Waveform Records

Last updated
Waveform Records
TypeIndependent Record Label
Industry Music
Founded Sedona, AZ (1994)
Headquarters
Maui, HI
Key people
F.J. Forest, Managing Director
Products Exotic Electronica
Revenueprofit
Website www.waveformrecords.com

Waveform Records is an American record label founded in 1994 in Sedona, Arizona with subsequent stops in the San Francisco Bay Area in Mill Valley, Austin, San Diego and currently now on Maui. Waveform specializes in a "sensual and stimulating genre of chill and ambient music" that the label calls "exotic electronica". [1]

Contents

They are perhaps best known for a widely influential series of ambient dub compilations in the mid-1990s: One A.D., [2] Two A.D., [3] Three A.D., [4] and Four A.D. [5]

Notable artists

See also

Related Research Articles

Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound which can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.

Intelligent dance music is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints. It emerged from the culture and sound palette of electronic and rave music styles such as ambient techno, acid house, Detroit techno and breakbeat; it has been regarded as better suited to home listening than dancing. Prominent artists associated with it include Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, Boards of Canada, μ-Ziq, the Black Dog, the Future Sound of London, and Luke Vibert.

Youth (musician) English record producer and musician

Martin Glover, better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Paul McCartney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cluster (band)</span> German musical duo

Cluster were a German musical duo consisting of Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, formed in 1971 and associated with West Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scenes. Born from the earlier Berlin-based group Kluster, they relocated in 1971 into the countryside village of Forst, Lower Saxony, where they built a studio and collaborated with musicians such as Conny Plank, Brian Eno, and Michael Rother; with the latter, they formed the influential side-project Harmonia. After first disbanding in 1981, Cluster reunited several times: from 1989 to 1997, and from 2007 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harmonia (band)</span>

Harmonia was a West German musical "supergroup" formed in 1973 as a collaboration between members of two prominent krautrock bands: Cluster's Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius joined by Neu! guitarist Michael Rother. Living and recording in the rural village of Forst, the trio released two albums—Musik von Harmonia (1974) and Deluxe (1975)—to limited sales before dissolving in 1976.

No-Man English art pop duo

No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtakes collections. The band was once lauded as "conceivably the most important English group since The Smiths" by Melody Maker music newspaper, and a 2017 article of Drowned in Sound described them as "probably the most underrated band of the last 25 years".

Higher Intelligence Agency (HIA) is the main electronic music project of Birmingham, UK based Bobby Bird. They were featured on Warp's 1994 Artificial Intelligence II compilation.

Em:t Records was a British record label, based in Nottingham, which specialized in ambient electronic music. They were active from 1994 to 1998, and after a period of bankruptcy, re-established themselves in 2003 under new ownership and management. In summer 2006, the label officially ceased operations again.

<i>Low on Ice (The Iceland Sessions)</i> 1995 studio album by Alec Empire

Low on Ice is the second solo studio album by German electronic artist Alec Empire, the third of five of his to be released on the Mille Plateaux label. Issued in 1995, Empire recorded the album over three days in August that same year during a tour of Iceland with his band Atari Teenage Riot. Primarily written outdoors in tents and recorded onto analog tapes, the record is noted for its ambient overtone, something not commonly associated with Empire's music.

<i>Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis)</i>

Transmutation is the first album by Bill Laswell's ever-changing "supergroup" Praxis. The album was released in 1992 and features Buckethead on guitar, Bootsy Collins on bass and vocals, Brain on drums, Bernie Worrell on keyboards and DJ AF Next Man Flip on turntables.

<i>Imaginary Landscapes</i> 1993 compilation album by Various artists

Ambient 2: Imaginary Landscapes is a 1993 compilation album released on the Virgin Records label, part of its Ambient series. The compilation was issued as a double CD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aphex Twin</span> British electronic musician (born 1971)

Richard David James, best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic styles such as techno, ambient, and jungle. Journalists from publications including Mixmag, The New York Times, NME, Fact,Clash and The Guardian have called James one of the most influential or important artists in contemporary electronic music.

