Label Profile: Aurora Borealis
March 21 2008 at 12:30:42 AM
England’s Aurora Borealis has unleashed ludicrously varied recordings over the past four years. Depleted from its coffers have been the likes of USBM, Crebain, ambient, Ginnungagap, and wholly unclassifiable music such as Moss and Wolfmangler. Andrew Hartwell and Tony Sylvester, the Laurel & Hardy duo, which accounts for the creative vision behind the label, managed to field a few questions about aesthetics, armor and Liberace—while both still at work. When was AB birthed? Was it a joint venture from the outset? What was the impetus behind the label's creation? Andrew Hartwell: I wanted to do something and had been thinking about getting something going as I had some funds. Tony had similar plans but had no money, so it made sense. It was just a desire to put out exceptional objects, in terms of sound, incongruity (is that a word?), and design/packaging. From a personal level, it’s deeply satisfying to get these things out. Tony Sylvester : September 2002—Hartwell had been using the AB moniker for design work, clothing manufacture, and other projects before then, but that's when he suggested to me that we do a label together—over sandwiches at the New Piccadilly Cafe if memory serves. We'd known each other for a time and I guess he hoped that my low-level involvement in the music industry would come in handy. AB is one of the more visually obsessed labels extant. From website to packaging, it seems that an extraordinary amount of time is spent on aesthetics. Do either one of you come from an art background? If so: How has this informed and/or guided AB's aesthetic sense? Does AB suggest packaging for its releases, or is that solely up to the artist? AH: I am visually obsessive. For the website, I got a Canadian web designer friend of mine who I have worked with before to do the basics to my design and then I learnt some html and just update it myself and add bits and pieces—like the audio of the wolf growl. Incidentally, I think Blackie from Voivod's company hosts the site. Kvlt. As for art, its something I have always been into, painting leather jackets at school, etc. I think it’s really difficult to grow up listening to metal and not be affected by the amount of visual information. I used to browse LP sleeves after work everyday at the local record shop after school as I waiting for my mum to collect me when she finished work. I particularly remember liking Saxon's Crusader. As for sleeves, with Ginnungagap, obviously Stephen [O’Malley] is in charge of all that and knows exactly what he wants. Moss, too, have a strong aesthetic, and then I usually try and work to what they want and add ideas and techniques. Hopefully this will be evident in the Cthonic Rites vinyl when it eventually comes out. Sometimes it’s about matching the right artist or illustrator to the right job: When Smolken said he wanted a literal illustration for the Wolfmangler gatefold version of Dwelling in a Dead Raven for the Glory of Crucified Wolves, it was an easy job—French is the man! I love the whole art side of the label, and trying to make the most interesting thing that you can. This doesn't usually coincide with financial viability. TS: The raison d'etre for the label is to create beautiful artifacts: Whole, complete packages that feel satisfying to manufacture. Andrew has the art background, but we both have a shared sense of aesthetics for sure—and an appreciation for the highbrow and the lowbrow, which we mix with scant concern for taste and decency. AB is certainly one of the more eclectic labels in existence. Do both of you work consciously towards stylistically carrying AB's output? Is the output representative of the types of music that both of you listen to? Is there a single release that both of you are the happiest with? AH: Hmm. I just like to work with people that I like (even if I have not actually met all of them). I guess the criteria for me are that it’s interesting and has some merit. I don't want to make anything for the sake of it. If it’s obscure as fuck, sounds horrendous, and is commercial suicide (in the bigger picture) then all the better as far as I'm concerned. That’s it really. As for personal listening, it varies a lot, I go in phases too, where I'll get super obsessed by something for a while. The usual obsessive music fan behavior, I think. I think I have a greater threshold for "outsider" BM than Tony... I'm thinking Dead Reptile Shrine and Circle of Oroubouros particularly—oh, and Gauhaert. Tony is generally more the music boffin than me in the classic sense and I can be incredibly close-minded if I want to be. Hurrah! As for the shop, that’s pretty much just me. Same criteria as the label—I love sharing things I like: Urfaust, Drudkh, and the old Battlecruizer stuff I used to carry and Satanic Warmaster, Tiermes. TS: I agree—we take a perverse pride in having the scope to release as many different things as we do, but ultimately I think there is a sense of cohesion—even if it seems a little illogical on the surface. The fact we are of the same age and had similar musical influences growing up informs what we do now for sure. If you drew a Venn diagram of both our tastes, then what we release would sit fairly firmly in the middle. This is probably true of what we carry in the webstore, too, although that is more likely to reflect Andrew's tastes than my own. As for a single release: Jo Ratcliffe's art for the Integrity Palm Sunday LP turned out greater than I could have imagined, and I cannot wait to see the Wolfmangler LP all complete—two of the best illustrators we know (Alex Tucker and French) made art for that. Every time Andy shows me a finished sleeve idea, I beam like a proud father. What direction do you see AB taking? Do both of you approach releases on an ad hoc basis or is there a long wish list of artists that you pull from? Which artist/band would you most like to work with that you haven't yet? AH: Same direction as at present I hope. Otherwise I'm not interested. It’s pretty much ad hoc, although I do hassle people if I want to do something with them, usually to no effect! Apparently Liberace is dead though, so he's off the hook. No one comes to mind, I'm perfectly happy with what we have done so far and what’s coming up. I hope that we can work further with L'Acephale; they have some incredible material recorded and are very cerebral. TS: [Where are we headed?] Fuck knows… There's no master plan, but there always seems to be a healthy backlog of bands that have tentatively agreed to work on something for us... Even if we didn’t agree to anything new, we have enough records coming out to last the next 12-18 months or so. More than anyone else right now, I would like to work with Daniel Higgs. I have been a fan of his art and music for getting on for 15 years now, and have had the pleasure to work with Lungfish and to help put on an exhibition of his art last year. Now that he is making solo music as well, there may be a better chance for collaboration. I sincerely hope so. I also have a mild obsession with one day seeing the music that Alejandro Jodorowsky and Don Cherry worked on for the soundtrack of the 1973 opus The Holy Mountain released in some way. A new print of the film has just been completed and is showing at film festivals right now, so there may be plans afoot for a release as it is. Fingers crossed.
|
print
email
RSS
list
big
small
TWITTER