We got in touch with the folks behind the conceptual project Thanks for your your netlabel for a chat on what their project was about and the state of the netaudio scene. Mikel Nieto and Blanca Rego were kind enough to answer Filipe a few questions.
Can you tell us a little about yourselves? Who are you, where are you from and what do you do for a living?
Blanca: My name is Blanca. I am from Galicia. I usually work with video
but I also do some audio stuff, not really music, only noise, because I
can’t make music.
So are you an artist? How do you make a living?
Blanca: I don’t consider myself an “artist”, I don’t like some of the
implications of that label. I don’t know if I want to be an “artist”.
Besides, it’s really difficult to make a living doing these kind of
things, so I have a job. I work as a translator. I didn’t study anything
related to translation, but I translate things related to video,
photography and sound.
What about you, Mikel?
Mikel: My name is Mikel, I am from the Basque Country. I work with
sound, mainly with field recordings, soundscapes and that kind of stuff.
I create different projects around those subjects. I’ve worked with
Blanca in several projects, like this one, “Thanks for your netlabel”. I
like her work because it’s very clear.
So what do you do for a living?
Mikel: We have an art centre here, called Arteleku and I work here on Hots Radio. I coordinate contents and curate, and things like that, working on the soundmap of the Basque Country, which is soinumapa. I also organize concerts to get by.
How did you first come across netaudio?
Mikel: I can’t remember exactly but I think that my first reference in netaudio was maybe addSensor or Plataforma LTW,
which I think was the first netlabel here in Spain. I think they are my
first references, addSensor is probably one of my biggest references.
Your project “Thanks for your netlabel” is not really a netlabel, is it? Can you tell us a little more about it?
Mikel: We made this project because we wanted to talk about netlabels,
we spent one year publishing different posts about netlabels on mediateletipos.
And we thought it would be interesting to just make a website with all
the information we collected, so we began to make it and to try to put
references to different important projects related to netlabels.
It feels like a history of the netlabel scene somehow…
Mikel: Yes, but it’s not like a true history of netlabels, just some
references that we consider interesting. We didn’t intend to reflect
Netlabels History. All the references that we included are just a
proposal.
Fair enough, well, it’s still quite interesting.
Mikel: Thank you!
Can you tell me more about the sound and the artwork of the releases? Is it made using some sort of generative algorithm?
Blanca: I don’t know if you can call it generative really, because I
didn’t do any coding or anything like that. If you have a raw file, it
doesn’t matter if it’s audio or image, you can open it in an audio or
image software, and save it as an image or as a sound. That’s all I did
here.
I didn’t realize it was just the raw file of the seed! Did
you do any selection, like trying different options and picking the best
result?
Blanca: Not in this case, no. You have to make some decisions because
the method is not completely automatic, but most of the time you don’t
know what is happening, it’s just chance.
So you’re into noise aesthetics?
Blanca: I am interested in that kind of rendering and some glitch stuff,
and I also like noise, yes, but not just this kind of digital noise.
There is large divide in the noise and glitch art, between
the more conceptual kind of approach and artists who are trying to use
those aesthetics for emotional works. How do you fit in this?
Blanca: Most of the time when I do these kind of things, converting one
file into another, is just an experiment, so it’s much more a conceptual
thing than anything else. In this case I didn’t choose anything, Mikel
gave me a list and I just did it. But sometimes when I do it for myself I
try it a lot of times and I choose what I like better.
What can you tell me about the netaudio scene in Spain?
Mikel: I don’t know exactly, maybe it’s the same in Portugal or Italy,
but here in Spain seems that there isn’t a big stem of netlabels
anymore, because there is Bandcamp and that kind of platforms, which are
working better with the artists, because they want to sell their music,
and that’s it. I don’t know if this means that netlabels are dead or
not.
Bandcamp and Soundcloud are currently very big in acceptance,
but don’t you think the curational work that the netlabels provide is
still important?
Mikel: That’s a good question. I don’t know if it’s important or not,
but for example one of our seeds for this project is bajarmusica.tk,
which was a great netlabel and now it’s closed. They just published
everything. If you wanted to publish some of your stuff, you just sent
an email to them and they will publish everything. They didn’t care
about it was interesting or not. For me this is a very interesting point
of view on netlabels. David Nemeth also talks about this topic, how
curation still works on netlabels, and that netlabels sometimes just
publish everything, which results in some of their releases not being
very good or worth hearing.
I think this topic is very interesting, there was a big boom and
after that I think there were a lot of netlabels that were working a
lot, publishing a lot of music. And the listeners couldn’t listen to
everything, it was crazy. Now Bandcamp and that kind of platforms works
better with the artist, without any curator work, directly. On Bandcamp
you can publish your music and sell it. But some artists are not mainly
interested in selling, they care more about the political position of
some licensing, having it available in public domain.
For me it’s very interesting how the netlabels have maybe lost the
power on how they publish everything, or how they publish music. Anyway,
netlabels are not closing because of Bandcamp, it’s more like a hiatus.
It’s an interesting moment. I think netlabels have to change, they need
a change right now.
In the boom of the netlabel scene there was always this
mention to how netlabels enabled a sort of democratization of the music
industry. Providing easy access to the masses to listen to all kinds of
indie artists and niche genres. That brought on a wave of releases, as
you mentioned, more than anyone could listen to. And in that sense the
way netlabels could distinguish themselves was through the curation
work. Do you think that has changed?
Mikel: I think the question is for the curators themselves, if they make
sense right now, in the netlabels. Because listeners do that work, they
are also curators. When we want to find new music we just type in
Google and that’s it. Or maybe a friend sends you an email and you
listen to that and see if it’s interesting. Then we make that selection.
So, do netlabels really need the curators work? Or do the listeners
just want make their own selections?
Listeners tend to be attached to what they already know and
won’t search out of the box. I think curators still make sense as a
reference that people can follow for discovering new music of good
quality.
Mikel: It could be.
An experimental approach in this field was this project where
a webradio would play music anonymously, so people wouldn’t know what
artist is playing, just focus on if they like it or not. And they would
just trust if the webradio was good or not.
Mikel: Yeah, that is also very interesting. But then there is the
question if we want to listen to music in that position. Don’t get me
wrong, I think it’s a good proposal, it works very well theoretically.
But not in practical terms, because we want to listen to big artists. We
want those names. We like the big artists. We love it.
Anyway, I think when we are listening to music we are already making
the curators work, and we just want, for example, to find music that
connects with our friends. The socialization of music is possible to
function.
Blanca: But that is not something new…
Mikel: No, it’s not new, we were mentioning David Nemeth before and
he also talk about this, how we served our music with vinyls 30 years
ago, and in the 80s with the cds. We spent a lot of time listening to
the same cds with our friends. Now it’s the same, we want to find new
music with our friends. The question for me here is if the curator is
needed for this or not, and then if it makes sense or not. Because I
think the main point of the netlabels is to serve music (and for free,
without money). And when you serve music online, it’s very different
from serving music on k7 or cds. Online everyone can take your music and
make another thing with it, you know? They listen and then they can
make something new. And I think that’s very interesting, that’s the most
important part of netlabels: listen, no money, take it if you like it
and make another thing out of it.
So are platforms like Bandcamp the future for the music industry?
Mikel: Bandcamp is the present. The music industry is different from the
netlabels. Netlabels are about sharing music. Music industry is about
money. They build very comfortable and pretty websites to sell music.
