; violin
Stefan Cassomenos – piano
Dan Curro – cello; bass guitar (Black Square String Quartet)
Monica Curro – violin
Mindy Meng Wang – guzheng
Tim Munro – flute; piccolo
Karin Schaupp – guitar
Laura Vaughan – baryton
To celebrate the release, Shugorei will present a one-night-only live performance at Metro Arts, bringing the album to life with stunning live interpretations augmented with entrancing visual projections and effects. This event is a performance and a party.
Tickets: https://metroarts.com.au/…/memories-of-magic-album…/
“It’s a fascinating juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic, soft and harsh.The pair exchanged glances, wordlessly communicating ideas nuntil thetwo seemingly different sides came together, forming an ambient whole.”- Scenestr
“It’s really quite rare, in Brisbane and elsewhere, to get a fruitful collaboration across the fence that divides art music and the alternative world…”- 4ZZZ
Nozomi Omote 
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