Free music or libre music is music that, like free software, can freely be copied, distributed and modified for any purpose. Thus free music is either in the public domain or licensed under a free license by the artist or copyright holder themselves, often as a method of promotion. It does not mean that there should be no fee involved. The word free refers to freedom, not to price.
Snog is a band that was formed by Australian musician Dee Thrussell, along with fellow art school friends Tim McGrath and Julia Bourke in 1989. The band's music is a fusion of many different styles, including industrial, techno, ambient, experimental, funk and country music. The band name is a reference to "kissing and cuddling".
Michael Robert Paradinas, better known by his stage name μ-Ziq, is an English electronic musician from Wimbledon, London. He was associated with the electronic style intelligent dance music (IDM) during the 1990s, and recorded on Rephlex Records and Reflective Records. His critically acclaimed 1997 album, Lunatic Harness, helped define the drill 'n' bass subgenre and was also his most successful release, selling over 100,000 copies. Paradinas founded the record label Planet Mu, begun in 1995, where he has championed genres such as juke, IDM and footwork.
Loca Records is a British independent electronica and post rock record label based in Brighton, England. All the music, artwork and videos are released under copyleft licenses and distributed physically on vinyl, CD, and cassette. Inspired by the free software movement, Loca Records allows similar freedoms as the GNU General Public License on their releases, including copying, re-release, modification, and sampling, with the requirement that the new work uses the same license.
Open-source record labels are record labels that release music under copyleft licenses, that is, licenses that allow free redistribution and may allow free modification of the tracks.
Alasdair Roberts is a Scottish folk musician. He released a number of albums under the name Appendix Out and, following the 2001 album The Night Is Advancing, under his own name. Roberts is also known for his frequent collaborations with other musicians and writers, as well as for being a member of the folk supergroup The Furrow Collective.
Lee Robert Dorrian is an English singer, best known as a former member of grindcore band Napalm Death and later frontman of doom metal band Cathedral.
Darren Hayman is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the writer, lead singer, and guitarist in Hefner. Since Hefner disbanded in 2002, Hayman has embarked on a prolific solo career releasing twelve albums under his own name and appearing on albums by Papernut Cambridge, Rotifer and The Great Electric. He has regularly worked with The Wave Pictures, producing an album for them, directing three of their music videos and briefly employing them as his backing band. In January 2011 Hayman recorded and released a song every day in the month of January, working with many collaborators. Hayman also paints and has exhibited his work at exhibitions about animals in space and racing dogs.
Rose Melberg is a musician and songwriter from Sacramento, California, currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has performed both as a solo artist and as a member of Tiger Trap, The Softies, Go Sailor, Gaze, Gigi, Imaginary Pants, Brave Irene, Knife Pleats and Olivia's World.
Trumans Water are an American indie rock band, hailing from San Diego, California. They have released over a dozen albums over their career, on which they collaborated with acts in genre, including Azalia Snail, Chan Marshall and Thurston Moore.
William Emmanuel Bevan, known by his recording alias Burial, is a British electronic musician from South London. Initially remaining anonymous, Burial became the first artist signed to Kode9's electronic label Hyperdub in 2005. He won acclaim the following year for his self-titled debut album, an influential release in the UK's dubstep scene which showcased a dark, emotive take on UK rave music styles such as UK garage and 2-step; it was named the album of the year by The Wire. Burial's second album, Untrue, was released to further critical acclaim in 2007.
Helen McCookerybook is a British musician and singer-songwriter, who was the bass player and co-singer with The Chefs, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. She went on to form Helen and the Horns in the mid 80s. Both bands were admired by John Peel, recording six BBC Radio 1 sessions between them. After a long break from her music career, Helen McCookerybook started again as a solo artist in 2005. She regularly plays live gigs, releases recordings, and promotes occasional revivals of Helen and the Horns.
Daniel Patrick Quinn is a British musician, composer, producer, performer, author and creative thinking consultant. Quinn founded the experimental Edinburgh-based record label Suilven Recordings, which released his own works and that of postminimalist ambient American composers DAC Crowell and Kurt Doles, with whom Quinn also collaborated.
Beth Jeans Houghton is an English multi-disciplinary musician, composer, artist, animator and video director. Their influences range from psychedelic rock, punk, blues, 1960s garage rock and soul. They create art under their birth name, Beth Jeans Houghton, using photography, illustration, animation, video, sculpture and embroidery. They have directed and animated music videos for multiple artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ezra Furman, and Laura Marling's band LUMP. They write, perform and produce music under the name Du Blonde.
The Owl Service is an English alternative folk music collective formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Paul Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.
The Hornblower Brothers are a four-piece band based in Brighton, England. Their debut EP Adventures in the National Geographic was released on Bell Boy Records in October 2009. They released the single "Give and Receivers" / "Ghost of Kerouac" on Static Caravan Recordings on 19 April 2010. In 2010 the band took a break before reforming early in 2015.
Obfusc is the name given to the musical output of Joseph X. Burke, an American, Chicago-based graphic designer and photographer. Originally formed in Brooklyn in 2005 as an electronic music project, Obfusc has since evolved to include a greater array of live instrumentation and post-rock influence. Burke is most notably associated with London-based Boltfish Recordings, but has also released music through Static Caravan Recordings, Expanding Electronic Diversity, INSTALL Sound, and several other DIY labels. His music has been licensed for placement in the Netflix series "House of Cards", CBS Television's "CSI: Miami", the media campaign for Ustwo Games' "Monument Valley", and various web series, short films, and promotional videos.
Matthew J. Saunders is an English composer, mastering engineer, and visual designer. During the first decade of the 21st century he was signed to 4AD Records — a British major independent label home to The Pixies, Cocteau Twins, Scott Walker and many others. He records and performs as Magnétophone, The Assembled Minds, Rapid Eye Electronics Ltd. and also runs the record label Patterned Air Recordings.
David M. Berry is a Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Sussex, writer and musician. He is widely published on academic work related to the fields of critical theory, digital humanities, media theory and algorithms.
FortDax was a recording alias of Darren Richard Durham, a composer active in the early 2000s. He was inspired by artists such as Charles Ives and ABBA and he has described FortDax as 'Michael Nyman trapped upside down in a clockwork palace during a snowstorm'. He is most well known for his remix of You Are Here when it became the theme tune of Newswipe with Charlie Brooker and Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe. After five years of working under the pseudonym FortDax, Darren announced that he was feeling boxed in by what was expected from FortDax and that it was time to try something new. Darren has recently started creating some new music under the moniker of Diverse Industries.