They build an industry around music.
Netlabels are just about sharing. This reminds me of a
documentary I recently watched called “Downloaded”, it was about
Napster, how they were fore-fronting what people wanted (to easily share
music online) and how the music industry completely failed to make any
agreement with them to evolve their business model to meet the
technology.
Mikel: Yes, it’s just like Napster, we want to share, we don’t care about the money.
And my question is, aren’t we, with the netlabel movement,
somewhat forcing the music industry to adapt itself? Making them come
closer to what the listeners want in terms of technology? What’s the
future for this clash of worlds?
Mikel: Hmmm, We must understand that the music industry is always
following new things, new models, new systems, just to get money. They
just serve Napster or the way Napster serves music to get money. It’s
not related to netlabels or netaudio ideology at all.
So what is the future?
Mikel: In the future all the people will just make their own music and
share it. We’ll spend a lot of time making music instead of listening to
other’s music. I think this is our future: not to listen to music. For
example, 1000 downloads mean 1000 listeners? People download music but
they are not listening to it.
Yes, lots of times we just download releases, listen to them
once and never listen to them again, there is so much music out there,
and everyone is a musician, music is so accessible, you yourself can
just make the music you like and listen to your own music.
Mikel: It’s very important to think about this. If people don’t want to
listen to others music then it’s ok, just listen to your own music. I
don’t think this is a problem. Besides, I think some people just want
the downloads, not the listeners, because maybe it’s easier to get more
concerts with a big number of downloads.
Don’t you think social networks like Soundcloud fulfil that role?
Mikel: I have a Soundcloud account, but I never use it. Do you use
Soundcloud for communication? Or to make more social interactions? How
many listeners do you have in Soundcloud? Does it work for you?
I know what you mean, I have a Soundcloud account for the
label and yes, I mostly just use it to get more followers and announce
the releases. But it’s almost like a fake network, I don’t listen to 99%
of their work. I doubt many people do.
Mikel: A fake network? It could be. Like MySpace, and MySpace is over now.
Actually…
Blanca: MySpace is not over, it’s making a slight comeback.
Yes, MySpace guys have revamped their site and are getting a
little community back. It doesn’t have anywhere near the quantity of
active users it used to have, but they are still alive. But yes, they
went to shit a few years ago and it was all just fake networks spamming
each other. Not much real interaction.
Mikel: Yes, that’s the point: if Soundcloud works or not for real interaction. I don’t think it does.
Before MySpace there was mp3.com, and after MySpace there was
last.fm, and lot of other other similar websites. Artists built their
fake networks of other artists to spam their releases and count the
number of downloads. Not real interaction. Not sharing music with
friends.
Mikel: Yes. Not real interaction. Not sharing music with friends.
Well, I think I’m out of questions. Thank you for time!
Mikel: Thanks Filipe for your interest in our project, and for this
interview, it’s good to talk about netlabels. We like it and we need to
find a different way to make what we love to make.
Blanca: Thank you, bye!
Monday, 16 December 2013
Monday, 4 November 2013
Nostress
Next up on our list of interviews: the curators of Nostress Netlabel based in Palermo, Italy.
la memoria del objeto
Who are the people behind Nostress? Where are you from? What do you do for a living?
Nostress is a Palermitan (Sicily) indie record label that I (Paolino Canzoneri) set up in 2011. We have several key collaborators; Francesco Calabria is the live events manager, while Lorenzo Lunardo and Gaetano D’alessandro, our web masters, enable the site to be compatible with diverse platforms. David Purpura, our main correspondent in London (UK), updates the label with news from the UK: the London scene and major events. I should also mention Luigi Cilento that I have known from the beginning and for the first two years of my musical journey. We all work in the IT world.
When did you first feel the need for creating a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a regular music label?
Music has always been a passion for me. I started playing drums when I was a young kid. I also played in several groups. I am 47 and was privileged to witness the changes in music across the 70’s, 80’s etc. In particular the introduction of new electronic instruments in the music scene and the ‘birth’ of the digital era. In 2009 I joined a local [Palermo] indie experimental musical scene which was taking off but was restricted by their limited musical choices. After a while I resolved to create a different scene – a more personal one which would also follow local trends but which would mainly focus on global artists and would not be bound by geography. I decided to create an independent label which would not be dictated or affected by the multinational musical corporations. My aim is to produce and promote music, allowing the artists’ freedom of expression and total control of their product. Over the years I set up projects which were produced on several independent netlabels; this enabled me to understand the importance of promoting ‘independently’.
I believe that nowadays there are no major differences between ‘commercial labels’ and ‘netlabels’. The web is integrating these two terms. Nostress is defined as a ‘net-label’ on the web. But it is also a regular music label, as we will publish using vinyl, CD and tapes. We also have a “real” studio with multitracking and mastering.
Were there any other labels that influenced you early on or that you still use as references?
As stated above I was able to contact other netlabels and understood how the phenomenon was developing. Music is far beyond mere business – it is, in my view, pure expressive art. There are a huge number of artists out there who wish to promote their music without monetary reward. Sometimes artists create solely to serve the market. I feel that is far too humiliating, as it hampers creativity and freedom, and endorses a bias in music appreciation, which is far from the audience’s tastes. Netlabel music was established by young people who have little access to financial resources, who take a political stand in challenging the commercial view of music today. At its core the members of netlabels are distributing free music using a licence (Creative Commons) that enables them to download music free, Netlabels enables artists to use them as marketing device to promote their music to major labels who regularly scan netlabels in search of new talent. By doing so, netlabel is able to globally promote all artists, whether they are interested to play in indie style or promote their music in the mainstream market.
What kind of music do you focus on?
Since I was a kid I have been passionately interested in music. My father supported me in developing it further. He would buy me vinyl and would ask my eldest cousin what type of music I liked and which band was worth listening to. Just before one of my birthdays, my cousin told my father to buy me the LP with the picture of a cow on the front. I was nearly 14. Needless to say, this opened up the world of British Progressive Rock for me. I’ll leave you to guess what he bought me. Since then I developed a visceral taste in rock music and kept a close eye on its development over the last 30 years right through the development of electronic music. Nostress Netlabel promotes an experimental approach by musicians moving away from psychedelia; travelling through rock and progressive rock and reaching electronic or electro-acoustic music styles at the end of their journey.
What can you tell us about the netaudio scene in Italy? Are there many netlabels active?
Italy traditionally has imported its music, for example, we have always paid great attention to what is happening in Europe and America. We have never felt envious of non-Italian music, and we have never been overly patriotic toward just listening to ours. The netlabel phenomenon is constantly evolving. In my view it has become a global phenomenon as it not only represents a dimension of Indie music, but has ties with new-socio-political views that represent the thoughts of young people. The netlabel is a web-based forum where diverse musicians can touch base with people who have common views and want to share them. In Italy there are several netlabels which are popular with different artists who are searching for publications and promotion. Here is a map created by Ephedrina Netlaboratorio. (link)
Do you organize local events to promote your work?
To manage a netlabel means maximising the promotion of the artist by organising live concerts in pubs or community centres etc. Nostress Netlabel is capable of organizing such events ad hoc, with a quick turnaround. We can also act as ‘media-partners’ and link artists with other organizations and producers which are web-based. If you check the section events of the ‘site’, it displays all the events and ways to participate on the site. This is a kind of on-the-road section.
