Re: [microsound] Ritornell takes a liberty? [microsound] more deep, heavy philosophical concepts

[Øivind Idsø <ezueled@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> does it look like all the others? how does anyone feel about Ritornell taking
> artistic control of cover/packaging from the artist?

As others have mentioned, releasing music on a label is in fact a bit of a
compromise (to a lesser or larger degree). If you feel you are being overrun by
the label in terms of the visual aspect you should look somewhere else. The deal
is still that labels risk money on something that might flop, and they have
certain privileges in that respect. Maybe labels exist where the artist has full
and total control over the product, but I really don´t know many labels where
this is the case. WARP has a definitive "look" to their releases (at least they
used to have -- haven´t bought a WARP CD since the last Autechre), and even
though it´s not as generic as Ritornell it´s obviously not a decision that´s
made a 100% (perhaps not even 50 or 25%) by the artist. And Rune Grammofon has
the same conceptual thinking behind all of their releases (which, btw, vary to
an extreme degree in terms of musical content...improv, electronics, pop, folk
music, electronica, "academics" (Arne Nordheim, Fartein Valen); stuff they have
in common? It´s very good music). And Trente Oiseaux. And Empreintes DIGITALes.
And INA-GRM. And Chain Reaction. And Deutsche Grammofon. And the list goes on.

Personally I think it becomes way too purist to shy away from a certain label or
a certain artist because their/his/her covers are not to your liking, or the
concept (marketing) becomes too restrained or monotonous or whatever. I´ve never
been much of a "cover fetishist" and have never allowed a bad/ugly cover or
whatever affect my opinions about the content that actually matters, which is
the music (good covers might heighten the experience, though, but that´s just
because it´s seen as an extension of the good music on the CD). This might seem
trivial, and I guess it *is* trivial, but it feels like you are making an ugly
frame decide what the Dali/Picasso/Miro/whatever should be about. Granted, the
frame is relevant, but one shouldn´t overestimate it´s importance. The old LP
covers looked better (beause, obviously, they were bigger) but I wouldn´t want
to keep an inferior sound format because the packaging looks better (I´m
overdoing it here, but still).

And perhaps it is a marketing thing. So what. The CD competes in a market that´s
basically being flooded every week by new releases, so it seems only fair to put
some kind of standardized procedure into the equation so that people recognize
the next Ritornell or Rune Grammofon as just that: a new Ritornell or Rune
Grammofon CD. The demarcation line between "concept" and "marketing" seems
highly relative in 21st century capitalist society, and even art gallerys and
artists use clever ways of attracting attention if they feel they deserve it.
The 20-2000 series is obviously linked to a conscious, artistic, visual concept,
but the de facto effect in the marketplace is that it gets the attention because
of the concept. And one shoudn´t be so naive as to think that the people who do
this aren´t aware of these mechanisms (in the same way that one shouldn´t be so
cynical as to think that they are doing it ONLY because it´s good
marketing...even if this is often the case in corporate society).

> The 20-2000 series was Carsten's concept from the start, I don't like the
> control Ritornell exhibits.

I fail to see the difference. Why are you assuming that the Ritornell series
isn´t a "concept from the start"?

> I think it trivializes them in some small way,
> and don't think I'd buy another, I have Kim's and it's great but something's
> missing it's like it's not his but half Kim half Ritornell.   It suddenly
> becomes part of a series was it recorded with that in mind?  so then, what's
> the them? how do they all fit together? and then, who's series is this?

The Rastermusic series was the series of the label + the individual
contributions from the artists involved. The Ritornell label is a "series" + the
individual contributions from the artists involved.

Speaking of the initial topic: the "Maschinelle Strategeme" compilation is
brilliant (I´m leaving my own contribution out of it, since that´s the
honourable thing to do :) , although I don´t think it´s out yet  (the CDNow site
says estimated US release is 30. May; don´t know about Europe, but maybe it´s
already available directly from the Mille Plateaux online store?).

> -pH

/Oeivind/