Manifold Records is a US-based record label and mailorder store specializing in experimental, ambient and other hard-to-define audio materials. Begun in 1993 by writer and zine-publisher Vince Harrigan, the label has released works by Gravitar, Final (Justin Broadrick of Godflesh), Mick Harris, Lull, Steve Roach, Jeph Jerman, Maeror Tri, Ultra Milkmaids, Maurizio Bianchi, Aube and others.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label" derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and be both promoted and heard on music streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists, who assist performers in gaining positive media coverage, and arrange for their merchandise to be available via stores and other media outlets.
Experimental music is a general label for any music that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilites radically opposed to, and questioning of, institutionalized compositional, performing, and aesthetic conventions in music. Elements of experimental music include indeterminate music, in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. Artists may also approach a hybrid of disparate styles or incorporate unorthodox and unique elements.
The label was briefly a critical favorite during the mid-1990s, being at the forefront of a short-lived genre called Isolationism through the label's unusual compilations. These compilations were novel in that they featured traditionally Ambient and New Age artists alongside Noisier, edgier acts and yet seemed to "work" as cohesive documents. The label has also released numerous special-packaging releases; compact discs in metal sheathes, vinyl records attached to saw blades, water-filled plastic sleeves, etc.
The Manifold Records label was never very prolific or widely distributed, likely due to the unusual nature of much of the material and the labels seeming inability to stay within any genre from release to release. Manifold Records ceased operating a mailorder website in 2007. The Manifold Records label continues, as does limited online sales of releases through other distributors and eBay.
Intelligent dance music is a form of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, which was regarded as "cerebral" and better suited to "home listening" than dancing. Emerging from electronic and rave music styles such as techno, acid house, ambient music, and breakbeat, IDM tended to rely upon individualistic experimentation rather than adhering to characteristics associated with specific genres. Prominent artists associated with the genre include Aphex Twin, μ-Ziq, the Black Dog, the Orb, the Future Sound of London, Autechre, Luke Vibert, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares and Boards of Canada.
William Otis Laswell is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, world music, jazz, dub and ambient styles.
Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and space. His work has been influential in the new age genre.
Star's End is a weekly, five-hour-long new-age music radio show broadcast by 88.5 WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania's radio station, in Philadelphia. It is the second longest-running show of its type in the world, after Hearts of Space.
Dark ambient is a genre of post-industrial music that features an ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones. It shows similarities towards ambient music, a genre that has been cited as a main influence by many dark ambient artists, both conceptually and compositionally. Although mostly electronically generated, dark ambient also includes the sampling of hand-played instruments and semi-acoustic recording procedures, and is strongly related to ritual industrial music.
Truth & Beauty: The Lost Pieces Volume Two (1999) is an album by the American ambient musician Steve Roach. Like the first Lost Pieces, this album is a collection of pieces that were either temporally lost in Steve Roach’s archive of recording or released on limited edition, multi artist compilations.
Mick Harris commonly known and credited both as Mick Harris or occasionally M.J. Harris, is an English musician.
Lull is a dark ambient side-project of former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris.
Akifumi Nakajima , better known by his stage name Aube, was a Japanese noise musician. He had released many CDs, LPs and cassettes since 1991, and was regarded as one of the most important noise musicians working of his time. He did not like to term his work "music," preferring the term "design": "I don't think of myself as a musician or an artist. I'm a designer. I therefore consider my sound works to be designs as well". The essential element of his Aube project was that each record was composed with only a single material source, manipulated and processed using various types of electronic equipment. Examples of sources he manipulated include water, fluorescent lamps, voltage-controlled oscillators, voices, pulmonary sounds, the Holy Bible's pages and sounds made with steel wire.
Maurizio Bianchi is an Italian pioneer of industrial music, originating from Milan.
Hearts of Space is a United States weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature drawn largely from the ambient, new-age and electronic genres, while also including classical, world, Celtic, experimental, and other music selections. For many years, the show's producer and presenter, Stephen Hill, has applied the term "space music" to the music broadcast on the show, irrespective of genre. It is the longest-running radio program of its type in the world. Each episode ends with Hill gently saying, "Safe journeys, space fans... wherever you are."
Maeror Tri was an ambient, noise and drone music band from Germany founded in the 1980s which consisted of Stefan "Baraka H" Knappe, Martin "GLIT[s]CH" Gitschel and Helge S. Moune
Kompakt is a Cologne-based electronic music independent record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for their Total compilation series which reached its seventeenth installment in 2017.
Waerloga Records is a small Swedish record label focused on dark ritualistic fantasy music. Records are available through mailorder and several stores worldwide. The label also have a Mailorder Store selling related releases, rare soundtracks etc.
Old Europa Cafe is an Italian independent record label and mail order service specializing in ambient music, noise music, electronic music, and industrial music. It is based in Pordenone. Originating in the early 1980s Old Europa Cafe began as a small cassette label. Some of the original Old Europa Cafe artists included De Fabriek, Mauro Teho Teardo, and Brume. According to founder Rodolfo Protti, Old Europa Cafe has two guidelines for musick it releases—uncompromising industrial sounds and esoteric dark ambient styles.
Mort aux Vaches is the name of a series of albums released by the Staalplaat record label in collaboration with the Dutch radio station, VPRO. The name translates literally from French as “Death to Cows,” with “cows” being French slang for cops - it is equivalent to “Death to Pigs” in English.
Mirakel Musik is a netlabel, based in Sweden, releasing experimental music in genres such as ambient, electronica, industrial, and noise,. All releases are under Creative Commons. The label's artists include Maurizio Bianchi and Erratic.
York House Recordings, also known as YHR or YHR Tapes, was a small British independent label which released 31 original cassettes of industrial, electronic, experimental, avant-garde, and dark ambient music between 1979 and 1983.
Dean De Benedictis is an American composer, musician, performer, and producer of experimental and alternative music. He is a trained musician and has released albums as a solo artist as well as played with various groups such as Brand X and The Strato Ensemble.
Woob is the stage name of Paul Frankland, a British ambient musician who started recording in the early 1990s. Woob’s albums combine elements of ambient, downtempo and space music, with samples from field recordings, movies and television. Frankland has also recorded under the names of Journeyman and Max & Harvey. After a period working in the advertising industry, he started releasing new material as Woob in 2010.