What’s your standard procedure for promoting a new release? How do you build up attention? What are your favorite platforms do you promote it on?
We tap into the social networks, in particular Facebook – we also have contacts on blog pages, music fanzines and webzines.
Can you tell us a little more about your latest release?
The latest release is from the Russian artist Andrey Kireyev, who has already published a couple of projects. We are currently participating in an expansion of the Russian musical Avant-garde in its experimental form; in particular bands like T.Bird, ASTMA, Coaxil, etc.
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to to expand our musical releases by printing on CD glass masters and also vinyl and tapes. We already have a vinyl release out – we are very fond of vinyl! We also have a parallel project called NN LIVE where we attempt to involve as many bands as we can. We are planning to use this platform to run workshops on new musical technologies. Etterem from Milan attended the first meeting in March 2013 at the Garibaldi Theatre in Palermo. It was a beautiful experience.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
After publishing 43 LPs and 21 EPs and 2 compilations of unreleased material (the unreleased tracks are published each year on a netlabel), we are very proud. We are also very lucky in what we achieved so far. We have been focusing on the Palermitan scene and have captured the attention of Palermitan groups like Cinema Noir, Cum Moenia and Echonaif. We value these groups very highly.
We also have a spiritual and intimate side which is expressed by the duo Marco Manzella and Antonella Scalia. Aldo Ammirata and his work, Empirical Evidence, encapsulates experimental music. Aldo has had a timeless number of downloads. One of his live concerts in 2011 was published by Nostress. Moving North we have links with Plasmat, Hortus Conclusus and the experimental avant-garde scene, such as Efficient Refineries, Syrinx, Baumann.electronics, Triton, TÜNEL and Nick Z-gibarian and in Indonesia with Control-Z.
There are loads of others – too many to mention here. We are a great family and would like to sincerely thank everyone involved in Nostress.
la memoria del objeto
Who are the people behind Nostress? Where are you from? What do you do for a living?
Nostress is a Palermitan (Sicily) indie record label that I (Paolino Canzoneri) set up in 2011. We have several key collaborators; Francesco Calabria is the live events manager, while Lorenzo Lunardo and Gaetano D’alessandro, our web masters, enable the site to be compatible with diverse platforms. David Purpura, our main correspondent in London (UK), updates the label with news from the UK: the London scene and major events. I should also mention Luigi Cilento that I have known from the beginning and for the first two years of my musical journey. We all work in the IT world.
When did you first feel the need for creating a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a regular music label?
Music has always been a passion for me. I started playing drums when I was a young kid. I also played in several groups. I am 47 and was privileged to witness the changes in music across the 70’s, 80’s etc. In particular the introduction of new electronic instruments in the music scene and the ‘birth’ of the digital era. In 2009 I joined a local [Palermo] indie experimental musical scene which was taking off but was restricted by their limited musical choices. After a while I resolved to create a different scene – a more personal one which would also follow local trends but which would mainly focus on global artists and would not be bound by geography. I decided to create an independent label which would not be dictated or affected by the multinational musical corporations. My aim is to produce and promote music, allowing the artists’ freedom of expression and total control of their product. Over the years I set up projects which were produced on several independent netlabels; this enabled me to understand the importance of promoting ‘independently’.
I believe that nowadays there are no major differences between ‘commercial labels’ and ‘netlabels’. The web is integrating these two terms. Nostress is defined as a ‘net-label’ on the web. But it is also a regular music label, as we will publish using vinyl, CD and tapes. We also have a “real” studio with multitracking and mastering.
Were there any other labels that influenced you early on or that you still use as references?
As stated above I was able to contact other netlabels and understood how the phenomenon was developing. Music is far beyond mere business – it is, in my view, pure expressive art. There are a huge number of artists out there who wish to promote their music without monetary reward. Sometimes artists create solely to serve the market. I feel that is far too humiliating, as it hampers creativity and freedom, and endorses a bias in music appreciation, which is far from the audience’s tastes. Netlabel music was established by young people who have little access to financial resources, who take a political stand in challenging the commercial view of music today. At its core the members of netlabels are distributing free music using a licence (Creative Commons) that enables them to download music free, Netlabels enables artists to use them as marketing device to promote their music to major labels who regularly scan netlabels in search of new talent. By doing so, netlabel is able to globally promote all artists, whether they are interested to play in indie style or promote their music in the mainstream market.
What kind of music do you focus on?
Since I was a kid I have been passionately interested in music. My father supported me in developing it further. He would buy me vinyl and would ask my eldest cousin what type of music I liked and which band was worth listening to. Just before one of my birthdays, my cousin told my father to buy me the LP with the picture of a cow on the front. I was nearly 14. Needless to say, this opened up the world of British Progressive Rock for me. I’ll leave you to guess what he bought me. Since then I developed a visceral taste in rock music and kept a close eye on its development over the last 30 years right through the development of electronic music. Nostress Netlabel promotes an experimental approach by musicians moving away from psychedelia; travelling through rock and progressive rock and reaching electronic or electro-acoustic music styles at the end of their journey.
What can you tell us about the netaudio scene in Italy? Are there many netlabels active?
Italy traditionally has imported its music, for example, we have always paid great attention to what is happening in Europe and America. We have never felt envious of non-Italian music, and we have never been overly patriotic toward just listening to ours. The netlabel phenomenon is constantly evolving. In my view it has become a global phenomenon as it not only represents a dimension of Indie music, but has ties with new-socio-political views that represent the thoughts of young people. The netlabel is a web-based forum where diverse musicians can touch base with people who have common views and want to share them. In Italy there are several netlabels which are popular with different artists who are searching for publications and promotion. Here is a map created by Ephedrina Netlaboratorio. (link)
Do you organize local events to promote your work?
To manage a netlabel means maximising the promotion of the artist by organising live concerts in pubs or community centres etc. Nostress Netlabel is capable of organizing such events ad hoc, with a quick turnaround. We can also act as ‘media-partners’ and link artists with other organizations and producers which are web-based. If you check the section events of the ‘site’, it displays all the events and ways to participate on the site. This is a kind of on-the-road section.
What’s your standard procedure for promoting a new release? How do you build up attention? What are your favorite platforms do you promote it on?
We tap into the social networks, in particular Facebook – we also have contacts on blog pages, music fanzines and webzines.
Can you tell us a little more about your latest release?
The latest release is from the Russian artist Andrey Kireyev, who has already published a couple of projects. We are currently participating in an expansion of the Russian musical Avant-garde in its experimental form; in particular bands like T.Bird, ASTMA, Coaxil, etc.
What are your plans for the future?
We are planning to to expand our musical releases by printing on CD glass masters and also vinyl and tapes. We already have a vinyl release out – we are very fond of vinyl! We also have a parallel project called NN LIVE where we attempt to involve as many bands as we can. We are planning to use this platform to run workshops on new musical technologies. Etterem from Milan attended the first meeting in March 2013 at the Garibaldi Theatre in Palermo. It was a beautiful experience.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
After publishing 43 LPs and 21 EPs and 2 compilations of unreleased material (the unreleased tracks are published each year on a netlabel), we are very proud. We are also very lucky in what we achieved so far. We have been focusing on the Palermitan scene and have captured the attention of Palermitan groups like Cinema Noir, Cum Moenia and Echonaif. We value these groups very highly.
