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Communion Music is a British independent music company that includes a record label, (Communion Records), a publishing company (Communion Publishing) and a concert promoter (Communion Presents).
Communion Music was founded by musicians Kevin Jones (Bears Den), Ben Lovett (Mumford and Sons) and producer Ian Grimble. It began in 2006 as Communion Clubnight, a monthly live music performance at London's Notting Hill Arts Club. Frustrated by what they felt was an overly competitive and often artist-unfriendly live music scene in London, the founders wanted to create a music platform in an environment that was creative, collaborative and respectful. [1]
Communion Records initially started as a record label for the community involved in Communion Clubnight. Its first release was a compilation album, Communion, featuring music from the likes of Mumford and Sons, Johnny Flynn, Elena Tonra (Daughter) and Andrew Davie(Bears Den). [2] In 2010, the label launched in earnest with its first artist release - Matthew and the Atlas's To the North EP . Communion Records went on to independently release debut EPs and singles by Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard, Gotye, Daughter, Matt Corby and more, with Grimble and Jones often playing on and producing these releases. Under a two-year partnership with Island Records, Communion Records released its first albums. These came from Deap Vally, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Half Moon Run and Catfish and the Bottlemen. The latter's debut album, The Balcony, sold approximately 400,000 copies worldwide and saw the band winning a 2016 Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough. In 2015, Communion Records signed a new distribution deal with Universal Music's Caroline International, [3] through which it released music from Bear's Den, Rukhsana Merrise, Tamino, Dizzy, Lucy Rose, Foreign Fields, and Matthew and the Atlas. In 2021 Communion Records started working with global distribution company Believe Music, with whom the record label is still partnered. In this time Communion has become home to multiple new artists, including Wunderhorse, Matt Corby, The Staves, Lucia & The Best Boys, LAUREL, Nectar Woode, Lucy Rose, DellaXOZ and Chartreuse. Communion Records has also partnered with three burgeoning labels:So Young Records ( Folly Group, Lime Garden, VLURE, Nightbus + more), Matt Maltese's Last Recordings On Earth (Searows) and Lucy Rose’s Real Kind Records (Samantha Crain, Bess Atwell, Hannah Georgas).
Communion Records has released three other compilations.
Communion Presents is an independent concert promoter in London. Like Communion Records, it emerged from the Communion Clubnight and has grown to represent over 150 artists across a diverse range of genres. These include the likes of Sam Fender, Olivia Dean, George Ezra, Tems, Noah Kahan, Michael Kiwanuka, Ben Howard, Gabriels, Maggie Rogers, Maisie Peters, Bastille and many more. In 2012, Communion Presents produced the notable Austin to Boston tour, featuring Bear’s Den, The Staves, Nathaniel Rateliff and Ben Howard. This was later made into an award-winning documentary of the same name. From 2015 - 2020 Communion Presents curated a weekly new music show on Radio X, an independent radio station in London. It aired on Sunday evenings from 10pm and was hosted by Maz Tappuni.
Communion Publishing is an independent music publisher, administered by Kobalt. Writers on the roster include Catfish and the Bottlemen, Bear's Den, Jamie Clarke (Sfven), Dizzy, LAUREL, HONEYMOAN, Matthew Hegarty and Aodhan.
Island Records is a Jamaican multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France. Current key people include Island US president Darcus Beese, and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels.
Warp Records is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon. It is currently based in London.
Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists. Recently, Fat Possum has signed younger rock acts to its roster. The label has been featured in The New York Times, New Yorker, The Observer, a Sundance Channel production, features on NPR, and a 2004 documentary, You See Me Laughin. Fat Possum also distributes the Hi Records catalog.
Bear Family Records is a Germany-based independent record label, that specializes in reissues of archival material, ranging from country music to 1950s rock and roll to old German movie soundtracks.
Acid Jazz Records is a record label based in East London formed by Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller in 1987. The label is the namesake of the acid-jazz subgenre of jazz music for which it is most famously known for producing.
Supastition is an American underground hip hop artist from Greenville, North Carolina. He has also recorded under the name of Kam Moye and Blackmel. He has appeared on songs with the likes of KRS-One, The RZA, Ras Kass, Tech N9ne, Little Brother, Croup, The Soulution, S1 (producer), M-Phazes, Tajai of Souls of Mischief, B-Real of Cypress Hill, Royce da 5'9", Elzhi, and countless others.
