Sound-O-Mat (label)

Sound-O-Mat Recordings

In 2000, a new division of The Sound-O-Mat Studio was started with the addition of a "boutique" independent record label operating under the same name (which has unfortunately led to some confusion.) Its purpose was to release recordings from the projects of particular groups, such as Austere and their side-projects, all of which had done work with the The Sound-O-Mat Studio, hence the description as a "boutique record label".

In 2006 the business continued to operate as a post-production studio with the record label name being changed to 'Sound-O-Mat Recordings' to differentiate the record label from the audio services studio. The record label does not sell products directly, but rather through distributors such as Hypnos (US), CD Baby (US), CD Jam (Japan), and ping things (Canada). The bands on the label also sell some releases directly from their own Web sites.

The musicians on the label are primaryily ambient artists but one solo side-project, The Mystifying Oracle, produces percussive electronic music which they originally called "psybient", short for "psychedelic ambient", a term that has since taken its own meaning, and tends towards downtempo and Trip hop styles, as well as heavily Middle Eastern-influenced ethic music. While The The Sound-O-Mat Studio works on a wide variety of genres and styles of music, Sound-O-Mat Recordings is primarily focused on ambient and electronic music.

Currently Signed Bands

The following is a list of bands that are current under contract and signed to the "Sound-O-Mat Recordings" record label:

Austere
The Mystifying Oracle
Freq. Magnet

The Music for Séances Project

Starting in 2002, "Sound-O-Mat Recordings" began producing a series of "audio art pieces" for the Art*O*Mat project, called "Music for Séances" (or "MFS" for short.) This was the first and to date (03:15, 3 November 2006 (UTC)) the only audio-based artwork available from an Art*O*Mat machine. The project set out to create 13 original pieces in two editions of 50, one set of 50 sold through Art*O*Mat machines, the other sold directly from The Sound-O-Mat Studio.

Art*O*Mat machines are vintage cigarette dispensers decorated and rebuilt to dispense small pieces of artwork either the size of or in boxes that match the dimensions of a pack of cigarettes.

The "Music for Seances" project, which took four years to complete, consisted of requitioning one-of-a-kind music tracks written to vaguely follow a theme. They were then edited and mastered at The Sound -O-Mat Studio and packaged in the style of one of many vintage Talking Boards, with the CD containing the song (which was limited to 5 minutes and 23 seconds or less in length) decorated as a Talking Board itself. Each box also came with todo:Expand

The following are bands/musicians who have had material released by the record label, all part of the Music for Séances series done for the Art*O*Mat project.

# The Mystifying Oracle - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/149941 The Ceremony] " [MFS #1]
# Austere - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/134837 Coruscate] " [MFS #2]
# Future Guru - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/150687 Music for Bucky] " [MFS #3]
# In The Now - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/149944 ethervoices] " [MFS #4]
# The Nether-Carols - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/150688 Les Pons Du Waffles] " [MFS #5]
# Broken Gadget - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/149945 Ossip] " [MFS #6]
# Mystery School Ensemble - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/149946 The Art of Life] " [MFS #7]
# Numina - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/356200 Never Realized] " [MFS #8]
# Abstract Audio Systems - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/356203 Dark Fortune] " [MFS #9]
# Joe+N - "Mystery School Ensemble" [MFS #10]
# Anomalous Disturbances - " [http://discogs.com/release/356237 Portent] " [MFS #11]
# Falling You - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/356238 Still Life] " [MFS #12]
# M. Griffin - " [http://www.discogs.com/release/733431 Enclosed in Wide Open Spaces] " [MFS #13]

References

ee also

* List of record labels

External links

* [http://sound-o-mat.com The Sound-O-Mat Home Page]
* [http://austere.org/oracle/seances.shtml Music for Séances]
* [http://www.discogs.com/label/Sound-O-Mat Sound-O-Mat Recordings on Discogs.com]
* [http://www.last.fm/label/The+Sound-O-Mat/ Sound-O-Mat Recordings on Last.fm]
* [http://rateyourmusic.com/labels/ [Label3265] Sound-O-Mat Recordings on Rate Your Music]