We also have a spiritual and intimate side which is expressed by the duo Marco Manzella and Antonella Scalia. Aldo Ammirata and his work, Empirical Evidence, encapsulates experimental music. Aldo has had a timeless number of downloads. One of his live concerts in 2011 was published by Nostress. Moving North we have links with Plasmat, Hortus Conclusus and the experimental avant-garde scene, such as Efficient Refineries, Syrinx, Baumann.electronics, Triton, TÜNEL and Nick Z-gibarian and in Indonesia with Control-Z.
There are loads of others – too many to mention here. We are a great family and would like to sincerely thank everyone involved in Nostress.
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Subterranean Tide
Continuing our search for new netlabels to interview we ran into Subterranean Tide,
a relatively recent netlabel, focusing on Drone / Ambient /
Experimental sounds. we exchanged a few emails with the curator, Emily
Ferrell, to get a little insight into how they operate.
Darwin Raymond – Unknown, or Unremembered
Can you tell us a little more about the people behind Subterranean Tide and what they do for a living?
Well, there really are no people, just one person: me
I’m type 1 bipolar and I’m on disability so I’ve had a lot of time on
my hands. So essentially I do nothing for a living, I have two full time
jobs – taking care of my out-of-balance self and being a mom to my 13
year old son.
Why and when did you feel the need to start a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a “regular” label?
I started the netlabel when my dear friend Darwin Raymond made the suggestion. Being home most of the time, I wanted to do something that might give my life more meaning. My husband Michael Duane Ferrell (aika Elian) brought this sound scene into my life and I wanted to give something back to the community of artists that I’ve come to love. I think regular labels take a lot more money. I needed something I could do for free – kind of like volunteer work. Netlabels are a great place for artists to start out and I’m obsessively in love with the creative commons culture.
Can you tell us a little more about your label’s relation to text and poetry? Do you find them complementary forms of art? Do you think there is a lack of labels that bridge both?
I find most art complimentary. Artists are constantly inspired by other art, we feed off each other, it’s that feeding energy that helps inspire one another. Poetry has always gone hand in hand with music, especially because of the use of voice as an instrument in song writing. It gives direction to the listener – a sort of narration of the music itself. It sets the stage. I don’t think there is a lack of labels that bridge both. Multi-media projects and collaborations are always around.
How does video differ from your label’s relation with text/poetry?
I think video leaves less to the imagination. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective or important.
Are there any labels that you could name as references or influences of yours?
Oh absolutely, Feedback Loop Label as well as the label owner, Leonardo Rosado were a huge influence. I hope I might be able to fill where Feedback may have left off – although, I can only hope Subterranean Tide will be as successful. There are other labels I’ve fallen in love with as well, I adore what Resting Bell has done and love the surrealism of suRRism-Phonoethics that Jaan Patterson has created.
What platforms do you use to promote your new releases?
As many platforms as I can find – but social networking seems to get the best response.
Do you have any contacts or plans for organizing local gigs and promotion events?
Oh gosh, this is something I haven’t thought about yet. Most of the musicians I’ve worked with are from all over the globe – so it might be difficult to localize. But it’s not something I’m against, just haven’t gotten there yet.
Can you tell us about your current latest release?
Bobby Jone’s “Planets With Two Suns Have Black Trees” just came out this week. An electro-acoustic ambient gem. I love this guy’s work and knew it would be an honor to have him on the label – I’m delighted he accepted.
That’s it, thanks for you time! Any last words?
Thanks for this and the opportunity to talk about Subterranean Tide, keep your ears open for more great music to come.
Darwin Raymond – Unknown, or Unremembered
Can you tell us a little more about the people behind Subterranean Tide and what they do for a living?
Well, there really are no people, just one person: me
I’m type 1 bipolar and I’m on disability so I’ve had a lot of time on
my hands. So essentially I do nothing for a living, I have two full time
jobs – taking care of my out-of-balance self and being a mom to my 13
year old son.Why and when did you feel the need to start a netlabel? Why a netlabel and not a “regular” label?
I started the netlabel when my dear friend Darwin Raymond made the suggestion. Being home most of the time, I wanted to do something that might give my life more meaning. My husband Michael Duane Ferrell (aika Elian) brought this sound scene into my life and I wanted to give something back to the community of artists that I’ve come to love. I think regular labels take a lot more money. I needed something I could do for free – kind of like volunteer work. Netlabels are a great place for artists to start out and I’m obsessively in love with the creative commons culture.
Can you tell us a little more about your label’s relation to text and poetry? Do you find them complementary forms of art? Do you think there is a lack of labels that bridge both?
I find most art complimentary. Artists are constantly inspired by other art, we feed off each other, it’s that feeding energy that helps inspire one another. Poetry has always gone hand in hand with music, especially because of the use of voice as an instrument in song writing. It gives direction to the listener – a sort of narration of the music itself. It sets the stage. I don’t think there is a lack of labels that bridge both. Multi-media projects and collaborations are always around.
How does video differ from your label’s relation with text/poetry?
I think video leaves less to the imagination. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective or important.
Are there any labels that you could name as references or influences of yours?
Oh absolutely, Feedback Loop Label as well as the label owner, Leonardo Rosado were a huge influence. I hope I might be able to fill where Feedback may have left off – although, I can only hope Subterranean Tide will be as successful. There are other labels I’ve fallen in love with as well, I adore what Resting Bell has done and love the surrealism of suRRism-Phonoethics that Jaan Patterson has created.
What platforms do you use to promote your new releases?
As many platforms as I can find – but social networking seems to get the best response.
Do you have any contacts or plans for organizing local gigs and promotion events?
Oh gosh, this is something I haven’t thought about yet. Most of the musicians I’ve worked with are from all over the globe – so it might be difficult to localize. But it’s not something I’m against, just haven’t gotten there yet.
Can you tell us about your current latest release?
Bobby Jone’s “Planets With Two Suns Have Black Trees” just came out this week. An electro-acoustic ambient gem. I love this guy’s work and knew it would be an honor to have him on the label – I’m delighted he accepted.
That’s it, thanks for you time! Any last words?
Thanks for this and the opportunity to talk about Subterranean Tide, keep your ears open for more great music to come.
Friday, 16 August 2013
La Manufacture de Bruit
We recently talked with David Vallée of the French netlabel La Manufacture de Bruit to discover a little more on their modus operandi.
Who are the people behind La Manufacture de Bruit? What do they do for a living?
La Manufacture de Bruit was originally created by two persons, Stéphane F. from the French label “Cauldron Music” and myself, David Vallée, from another French label “La Cadera”. We have been working together since 1998, for several projects and collaborations. Cauldron was more oriented towards medieval, folk and neo classical music, La Cadera at the beginning was producing neo-classical and ambient industrial music. Cauldron Music has stopped its activities in the mid-2000’s, La Cadera in 2002, and a few years later, we decided to create a netlabel to release our most important productions for free. La Manufacture de Bruit was firstly created for this, for our old productions not to be forgotten. But quickly we decided to produce other projects as well. At the end of 2012, I decided to continue the netlabel alone.
La Manufacture de Bruit does not generate income, all our productions are free and the label only costs us money! Lucky for us, we have jobs to make a living!
You seem to be very focused on dark ambient / neo classical / ethereal kind of sounds. Is this correct? Why the focus on this genre?
