Together in Electric Dreams

Giorgio Moroder wrote "Together in Electric Dreams" for the 1984 science fiction romantic comedy Electric Dreams, directed by Steve Barron. He intended it for a male solo vocal. Barron suggested Philip Oakey, the frontman of The Human League, for the part. Oakey agreed, booked the session at Musicland Studios in Munich, and sang the song through once, assuming he was rehearsing. Moroder told him the first take was good enough. Oakey insisted on a second. The original was recorded at Musicland in Munich and Powerplay Studios in Maur, Switzerland, released on Virgin Records in September 1984, and reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, staying on the chart for 13 weeks. The song eclipsed the film it was made to promote. The film is largely forgotten. The song has not been.

Lali Puna were formed in Munich in the late 1990s by Valerie Trebeljahr, born in Busan, South Korea. The band name means "Valerie from Busan", Lali a diminutive of Valerie, Puna a childish spelling of Busan. The core lineup included Markus Acher of The Notwist, Christoph Brandner, and Florian Zimmer, all part of the close-knit Weilheim music community that produced some of the most quietly significant European electronic music of the decade. Their cover of Together in Electric Dreams appeared first on a Human League tribute compilation in 2000 and was later released as the b-side to the "Left Handed" single on Morr Music on June 2, 2003. Trebeljahr's voice is unhurried and precise, the production cool and minimal where Moroder's original was warm and orchestral. The feeling is the same. The temperature is completely different.

Lali Puna's second album Scary World Theory (2001) received an 8.8 from Pitchfork and established them as one of Morr Music's most significant artists. Their cover of Together in Electric Dreams sits in a particular tradition: the song that everyone knows, filtered through a sensibility so specific that it becomes something new without losing what made it matter. The original is a song about a man and a computer falling in love with the same woman, which in 1984 was science fiction and in 2026 requires no explanation at all. Trebeljahr sings it like someone who has thought about that gap, and decided to leave it open.