The releases from Rare Noise Records fit the label’s moniker in two ways – their noises are rare in terms of both being unusual in nature, as well as of uncommonly high quality. In existence for less than 10 years, they have put out efforts including Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson, Thurston Moore, Jamie Saft, Roswell Rudd, Trevor Dunn, Joe Morris, Balazs Pandi, Mike Pride, Wadada Leo Smith, Nils Petter Molvaer, and many others.
We have reviewed a number of Rare Noise Releases:
AMN Reviews: The Spanish Donkey – Raoul (2015; Rare Noise Records)
AMN Reviews: Colin Edwin & Lorenzo Feliciati – Twinscapes (Rare Noise Records)
AMN Reviews: Merzbow / Mats Gustafsson / Balazs Pandi – Cuts (2013, Rare Noise Records)
AMN Reviews: Slobber Pup – Pole Axe (2015; RareNoiseRecords)
Rare Noise avoids dedication to any particular genre or style, and instead employs a multi-genre, multi-cultural vision for modern music in a modern era. Recently, label head Giacomo Bruzzo took some time to answer a few of our questions.
How did Rare Noise get started?
After spending the 90s studying economics and mathematics, I started this century working in finance. This career having proven financially but culturally not fulfilling I embarked on a path in 2005 to what I hoped would translate into a career in mathematics in academia and enrolled in a Ph.D programme in London.
I underestimated the pressure involved in pursuing this career, and set my aims too high by choosing a particularly hard topic of research: This lead to my having a breakdown two years into my research.
After several months of complete wipeout, and several unsuccessful attempts to restart my studies I sat at the bottom of a metaphorical well, unable to climb out, let alone see the horizon. These months proved essential though in allowing me to re-aligning my life priorities with my passions and inclinations. This prompted me to starting research on musicians I had long held a deep respect for (Bill Laswell, Otomo Yoshihide and Eraldo Bernocchi) with a view to writing and directing a documentary about their work, in order to shed light on crucial (but maybe not popularly known) actors on the stage of contemporary music of the last thirty years. I approached Eraldo Bernocchi in 2007 on MySpace of all places, bluntly asking for the opportunity to interview him, fully expecting him to decline. Surprisingly enough, Eraldo consented.
During successive meetings with him in Italy, we spent time confronting our views about the state of music across a whole spectrum of dimensions. These conversations lead to two live collaborations, a multimedia performance in Genoa featuring Eraldo, Nils Petter Molvaer and visual artist Petulia Mattioli (Liquid Light), followed by a live by Zu, Eraldo Bernocchi and Petulia Mattioli in Rome (Black Engine).
Eventually, in 2008 we decided that we should create a platform to fulfil our vision – thus RareNoise was born, with a view to detect and amplify the beauty and trends in contemporary progressive music, highlighting their relation to the history of the art-form, all the while not being bound and or clouded by pre-conceptions of genre.
With the growing number of independent labels catering to all types of creative music, how does RareNoise attempt to set itself apart?
A very broad, internationalist vision, reaching out to listeners all
around the globe. Heavy continual investment in PR and communication. Absolute quality of recordings. Absolute quality of physical releases. Open-mindedness, and the desire to sense any change at the horizon.
Releases that consistently attempt to blow the listeners’ mind – emotional intensity being the key here. Deep relationships with the artists, which result in sincere and heartfelt collaborative work.
Also, we programme very, very far ahead (currently planning the first half of 2018).
While many of your releases are innovative, some of the works from Gustafsson, Merzbow, Pandi, Morris, Moore, Smith, and so on seem to be literally creating new genres. What has been your reaction to these releases in particular?
It’s all about the people. For example: the original Metallic Taste Of Blood by Eraldo Bernocchi, Colin Edwin Jamie Saft and Balazs Pandi generated two strands of multi-year collaborations, one with Jamie (leading the all Slobber Pups, The New Standard, Red Hill, Strength & Power, New Zion w. Cyro and many many more to come) the other Balazs Pandi, who was the ambassador of the first and second Cuts albums with Merzbow, Mats Gustafsson and Thurston Moore, and the trio with Haino and Merzbow, with more to follow in future. Our relationship with Colin Edwin and Lorenzo Feliciati (Naked Truth) lead to Twinscapes; Lorenzo E. Fornasari (Obake) and Feliciati created Berserk!, which itself lead us to co-produce a film called ‘The Nightless City’, which premiered in Taormina last year, whose soundtrack was the music of Berserk!.
So I guess we like to see our label as a book of stories, with the composers being the narrators, and the label hopefully one day being seen as a Canon or an Incubator.
The market for music in general, and the creative music that you focus on in particular, is difficult at best. For instance, there are hundreds, if not thousands of releases per year, and it is easy for quality works to get buried in this deluge. How do you manage to keep the label alive and stay motivated in such a tough environment?
There certainly have been precedents in history for labels following a path not dissimilar from our own, off the top of my head Celluloid, early Rykodisc, Esp, Axiom; There certainly also are a number of contemporary independent labels pursuing similar lines of investigation to our own, again, off the top of my head and no pretension to highlight anything but my very own lack of knowledge, Rune Grammofon, Cuneiform, Clean Feed, Relative Pitch, Moonjune, Hubro, Tzadik. While the space is crowded, there is wide opportunity for novel curatorial approaches. Survival will be predicated on intensity of work, organically growing vision (e.g. not an excessively narrow one), quality of relationships developed with the musicians, quality and professionalism of relations with the customers. Never sloppy, never late.
We are indeed well funded, and the first years were tough, but things are turning around as the catalogue grows and churns (we will hit about 70 releases this year).
As a label owner, how do you feel about the download and streaming markets? How does RareNoise coexist with these channels?
Streaming is a utility, like tap water. I buy bottled water, beer, wine, vodka … You get my meaning.
Where do you see the label going in the future? More of the same, or do you envision growing it or branching out in any way?
More of the same and therefore many more different unexpected releases.
What are the next few releases scheduled to come out?
September 2016 : Free Nelson MandoomJazz – The Organ Grinder
October 2016 – Obake – Draugr
November 2016 – Bobby Previte – Mass
November 2016 – Eraldo Bernocchi/Prakash Sontakke – Invisible Strings
January 2017 – Led Bib – Umbrella Weather
January 2017 – Reflections in Cosmo (Strønen, Møster, Ryan, Størlokken)
February 2017 – oRK (LEF, Edwin, Pipitone, Mastelotto)
March 2017 – The New Standard (II) (Saft, Swallow Previte)
March 2017 – JÜ – Summa
April 2017 – LEF – Hypersomniac (w. Kenneth Kapstad, Nils-Petter Molvaer, Eivind Aarset, Bill Laswell, Rebecca Sneddon)
May 2017 – Roswell Rudd/Fay Victor (Standards)
May 2017 – Mumpbeak II (Powell, Feliciati, Thorstein Lofthus)
June 2017 – GAUDI – Magnetic
September 2017 – MikroJazz (Gerschlauer, Fiuczynski, Garrison, Mikadze, DeJohnette)
September 2017 – Jamie Saft / Bill Brovold – Serenity Knolls
October 2017 – Lorenzo Feliciati – Elevator Man
November 2017 – Cuong Vu Trio w. Bill Frisell
November 2017 – Bernocchi / Quail / FM Einheit
We have seven releases in the works for 2018.
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