Yes, this is correct. As I wrote it before, our previous labels were already oriented towards these styles of music, even if we like other kind of sounds. Our first music projects were already in these styles (Fin de Siècle for my colleague and Semper Eadem for me), it was natural to follow this way, but not only because of this. We also had the idea not to create a simple netlabel, but instead something covering different arts, like photography, writing, music, videos and films, and we thought theses styles of music are very close to different kind of arts.
We also found back then that dark ambient, neoclassical or ambient industrial were not well-represented on other netlabels out there, and this kind of music is relatively unknown, especially neoclassical music, even if you can hear it in a huge number of films.
When did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
The idea came in 2008, at the 10th birthday of “Cauldron Music” and “La Cadera” first encounter. We decided to put all our best productions in the netlabel, and to go on with a new production “Post Mortem Photographs”, the first work Stéphane and I composed together. Our aim was not to sell music, but to offer it for free. So a netlabel was the best way to do this.
Why a netlabel and not a regular label?
We had already directed labels, and we had to stop our activities. You know, a label and a netlabel don’t work the same. A label needs to produce and sell enough releases to live, not a netlabel. After our experiences, and our new way to see music, a netlabel was the best manner to proceed: to share and promote interesting artists, in the spirit of our music being freely available for everyone who could be interested in it.
Can you name some of the labels that influence you?
I cannot speak for Stephane, who left “La Manufacture de Bruit”, but for me the label that most influenced me is 4AD (for their works in the 80’s), merging music, graphic art, videos, and creating collaboration between the musicians they produced, as we try to do with our “Les Bruits de la Manufacture” collection. Except for this specific case, I can say it is music, arts and artists I like who influenced me, more than labels.
Can you describe the steps that you typically take preparing a new release? Do you work closely with your artists? How do you handle promotion once the release is available?
I prefer having the artists come to us and present their works, more than looking for them. They propose their music or other arts (like video, photos) and I find out what they are doing. If I like their work, I try to understand who they are, their feelings, their thoughts, their vision about art and music. La Manufacture de Bruit is not a commercial label, I won’t produce discs like other label, except perhaps CD-r or why not tapes, so the band must have the same convictions as the label. We prefer doing music for free. If the artists are interested in working with La Manufacture de Bruit, they propose me an album, LP or EP, and we speak about the music, the order or the tracks. I do not direct the bands, we try to find the best way to produce their music, but most of the time, I don’t say anything, they are free to propose their art as they want. In fact, artists who are working with La Manufacture de Bruit know what they want, and come to our label with a well finished work.
Where we, the artists and myself that is, work together much more is graphic design. They explain what they want to express with their art, I try to be closer to their idea. Sometimes, artists propose their own photos, or graphic ideas, and I work with them to have the best compromise between their concepts and our graphic identity.
For promotion, we do some, mostly by Internet, sometimes by flyers we diffuse where we can. But bands are free to also do so.
Any release you are particularly proud of releasing?
I’m proud of releasing every production you can find at La Manufacture de Bruit, but the ones I’m particularly proud are “Fin de Siècle” and “Puppets Love Dreams”. “Puppets Love Dreams” for their wonderful compositional technique, their lyricism and emotion, “Fin de Siècle” because the album “Présences” is the first of this famous French project, this albums tells the beginning of the great Fin de Siècle’s story.
I would have been very proud of releasing an album from the French band Absinthe (Provisoire), but after problems of music rights, it was impossible to release it for free. It was a wonderful 3 hours album, between rock and industrial music, very original and interesting. But we couldn’t release it.
On your homepage you also have a section dedicated to videos from your releases. Do you feel the video is an important part of your releases? Do you feel it helps reach a wider audience, or is it just an extension of your work as a label?
Since the beginning, La Manufacture de Bruit was not solely focused on music, but on every kind of artistic expression, even if music makes up the main part of the label activities. Sure, I think video is very important for music, particularly in visual music like Fin de Siècle, Cattle Mutilation or Semper Eadem. For example, Semper Eadem was founded to compose music and sound ambiances for a short film. So, yes, for La Manufacture de Bruit, videos are intimate links to music. We did not do that to reach a wider audience, but to widen the music itself, to give visual life to the music, to create a complete musical and graphic identity.
We would like to extend our activities to all kind of graphic or moving arts, like photography, theatre, miscellaneous exhibitions. But there is no precise project. One day, perhaps.
Thanks for your time. Any last words?
Our aim is to diffuse music, to create collaborations between artists, so, if some of you want to collaborate, don’t hesitate to send me music, photos or videos. I do not produce CDs, perhaps CD-R if it is possible to sell a disc, but we mainly work for art, for music and for free.
Thank you for the interest in La Manufacture de Bruit.
Who are the people behind La Manufacture de Bruit? What do they do for a living?
La Manufacture de Bruit was originally created by two persons, Stéphane F. from the French label “Cauldron Music” and myself, David Vallée, from another French label “La Cadera”. We have been working together since 1998, for several projects and collaborations. Cauldron was more oriented towards medieval, folk and neo classical music, La Cadera at the beginning was producing neo-classical and ambient industrial music. Cauldron Music has stopped its activities in the mid-2000’s, La Cadera in 2002, and a few years later, we decided to create a netlabel to release our most important productions for free. La Manufacture de Bruit was firstly created for this, for our old productions not to be forgotten. But quickly we decided to produce other projects as well. At the end of 2012, I decided to continue the netlabel alone.
La Manufacture de Bruit does not generate income, all our productions are free and the label only costs us money! Lucky for us, we have jobs to make a living!
You seem to be very focused on dark ambient / neo classical / ethereal kind of sounds. Is this correct? Why the focus on this genre?
Yes, this is correct. As I wrote it before, our previous labels were already oriented towards these styles of music, even if we like other kind of sounds. Our first music projects were already in these styles (Fin de Siècle for my colleague and Semper Eadem for me), it was natural to follow this way, but not only because of this. We also had the idea not to create a simple netlabel, but instead something covering different arts, like photography, writing, music, videos and films, and we thought theses styles of music are very close to different kind of arts.
We also found back then that dark ambient, neoclassical or ambient industrial were not well-represented on other netlabels out there, and this kind of music is relatively unknown, especially neoclassical music, even if you can hear it in a huge number of films.
When did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
The idea came in 2008, at the 10th birthday of “Cauldron Music” and “La Cadera” first encounter. We decided to put all our best productions in the netlabel, and to go on with a new production “Post Mortem Photographs”, the first work Stéphane and I composed together. Our aim was not to sell music, but to offer it for free. So a netlabel was the best way to do this.
Why a netlabel and not a regular label?
We had already directed labels, and we had to stop our activities. You know, a label and a netlabel don’t work the same. A label needs to produce and sell enough releases to live, not a netlabel. After our experiences, and our new way to see music, a netlabel was the best manner to proceed: to share and promote interesting artists, in the spirit of our music being freely available for everyone who could be interested in it.
Can you name some of the labels that influence you?
I cannot speak for Stephane, who left “La Manufacture de Bruit”, but for me the label that most influenced me is 4AD (for their works in the 80’s), merging music, graphic art, videos, and creating collaboration between the musicians they produced, as we try to do with our “Les Bruits de la Manufacture” collection. Except for this specific case, I can say it is music, arts and artists I like who influenced me, more than labels.
