Conscience, the German electropop and synthpop project of Rüdiger Illg, releases the compilation “Uncharted Vol. 1 (The Singles 2009-2023)” on Echozone on 25 September 2026. It gathers Conscience’s single releases from that period into one set, adds one new song and three new mixes, and presents every track remastered. The label describes a second volume, “Uncharted Vol. 2”, as already in the works.

Despite the plural billing Echozone sometimes gives the project, Conscience remains a one-man operation: Illg writes, plays and produces every track himself at Science2, his home studio in Leeste, Lower Saxony. He formed Conscience in 1991, but “Uncharted Vol. 1” starts its clock at 2009, not at the project’s founding. Echozone explains why: Conscience did not sign a record deal until 1998, with the “Hardware” EP, and that contract proved short-lived. Illg then signed to Echozone, whose own account of the compilation dates that move to around 2008, when “Theatre Of Deception” served as the lead single for the album “Gravity Has Gone”; Side-Line’s earlier research into the project’s Echozone catalogue had put that signing a year later, in 2009. Physical releases stopped soon after over cost, and for years Conscience issued albums and EPs with no accompanying singles at all. That changed with the 2020 album “Sentient”, after which every Conscience album has carried multiple single releases, the run “Uncharted Vol. 1” now compiles.

The compilation follows the single “Explain Everything”, which Echozone issued on 28 August 2026 as an advance taste of the same collection.

About Conscience

Rüdiger Illg founded Conscience in August 1991, working first with a single Yamaha SY22 synthesizer, and has written, played and produced every track since under that name at Science2. He also records as Science O.C.N. and Chaos Network. The project’s first six years produced cassette-only releases traded through the tape network, followed by a first CD in 1998 and a run of CD-Rs through the early 2000s. NewEx Records picked up Conscience in 2007, and Illg signed to Echozone in 2009, a relationship that has produced the bulk of the catalogue since, including the albums “Phases³” (2025) and “Suspended In Time” (2026) and the singles and EPs “Uncharted Vol. 1” now draws its selections from. Guest vocalists across the catalogue have included Colin Angus of The Shamen and Dan Söderqvist of Twice a Man. “Uncharted Vol. 1 (The Singles 2009-2023)” is Conscience’s first compilation to collect that stretch of the catalogue in one release, with a second volume already planned.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Conscience, the German electropop and synthpop project of Rüdiger Illg, releases the download single “Explain Everything” on Echozone on 28 August 2026. The label has taken it from “Uncharted Vol. 1 (The Singles 2009 – 2023)”, a compilation of the project’s singles that Echozone has scheduled for September 2026. According to the label, the single carries a further new song alongside the title track and an extended version that adds elements to the arrangement.

Despite the plural billing on some press material, Conscience is a one-man project. Illg has written, played and produced everything under the name since 1991 at Science2, his own home studio, and the recording line-up has never been anything other than his.

The single follows a run of releases that has kept the project on a steady schedule through 2026: the album “Suspended In Time” on 23 January, the single “Somewhere” on 13 March and the “Explore Life” EP on 1 May. Extended mixes and B-side tracks have been part of that pattern throughout, which is what “Uncharted Vol. 1” now sets out to gather.

What Conscience has released on Echozone

Illg signed the project to Echozone in 2009 and opened the relationship with “Gravity Has Gone + Best of Conscience” that year. “Your Frequency”, issued in 2012, was the last Conscience release pressed as a physical CD; since then the catalogue has appeared as downloads. Recent entries include “On The Screen” on 10 January 2025, the album “Phases³” on 21 March 2025, the “Black Lines” EP on 2 May 2025, “Girl In A Car” on 13 June 2025, “Control” on 3 October 2025 and “Memories Do Always Win” on 5 December 2025.

About Conscience

Rüdiger Illg founded Conscience in August 1991 as a solo project, using a single Yamaha SY22 synthesizer at the outset. He is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and remixer with training as a sound engineer, and he records in Leeste in Lower Saxony, near Bremen. Every Conscience track has been made at Science2, the home studio he named the operation after and which also gives its name to his umbrella site. He records separately as Science O.C.N. and Chaos Network.

The first six years produced cassettes only, self-released and traded through the tape network: “The Screen” and “On a Strange Planet” in 1991, “Facts and Illusions”, “Calls of Despair”, “Reflections” and “Tales” in 1992, “Evolution” and “Invisible Alienation” in 1993, “Mind-Mirror” and the retrospective “’91/’92 – A Compilation of Early Works” in 1994, “Virtuality” the same year, “Scope” in 1995, and “Hardware” and “Cleaned Up” in 1997. The first CD came in 1998, when KAFUE Systeme issued the “Hardware EP”. A sequence of CD-Rs followed between 1999 and 2003, among them “Phases”, “Hysteria Repeats Itself”, the tenth-anniversary “Skyline of My Mind – Ten Years of Conscience”, “Phases²” and “Nothing Has to Be”. NewEx Records picked the project up in 2007 for “Superior Fish” and the “Blurred Fish” EP, and reissued “Nothing Has to Be” in 2008.

Guest vocalists have appeared across the catalogue. Colin Angus of The Shamen sang on “Falling”, Dan Söderqvist of Twice a Man on “I Can’t Get Away”, and Mel of Future Trail on “The Future”. Illg has also recorded with labelmates, including Projekt Ich on “Sister” and “Leave My Dreams” and Stian Shiver on the extended version of “Life Gets Strange”. Conscience has played live only three times, each with a different line-up assembled for the occasion.

“Explain Everything” on 28 August 2026 opens the run-up to “Uncharted Vol. 1 (The Singles 2009 – 2023)”, the first Conscience compilation to draw the singles years into one set.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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