Universal Music On Demand (UMOD) is a London-based record label owned by Universal Music Group, formed in 1998 as Universal Music TV (UMTV). UMOD specialises in producing compilation albums and occasional single releases. It was founded when Seagram acquired PolyGram and merged the company's record labels under the same umbrella, replacing the PolyGram TV label.
Scat Records is a St. Louis, Missouri-based independent record label. It was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1989, and many of the bands released on the label are from Ohio. The label is notable for featuring Guided by Voices, The Mice and Cobra Verde on its roster. Scat Records' owner Robert Griffin himself played in the band Spike in Vain. Griffin discovered Guided by Voices from Matt Sweeney, and their 1994 release Bee Thousand helped launch the band before they signed with Matador Records. Scat also released a compilation of Cleveland pre-punk.
Matthew John Corby is an Australian singer-songwriter. He achieved his commercial breakthrough with his fourth EP, Into the Flame (2011), which peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and by April 2012, was certified 6× Platinum by ARIA. His 2011 single "Brother" and his 2013 single "Resolution" both won ARIA Music Awards for Song of the Year. Corby has released three studio albums, Telluric (2016), Rainbow Valley (2018) and Everything's Fine.
Glassnote Records is a record label that was launched by American music executive Daniel Glass in 2007. The label primarily has a lineup of indie rock and alternative rock artists, most notably Mumford & Sons and Phoenix. The label has also released music from popular artists in other genres, such as Chvrches, Childish Gambino and Secondhand Serenade. The label is distributed by The Orchard as of 2022.
Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, known as Lissie, is an American singer-songwriter. She released her debut EP, "Why You Runnin'", in November 2009. Her debut album, Catching a Tiger, was released in June 2010. Her second studio album, Back to Forever, was released in October 2013. Her first record as an independent artist, and third studio album, My Wild West, was released February 12, 2016 and went on to receive critical acclaim. Her fourth studio album Castles, was released worldwide on March 23, 2018. Her fifth studio album, Carving Canyons, was released September 16, 2022.
Michael Samuel Kiwanuka is a British singer-songwriter and record producer who is signed with Polydor Records. His 2012 debut album, Home Again, went gold in the United Kingdom and his second album, Love & Hate, debuted in 2016 at number one. He has been nominated for numerous honours, including the Brit Awards, MTV Europe Music Awards, BBC Music Awards, and The Grammy Awards. In January 2012, he won the BBC's Sound of 2012; and, in September 2020, he won the Mercury Prize.
Crowns are an English folk punk band from Launceston, Cornwall, England, formed in 2010. The band consisted of lead singer and guitarist Bill Jefferson, bass player Jake Butler, mandolinist Jack Speckleton and drummer Rob Ramplin.
Benjamin Walter David Lovett is a British musician and producer, best known for being a member of the Grammy Award-winning British folk rock band Mumford & Sons.
Bear's Den are a British alternative country and indie folk band from London, formed in 2012 and consisting of Andrew Davie and Kevin Jones. Joey Haynes left in early 2016. Since their 2016/2017 tour in Europe and North America, Haynes has been replaced by Dutch artist Christof van der Ven, not as an official member but as a session musician.
Label No Genre is an Atlanta, Georgia-based independent record label, founded in 2014, by American recording artist and music producer B.o.B.
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Matt Colton is an English mastering engineer and member of the mastering group of the Music Producers Guild. He has mastered recordings for artists such as Muse, Coldplay, James Blake, George Michael, Hot Chip, Gary Numan, Peter Gabriel, Flume, Erasure, and Depeche Mode.
Dermot O'Leary Presents The Saturday Sessions 2015 is a 2-disc compilation album, a collection from BBC Radio 2's new music programme, which takes place every Saturday afternoon on BBC Radio 2, released in the United Kingdom in June 2015. Many of the artists featured were first introduced by English radio personality and television presenter, Dermot O'Leary. It hit Number 2 in the UK iTunes charts the week of its release.
Blue Hours is the fifth studio album by British folk rock band Bear's Den. It was released on 13 May 2022 by Communion in the United Kingdom and internationally. The album was written by the band and produced by Ian Grimble. It marked the band's first record of new material since So That You Might Hear Me in 2019 and follows the collaboration album with Paul Frith, Fragments. The album debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number 6, making it the band's joint highest-charting album domestically.