Can you describe the steps that you typically take preparing a new release? Do you work closely with your artists? How do you handle promotion once the release is available?
I prefer having the artists come to us and present their works, more than looking for them. They propose their music or other arts (like video, photos) and I find out what they are doing. If I like their work, I try to understand who they are, their feelings, their thoughts, their vision about art and music. La Manufacture de Bruit is not a commercial label, I won’t produce discs like other label, except perhaps CD-r or why not tapes, so the band must have the same convictions as the label. We prefer doing music for free. If the artists are interested in working with La Manufacture de Bruit, they propose me an album, LP or EP, and we speak about the music, the order or the tracks. I do not direct the bands, we try to find the best way to produce their music, but most of the time, I don’t say anything, they are free to propose their art as they want. In fact, artists who are working with La Manufacture de Bruit know what they want, and come to our label with a well finished work.
Where we, the artists and myself that is, work together much more is graphic design. They explain what they want to express with their art, I try to be closer to their idea. Sometimes, artists propose their own photos, or graphic ideas, and I work with them to have the best compromise between their concepts and our graphic identity.
For promotion, we do some, mostly by Internet, sometimes by flyers we diffuse where we can. But bands are free to also do so.
Any release you are particularly proud of releasing?
I’m proud of releasing every production you can find at La Manufacture de Bruit, but the ones I’m particularly proud are “Fin de Siècle” and “Puppets Love Dreams”. “Puppets Love Dreams” for their wonderful compositional technique, their lyricism and emotion, “Fin de Siècle” because the album “Présences” is the first of this famous French project, this albums tells the beginning of the great Fin de Siècle’s story.
I would have been very proud of releasing an album from the French band Absinthe (Provisoire), but after problems of music rights, it was impossible to release it for free. It was a wonderful 3 hours album, between rock and industrial music, very original and interesting. But we couldn’t release it.
On your homepage you also have a section dedicated to videos from your releases. Do you feel the video is an important part of your releases? Do you feel it helps reach a wider audience, or is it just an extension of your work as a label?
Since the beginning, La Manufacture de Bruit was not solely focused on music, but on every kind of artistic expression, even if music makes up the main part of the label activities. Sure, I think video is very important for music, particularly in visual music like Fin de Siècle, Cattle Mutilation or Semper Eadem. For example, Semper Eadem was founded to compose music and sound ambiances for a short film. So, yes, for La Manufacture de Bruit, videos are intimate links to music. We did not do that to reach a wider audience, but to widen the music itself, to give visual life to the music, to create a complete musical and graphic identity.
We would like to extend our activities to all kind of graphic or moving arts, like photography, theatre, miscellaneous exhibitions. But there is no precise project. One day, perhaps.
Thanks for your time. Any last words?
Our aim is to diffuse music, to create collaborations between artists, so, if some of you want to collaborate, don’t hesitate to send me music, photos or videos. I do not produce CDs, perhaps CD-R if it is possible to sell a disc, but we mainly work for art, for music and for free.
Thank you for the interest in La Manufacture de Bruit.
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Southern City's Lab
We exchanged a few emails with Southern City’s Lab, a more recent netlabel from Russia.
Can you tell us who the people in charge of the label are and what they do for a living?
I am Максим Парасюков, the only person responsible for the label, no assistants present. I work as a mechanic for a living, no musical achievements present though there were attempts to practise music, but all unsuccessfully.
When did you first feel the need to start a netlabel?
The thought suddenly occurred to me around a year ago. At first I wanted to start a music blog, but then I learned about the existence of netlabels. This option was more acceptable, as a lot of my friends and acquaintances are musicians.
Why a netlabel and not a commercial label?
To pay for an MP3 or flac, which can easily be copied and shared for free, seems somewhat ridiculous to me. Another matter are CDs or tape, they can serve as a pride subject for the collector. But I have no opportunity to publish them.
Can you name a few other labels that influenced your decision to start a label?
Clinical Archives
Your website states you focus on punk music. Is this correct? Why this genre?
We don’t just focus on punk. The quote “Southern City’s Lab, a Russian netlabel bringing in some incredible punk releases” was taken from a review written on FMA. I work with many genres. There are ambient/post-rock releases, synthpop, lounge and even works of violinists with an academic background. I love garage rock and hardcore punk, but feel like it would be boring to be engaged only with those genres.
Your website is mostly Russian, are your artists and target audience both mostly Russian?
Honestly, I do not know foreign languages at all. For the most part, our artists are from Russia, but also from Ukraine and Canada. Our target audience is generally from Europe and the US. Our fanbase in Russia is not that strong.
How close do you work with your artists?
I keep in touch
Are you in touch with with local promoters to organize concerts for your artists?
I have some contacts but haven’t organized any concerts.
Could you describe to us your standard process to release and promote a new release?
I upload releases to archive.org, FMA, bandcamp. I update the catalog on our website. I notify our listeners through social media. I’m also planning to do podcasts in the future.
What can you tell us of the Russian netaudio scene? Are there many netlabels active? Do you keep in touch with each other?
There are a lot of netlabels but this structure is badly developed. Very bad support among mass media and blogs.
Any particular release you are most proud of having released?
They are three:
Break The Bans – Okay! Okay!
Powerful garage rock in the spirit of Stooges and Rolling Stones. Their album really went around the world. They have a big future.
Kosta T – Informality
It is a unique album for the punk of a label. Its violin is remarkable.
Pk jazz collective & Pavkashavet Bantut – Ore Empyreum
I take special pride in this one. Joint project of artists of my label. Surrealistic verses of Pavkashavet Bantut read against the psychedelic jazz simply tear off from reality.
Thanks for your time, any last words for our readers?
What to wish to readers… I think it is critical to not give in on provocation and stick to your opinion. Thank you as well. All the best.
Can you tell us who the people in charge of the label are and what they do for a living?
I am Максим Парасюков, the only person responsible for the label, no assistants present. I work as a mechanic for a living, no musical achievements present though there were attempts to practise music, but all unsuccessfully.
When did you first feel the need to start a netlabel?
The thought suddenly occurred to me around a year ago. At first I wanted to start a music blog, but then I learned about the existence of netlabels. This option was more acceptable, as a lot of my friends and acquaintances are musicians.
Why a netlabel and not a commercial label?
To pay for an MP3 or flac, which can easily be copied and shared for free, seems somewhat ridiculous to me. Another matter are CDs or tape, they can serve as a pride subject for the collector. But I have no opportunity to publish them.
Can you name a few other labels that influenced your decision to start a label?
Clinical Archives
Your website states you focus on punk music. Is this correct? Why this genre?
We don’t just focus on punk. The quote “Southern City’s Lab, a Russian netlabel bringing in some incredible punk releases” was taken from a review written on FMA. I work with many genres. There are ambient/post-rock releases, synthpop, lounge and even works of violinists with an academic background. I love garage rock and hardcore punk, but feel like it would be boring to be engaged only with those genres.
Your website is mostly Russian, are your artists and target audience both mostly Russian?
Honestly, I do not know foreign languages at all. For the most part, our artists are from Russia, but also from Ukraine and Canada. Our target audience is generally from Europe and the US. Our fanbase in Russia is not that strong.
How close do you work with your artists?
I keep in touch
Are you in touch with with local promoters to organize concerts for your artists?
I have some contacts but haven’t organized any concerts.
