Label Profile: Room40
the sound from down under.
Lawrence English officially launched Room40 back in to 2002. It was a period where experimental music was gaining an audience beyond academic / intellectual stalwarts, with labels like kranky, Constellation, and Warp hosting an array of genres that cross-wired big ideas with big feelings. Room40 followed that trend, featuring releases by professorial artists like David Toop as well as the earliest works by influential electronic artists like Ben Frost. Of the label’s early mission statement English says “there were some guiding principles for how I wanted to label to operate. I have to say they were not aesthetic, but more concerned with how the label, and myself I suppose, interfaces with artists and communities.” Now, 20 years and more than 300 releases later, the label continues to unite communities and maintain the legacy of its earliest interests while still casting an ear towards new talent as it emerges.
When I started Room40 a big part of the drive to create the label was to celebrate music that I felt was being overlooked or work that I knew people were having a hard time getting released. It was also very much about making connections outward from Australia. Reaching out to other like minded communities and artists, trying to create a dialogue that reflected the growing mesh of how music was finding its way into the world.
Room40’s output has experienced a marked upswing over the last few years, often with new releases coming on a weekly basis rather than the usual 8-10 per year most labels manage. English has a one word explanation for this high level of productivity: “COVID! Hah!” While the pandemic forced many artists to temporarily shutter their careers, English seized the time freed up by a lack of touring his own projects and put it into label production. “It meant for the first time in a decade I was in one place, with a little more time to focus my energy towards label related projects. At the end of 2020, I can safely say I had never felt more engaged and satisfied with what the label was doing.”This extra time also allowed undertaking slightly more ambitions projects, “especially the book editions like David Toop’s Field Recordings and Fox Spirits. There was a research side to those that I deeply enjoyed. The challenge now is working out a balance that reflects this new aspect of the label.”
This touches on another interesting aspect of Room40 compared to other aesthetically similar labels: their assignment of format to each release. Instead of the strict vinyl-only or limited edition CD ethos other labels establish, English takes a more case-specific approach. “I’m led by the music. I’m not wed to any one format as superior. To me, some music is absolutely NOT for vinyl. I really try to think about that and talk with artists about it. Some works are just brilliant as a digital edition or a cassette. Others work best with a CD and book, and others just with a CD. I think it’s important to let the music speak to the format and for that material relationship to be meaningful and thought through.”
The changing habits of an increasingly online customer base is another element that needs addressed. “I think Bandcamp is a brilliant platform and I use it not just for the label, but also as a listener of music. There are always some shortcomings and whatnot, bit really they are setting a good benchmark for how many platforms might choose to operate in the future.” Not that English is ready to completely abandon the old ways, citing the brick and mortar store and its central place in the ecosystem. “I owe a great deal to places like Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane where I live. During my formative years, people like Tom Beaumont there, who was one of their key buyers, was always slipping me stuff or suggesting things I might want to check out. It was brilliant too just randomly finding stuff in their second hand section. I am so grateful to all those folks and places that helped with that.”
Though Room40 is an international label through and through, there is something elementally Australian that informs English’s art. “(T)here’s definitely a strong sense of this country in how I think about sound. It makes sense really, in that I learned to listen here, so fundamentally there’s a strong sense that this place lends to me. Even now I am finding myself fascinated by the sounds around me. Even though they might be familiar, there’s detail and character that I come to focus on. I still find deep fascination with the simplest things, like how sound in the trees where I live shifts across seasons. It’s subtle, but a delight!”
Check out the Room40 Bandcamp page for all their releases. If you need some inspiration here’s a 90 minute playlist of selections from earliest to most recent.