Spoon Records | |
---|---|
Founded | 1979 |
Founder | Hildegard Schmidt |
Genre | Independent |
Spoon Records is an independent record label founded and managed by the spouse of keyboard player Irmin Schmidt, Hildegard Schmidt, since 1979. The label, and its sister publishing operation Messer Music, are headquartered in the Luberon district of France, mostly releasing and reissuing music made by the krautrock band Can and its members. [1] Hildegard and Irmin Schmidt's daughter Sandra Podmore has been directors of Spoon Records [2] since 2008.
The label takes its name from the song "Spoon" on Can's Ege Bamyasi album.
Hildegard Schmidt decided to take control of Can's back catalogue while she attended the Midem festival in Cannes in 1979. Hildegard obtained financial support for Spoon Records from George Reinhart—film producer, photographer, and nephew of the wealthy Swiss art collector Oskar Reinhart. [1]
Hildegard secured the rights to Can records owned by the United Artists [1] partnered with Mute Records, a British independent label interested in European/German records. By the end of the 80s, Spoon Records entirety Can's back catalogue on vinyl and CD. [3]
Can were a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne in 1968 by Holger Czukay, Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). They featured several vocalists, including the American Malcolm Mooney (1968–70) and the Japanese Damo Suzuki (1970–73). They have been hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene.
Holger Schüring, known professionally as Holger Czukay, was a German musician best known as a co-founder of the krautrock group Can. Described as "successfully bridg[ing] the gap between pop and the avant-garde", Czukay was also notable for having created early important examples of ambient music, for having explored "world music" well before the term was coined, and for having been a pioneer of sampling.
Irmin Schmidt is a German keyboardist and composer, best known as a founding member of the band Can.
Michael Karoli was a German guitarist, violinist and composer. He was a founding member of the influential krautrock band Can.
Malcolm "Desse" Mooney is an American singer, poet, and artist, best known as the original vocalist for German krautrock band Can.
Tago Mago is the second studio album by the German krautrock band Can, originally released as a double LP in August 1971 on United Artists Records. It was the band's first full studio album to feature vocalist Damo Suzuki after the departure of Malcolm Mooney the year prior, though Suzuki had been featured on most tracks on the 1970 compilation album Soundtracks. Recorded at Schloss Nörvenich, a medieval castle near Cologne, the album features long-form experimental tracks blending rock and jazz improvisation, funk rhythms, and musique concrète tape editing techniques.
David C. Johnson was an American composer, flautist, and performer of live electronic music.
Landed is the sixth studio album by the German krautrock band Can.
Flow Motion is the seventh studio album by German rock band Can. It was released in October 1976 and features the UK hit single "I Want More".
Rite Time is the eleventh and final studio album by the German krautrock band Can, released in later Summer 1989 by Mercury Records. The album features the vocals of the band's original singer, Malcolm Mooney, who had left the group in 1970 after their debut album Monster Movie. Upon the album's initial release, "In the Distance Lies the Future" only appeared on the CD version, but it was included on the 2014 vinyl reissue.
Delay 1968 is a compilation album by the German experimental rock band Can released in 1981. It comprises previously unreleased work recorded for Can's rejected debut album, Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom, recorded with the singer Malcolm Mooney.
"Spoon" is a song by krautrock group Can, recorded in 1971. It was originally released as a single with the song "Shikako Maru Ten" on the B-side. "Spoon" also appeared as the final track to the band's album Ege Bamyasi later that year.
"Yoo Doo Right" is the closing track on Can's 1969 debut album, Monster Movie, edited down from a six-hour improvisation to a twenty-minute song. "Yoo Doo Right" features a pounding, tribal drums, along with a "colossal, grinding riff, subjected to endless variation and intensification", while Malcolm Mooney chants excerpts from a love letter in a mantra-like manner.
"Mushroom" is a song by the German krautrock band Can, from their 1971 album Tago Mago. It's the shortest song on the album, lasting for 4 minutes and 8 seconds. A video was made for the track which has been shown on MTV.
Unlimited Edition is a compilation album by the band Can. Released in 1976 as a double album, it was an expanded version of the 1974 LP Limited Edition on United Artists Records which, as the name suggests, was a limited release of 15,000 copies. The album collects unreleased music across the band's history, from 1968 to 1975, and both of the band's major singers are featured. The cover photos were taken among the Elgin Marbles in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum.
The Lost Tapes is a compilation album of studio outtakes and live recordings by the German experimental rock band Can, which was originally released as an LP in 2012 by Spoon Records in conjunction with Mute Records. The compilation was curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore, and edited by Jono Podmore.
Schloss Nörvenich is a schloss in Nörvenich near Cologne, Germany.
Kamasutra: Vollendung der Liebe is the soundtrack to the West German documentary film of the same name (1969), written by Innerspace Productions, an early name for the krautrock band Can, and officially released in 2009 by "Crippled Dick Hot Wax!". Initially, the film's producers commissioned only Irmin Schmidt to work on the soundtrack, finished with the contribution from Innerspace Productions.
Agilok & Blubbo is the soundtrack album featured in the 1969 German film of the same name. The songs on this album are the earliest recordings of the German experimental rock band The Inner Space, who would soon become known under the name Can. Years after the film had fallen into obscurity, its soundtrack was eventually licensed from Hans Wewerka's archives and released in Spain in 2009.
All Gates Open: The Story of Can is a book about the German experimental rock band Can, written by British writer and editor Rob Young and Can founding member Irmin Schmidt. It was published in May 2018 in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber in two editions, a trade edition in hardback, and a handbound and autographed limited edition.