Could you describe to us your standard process to release and promote a new release?
I upload releases to archive.org, FMA, bandcamp. I update the catalog on our website. I notify our listeners through social media. I’m also planning to do podcasts in the future.
What can you tell us of the Russian netaudio scene? Are there many netlabels active? Do you keep in touch with each other?
There are a lot of netlabels but this structure is badly developed. Very bad support among mass media and blogs.
Any particular release you are most proud of having released?
They are three:
Break The Bans – Okay! Okay!
Powerful garage rock in the spirit of Stooges and Rolling Stones. Their album really went around the world. They have a big future.
Kosta T – Informality
It is a unique album for the punk of a label. Its violin is remarkable.
Pk jazz collective & Pavkashavet Bantut – Ore Empyreum
I take special pride in this one. Joint project of artists of my label. Surrealistic verses of Pavkashavet Bantut read against the psychedelic jazz simply tear off from reality.
Thanks for your time, any last words for our readers?
What to wish to readers… I think it is critical to not give in on provocation and stick to your opinion. Thank you as well. All the best.
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Sincro
I started on a quest to interview different netlabels from different
countries. My objective is to bring some light on how they operate and
relate to their local music scenes. Starting from the letter A, I
searched for netlabels in Argentina and ran into Sincro. So I downloaded their latest release VVAA – Menesunda
and mailed them a few questions. I can tell you the compilation is
focused on microsound and experimental music, which was nice to discover
since I love those kind of sounds.
Y:E:T – Lightsloft
Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
We are Darío Pinto (Asolaar) and Miguel Onofri (Mezzo), we are both experimental electronic music producers and we run Sincro Netlabel. We operate from Mendoza, Argentina, a city with a population of less than a million, in the middle of a very arid area, 1000km to the west of Buenos Aires and quite isolated from the rest of the world. We don’t make a living out of music.
When and why did you feel the need to form the Sincro netlabel?
Sincro was born as a local venue in 2001. First we worked as a platform, organizing local events and trying to bring artists from other places to our town. In august 2006 we became a netlabel, with the launching of our first compilation “Artificios”. We intended to release our own music in the first place, and some other artists from Argentina that we liked. Then the project grew and became attractive to other artists, and we started to receive demos from foreign countries.
Can you tell us a little more about the Argentinian netaudio scene? How many active labels are there and how do they relate to the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene?
We can only mention the netlabel and platform “Sudamerica Electronica”, from the city of Córdoba, run by our dear friend, colleague and ally Jorge Castro (Fisternni). There used to be about a dozen netlabels, but during the last couple of years most of them have become inactive (like Natural Media) or have disappeared (like Audio:808). We are talking about our kind of music, we are not really aware of the situation in other music styles. We don’t really have contact with any other national netlabels. Netlabels don’t relate with the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene at all.
I noticed from your site that you don’t have that many artists and only release almost once a year. Is this intentional or just happens to be how you operate?
What we do is not entirely an accident, it is mostly a conscious choice. We release very little material and in brief format. Only our last compilation “Menesunda” is a full length release, because we celebrated our 10th release and 5 years working as a netlabel. We pay attention to sound, mastering, artwork, concept, etc, and we curate the material quite a lot. With only a few exceptions, we are not interested in netlabels that release a lot of stuff.
The only non-Argentinian artist on your roster seems to be the Ukranian .at/on (he has some great music by the way). How did you get in touch?
We have slowly been gathering artists that we like, basically from Argentina and South America, and then going global. We currently have 18 artists in our roster, from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Ukraine and Japan. We contacted .at/on by e-mail a couple of years ago, then we invited him to participate on the last compilation. We like the Ukrainian experimental scene a lot, so we also included the collaboration Y:E:T (Ukraine/Japan).
Because Sincro is a small label, I assume you try to support your artists more. Is this accurate? Do you also organize local promo-events or do you work with people who do? What kind of promotion for you releases do you do?
Organizing local events is an important part of our activities. Many of our artists have performed in our shows, and we have had visits from the rest of the world as well. In April 2009 we brought the German artists Alva Noto + Byetone to our city, and we shared the stage with them.
These events have good coverage from local media. We promote our releases quite a lot, through websites, blogs and online radios.
Thanks for your time and keep up the cool work! Any last words of advice for other people running netlabels, netaudio artists or people looking to discover new music?
For people running netlabels:
Be careful with your material. Promote every single release. Be a real curator.
For netaudio artists:
Look for the more suitable netlabels for your work. Do some good research before sending any demos. Try to perform live.
For people looking to discover new music:
Don’t be overwhelmed by the huge amount of music out there. Investigate a little and you will get to the good stuff.
Greetings from the deep south.
Y:E:T – Lightsloft
Can you tell us a little more about yourself?
We are Darío Pinto (Asolaar) and Miguel Onofri (Mezzo), we are both experimental electronic music producers and we run Sincro Netlabel. We operate from Mendoza, Argentina, a city with a population of less than a million, in the middle of a very arid area, 1000km to the west of Buenos Aires and quite isolated from the rest of the world. We don’t make a living out of music.
When and why did you feel the need to form the Sincro netlabel?
Sincro was born as a local venue in 2001. First we worked as a platform, organizing local events and trying to bring artists from other places to our town. In august 2006 we became a netlabel, with the launching of our first compilation “Artificios”. We intended to release our own music in the first place, and some other artists from Argentina that we liked. Then the project grew and became attractive to other artists, and we started to receive demos from foreign countries.
Can you tell us a little more about the Argentinian netaudio scene? How many active labels are there and how do they relate to the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene?
We can only mention the netlabel and platform “Sudamerica Electronica”, from the city of Córdoba, run by our dear friend, colleague and ally Jorge Castro (Fisternni). There used to be about a dozen netlabels, but during the last couple of years most of them have become inactive (like Natural Media) or have disappeared (like Audio:808). We are talking about our kind of music, we are not really aware of the situation in other music styles. We don’t really have contact with any other national netlabels. Netlabels don’t relate with the commercial side of the Argentinian music scene at all.
I noticed from your site that you don’t have that many artists and only release almost once a year. Is this intentional or just happens to be how you operate?
What we do is not entirely an accident, it is mostly a conscious choice. We release very little material and in brief format. Only our last compilation “Menesunda” is a full length release, because we celebrated our 10th release and 5 years working as a netlabel. We pay attention to sound, mastering, artwork, concept, etc, and we curate the material quite a lot. With only a few exceptions, we are not interested in netlabels that release a lot of stuff.
The only non-Argentinian artist on your roster seems to be the Ukranian .at/on (he has some great music by the way). How did you get in touch?
We have slowly been gathering artists that we like, basically from Argentina and South America, and then going global. We currently have 18 artists in our roster, from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Ukraine and Japan. We contacted .at/on by e-mail a couple of years ago, then we invited him to participate on the last compilation. We like the Ukrainian experimental scene a lot, so we also included the collaboration Y:E:T (Ukraine/Japan).
Because Sincro is a small label, I assume you try to support your artists more. Is this accurate? Do you also organize local promo-events or do you work with people who do? What kind of promotion for you releases do you do?
Organizing local events is an important part of our activities. Many of our artists have performed in our shows, and we have had visits from the rest of the world as well. In April 2009 we brought the German artists Alva Noto + Byetone to our city, and we shared the stage with them.
