by inkinthewell on Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:55 am
From a 2003 interview on Barcode:
Q: I am presuming that the setting up of the Samadhi Sound label is a response to discarding the notion of working with a major label again? How is this likely to affect your future output, both in respect of the new freedom you are offered and the regularity of work you produce?
A: It isn't out of the question that I'd consider working with a major label again although at the present time it seems an unlikely choice to make. I can't place too much emphasis on the importance of freedom. I've been signed to a major label my entire adult life and while this afforded some sense of security, I was growing very tired of carrying the proverbial begging bowl which was so often met with indifference. As to the question regarding the frequency with which I'll produce work, this depends on numerous factors which are often times hard to predict. It's possible a pattern of sorts will emerge over the coming two or three years.
Q: What aspirations do you have for the label, will you be attempting to sign other recording artists?
A: The label is something of an experiment. I have no business aspirations as such, I simply wanted the freedom to choose which direction I should move in musically without concerns over 'selling' the idea of the work to company execs. Ironically, by choosing to start my own label I was choosing liberation from all business concerns that might even subconsciously influence the outcome of the sessions. By choosing to release the CD myself I felt all external pressures were off.
Time is an incredibly important resource in the world of the arts, something which the current climate often doesn't allow for. Time to allow ideas to develop, to grow, time to fail, to start over. Due to my overriding love of the process of exploration, improvisation, and discovery, this is what I want the label to offer, time to develop ideas outside of the pressures of commerce, freedom for artists to explore whatever avenue of inquiry fires them and to share in the excitement of helping that work find its audience.
Caption to the Samadhisound page on artist-shop.com:
Samadhi Sound came into being as one possible blueprint for the future, intuition taking precedence over business sense and game plan. I don't make long term plans as I surrender that part of my life to guru. But if I allow myself to dream, I dream of a label that gives freedom to artists and musicians, creating a 'safe house' for the nurturing of ideas. It will be home to much of my work and the work of my brother, Steve Jansen. We will also sit at the helm as producers to a small group of artists who, we hope, will find a home at Samadhi Sound. We'll encourage projects that break new ground and support those that bring a unique slant to an existing field of inquiry. Aesthetically that field is wide open as is the nature and diversity of the projects. ~ David Sylvian
At present, independent labels are "thriving"; artists can choose to release one record on this label and another on that one, and even make their work available only on vinyl or cassette in limited numbers; so maybe Sylvian's dream of a "safe house" offering "time to develop ideas outside of the pressure of commerce" is not so urgent now as it was in 2003.
Add to that the obligation that any label has of having to deal with "business concerns", whether they like it or not, and that other independent labels seem better equipped to deal with promotion, etc., and, as Simonp said, it really doesn't make sense to continue Samadhisound.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans - JL 1940-1980