Sublime (band) American band

Sublime was an American reggae rock and ska punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 1988. The band's line-up, unchanged until their breakup, consisted of Bradley Nowell, Eric Wilson (bass), and Bud Gaugh (drums). Lou Dog, Nowell's dalmatian, was the mascot of the band. Nowell died of a heroin overdose in 1996, resulting in the band's breakup. In 1997, songs such as "What I Got", "Santeria", "Wrong Way", "Doin' Time", and "April 29, 1992 (Miami)" were released to U.S. radio.

<i>Novus Magnificat</i> 1986 studio album by Constance Demby

Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate (1986) is an album by American musician Constance Demby, with additional sonic textures by composer Michael Stearns. The album sold over 200,000 copies worldwide It was voted in 2002 one of "The 25 Most Influential Ambient Albums of All Time".

Bureau B is an independent record label, music publisher and booking agency from Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2005 by Gunther Buskies as a sister label to Tapete Records. The label releases varieties of electronic, free-spirited music, with the spectrum ranging from pop to avant-garde. The label has amassed an extensive catalogue of reissues and new productions, including classics from the genre of electronic music in the 1970s and early 1980s popularly classified as Krautrock, alongside new recordings by such formative artists as Faust, Kreidler, Roedelius, Tietchens, Moebius.

<i>Ocean of Sound</i> 1996 compilation album by Various artists

Ocean of Sound is a 1996 compilation album compiled and produced by English musician and author David Toop. The two-disc, cross-licensed "various artists" compilation contains 32 tracks culled from a variety of musical sources, including dub, exotica, free jazz, and field recordings. Toop compiled the recordings to serve as both a historical survey of ambient music and an aural companion to his 1995 book Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds.

Kenneth James Gibson is a musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter and a founding member of Bell Gardens, Furry Things, Eight Frozen Modules, and [a]pendics.shuffle.

<i>Chilled Euphoria</i> 2000 remix album (DJ mix album) by Red Jerry

Chilled Euphoria is a DJ mix album digitally mixed by British DJ Red Jerry as part of the Telstar TV's Euphoria series of DJ mixed dance music compilations. Chilled Euphoria features chill-out music, in the form of genres such as ambient music and trip hop, cross-licensed from different artists. The album was intended to be played in "post club sessions", where people chill-out in their homes listening to the album after returning home from a dance nightclub at 8 am. Some of the remixes on the album were exclusive to the album and previously unreleased, and five of them were compiled onto a double EP used to promote the album.

<i>The Positiva Ambient Collection</i> 1993 compilation album by various artists

The Positiva Ambient Collection is a compilation album of various artists released by British dance music label Positiva Records in 1993, documenting ambient house and ambient techno music, both of which were popular underground electronic genres in the United Kingdom at the time. The compilation, the first album released on the label, features an exclusive live recording of The Orb and is said to prove ambient house's variety and worldwide emergence. Upon its release, The Positiva Ambient Collection received critical acclaim, and has continued to receive acclaim in the ensuing years. It has also been credited for bringing Beaumont Hannant to prominence via the inclusion of his track "Awakening the Soul".

<i>Give Em Enough Dope Volume One</i> 1994 compilation album by various artists

Give 'Em Enough Dope Volume One is a compilation album of music by various artists released in 1994 by British electronic label Wall of Sound as their first release. The idea for the album came when Wall of Sound's founder, Mark Jones, wanted to release a compilation of hard-to-find music by unsigned artists, with whom he had worked with via his distribution and pressing deals, so that the music could be heard by a wider audience. He picked his favourite such tracks which there was already an audience for and this became the compilation.

References

  1. "Welcome to Waveform Records". www.waveformhq.com. 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  2. Bush, John. "Various Artists: One A.D." www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  3. Bush, John. "Various Artists: Two A.D.: A Waveform Complication, Vol. 2 Ambient". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  4. Farley, Keith. "Various Artists: Three A.D.: A Waveform Compilation (Volume Three Ambient Dub)". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  5. Loftus, Johnny. "Various Artists: Four A.D." www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.