These events have good coverage from local media. We promote our releases quite a lot, through websites, blogs and online radios.
Thanks for your time and keep up the cool work! Any last words of advice for other people running netlabels, netaudio artists or people looking to discover new music?
For people running netlabels:
Be careful with your material. Promote every single release. Be a real curator.
For netaudio artists:
Look for the more suitable netlabels for your work. Do some good research before sending any demos. Try to perform live.
For people looking to discover new music:
Don’t be overwhelmed by the huge amount of music out there. Investigate a little and you will get to the good stuff.
Greetings from the deep south.
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Pause
We got in touch with Rich Vreeland, also known as Disasterpeace, for a few questions. Together with Eirik Suhrke (aka Phlogiston) he curates Pause netlabel, focusing their releases on the 8-bit / chiptune genre.
??? – Why
Thanks for agreeing to answer my questions. First off, can you tell us a little more about the guys who run Pause? I believe both of you are chip musicians, working freelance on videogame soundtracks when you started Pause, is this correct?
Yes. We were mostly writing music for fun, I think we had both started to work on a few small games by then, but it was nothing major at that point.
Why did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
We wanted to create a place where we could host our music, and the music of our friends as well. We had a friend who ran a netlabel before us, but it shut down, and there weren’t too many alternatives back in 2007.
Were there other netlabels that influenced you early on? Can you do some name dropping for us?
We were both involved with Megatwerp, and I think Eirik might have been involved with Inpuj as well. I was definitely inspired by 8bitpeoples in some ways, namely the way they handled themselves on the web. At the same time, we felt that we were interested in creating a different kind of catalogue, something more in tune with our personal taste in music.
Pause is known for releasing chip music but it also deviates to a few branching genres, can you summarize what the careless visitor will encounter when browsing your catalogue?
Mostly chipmusic, some game music of various kinds, and some electronic music too. There is a general focus on instrumental music, and more specifically, interesting forms/structures, melodies, harmonies and rhythms.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
Not counting my own albums, I think some of the compilations we put out were pretty good. Sea of Ice and Heartcode come to mind. I was also very into ??? – Wall You Need is Love, which I helped to master and assemble, as far as track order and transitions are concerned.
You recently announced Pause stopped their activity with their 100th release. Can you tell us a little more on the reason why? Lack of personal time?
Eirik and I may have slightly different reasons, but for me, I think we’ve reached a point where it has become clear that our priorities lie elsewhere and our interest in curating music is not nearly great as it once was. I’ve become very busy just writing music and living and stuff, and I saw this as a chapter that could be closed gracefully at 100. We hadn’t really given Pause its fair level of attention in about 2 years, so it seemed reasonable to let it go.
Your farewell message mentions you achieved the goals you set initially set out. How do you measure the success of a netlabel?
I think largely about the impact it had on its artists and the listeners. Pause was never about money, it was always about exposure and craft, and I think a lot of people found a lot of great music because of our site, and that was always the prime directive.
Do you believe digital platforms are replacing the role of labels? Not only bandcamp and soundcloud but also commercial ones like tunecore, beatport, etc?
Yes, to some extent. There are still successful netlabels like Ubiktune that show that there is still something to be said about the power of assembly. Ubiktune has a very distinctive sound that comes across in the albums they choose to release, and there’s a good kind of predictability in that, in the sense that you can always count on them to put out a certain kind of material. If you enjoy that style, then that is a great resource to have. Me, I’ve always enjoyed the frontier of the internet, searching out new artists and albums one by one, so I suppose I don’t miss being part of a netlabel too much. Though certainly, if I got a call from Ghostly or Warp, I wouldn’t walk away from that.
Did Pause have connections with local promoters to organize local events?
Nope. It was strictly an online affair. Eirik lives in Norway, and I live in the states, so coordination was difficult. I did organize one Pause show a couple of years ago, which was an instance of Pulsewave (http://pulsewavenyc.com) in Brooklyn that I helped put together.
Can you name a couple of releases from other netlabels that you wish they had come out through Pause?
Cheap Dinosaurs – Cheap Dinosaurs, would have been rad.
??? – Why
Thanks for agreeing to answer my questions. First off, can you tell us a little more about the guys who run Pause? I believe both of you are chip musicians, working freelance on videogame soundtracks when you started Pause, is this correct?
Yes. We were mostly writing music for fun, I think we had both started to work on a few small games by then, but it was nothing major at that point.
Why did you feel the need to create a netlabel?
We wanted to create a place where we could host our music, and the music of our friends as well. We had a friend who ran a netlabel before us, but it shut down, and there weren’t too many alternatives back in 2007.
Were there other netlabels that influenced you early on? Can you do some name dropping for us?
We were both involved with Megatwerp, and I think Eirik might have been involved with Inpuj as well. I was definitely inspired by 8bitpeoples in some ways, namely the way they handled themselves on the web. At the same time, we felt that we were interested in creating a different kind of catalogue, something more in tune with our personal taste in music.
Pause is known for releasing chip music but it also deviates to a few branching genres, can you summarize what the careless visitor will encounter when browsing your catalogue?
Mostly chipmusic, some game music of various kinds, and some electronic music too. There is a general focus on instrumental music, and more specifically, interesting forms/structures, melodies, harmonies and rhythms.
Any particular release you are most proud of?
Not counting my own albums, I think some of the compilations we put out were pretty good. Sea of Ice and Heartcode come to mind. I was also very into ??? – Wall You Need is Love, which I helped to master and assemble, as far as track order and transitions are concerned.
You recently announced Pause stopped their activity with their 100th release. Can you tell us a little more on the reason why? Lack of personal time?
Eirik and I may have slightly different reasons, but for me, I think we’ve reached a point where it has become clear that our priorities lie elsewhere and our interest in curating music is not nearly great as it once was. I’ve become very busy just writing music and living and stuff, and I saw this as a chapter that could be closed gracefully at 100. We hadn’t really given Pause its fair level of attention in about 2 years, so it seemed reasonable to let it go.
Your farewell message mentions you achieved the goals you set initially set out. How do you measure the success of a netlabel?
I think largely about the impact it had on its artists and the listeners. Pause was never about money, it was always about exposure and craft, and I think a lot of people found a lot of great music because of our site, and that was always the prime directive.
Do you believe digital platforms are replacing the role of labels? Not only bandcamp and soundcloud but also commercial ones like tunecore, beatport, etc?
Yes, to some extent. There are still successful netlabels like Ubiktune that show that there is still something to be said about the power of assembly. Ubiktune has a very distinctive sound that comes across in the albums they choose to release, and there’s a good kind of predictability in that, in the sense that you can always count on them to put out a certain kind of material. If you enjoy that style, then that is a great resource to have. Me, I’ve always enjoyed the frontier of the internet, searching out new artists and albums one by one, so I suppose I don’t miss being part of a netlabel too much. Though certainly, if I got a call from Ghostly or Warp, I wouldn’t walk away from that.
Did Pause have connections with local promoters to organize local events?
Nope. It was strictly an online affair. Eirik lives in Norway, and I live in the states, so coordination was difficult. I did organize one Pause show a couple of years ago, which was an instance of Pulsewave (http://pulsewavenyc.com) in Brooklyn that I helped put together.
Can you name a couple of releases from other netlabels that you wish they had come out through Pause?
Cheap Dinosaurs – Cheap Dinosaurs, would have been rad.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)