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| Esoteric Recordings | |
|---|---|
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| Parent company | Cherry Red Records |
| Founded | 2007 (2007) |
| Founder | Mark Powell |
| Distributor | Proper Music Distribution |
| Genre | Progressive rock |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Location | London, England |
| Official website | esotericrecordings |
Esoteric Recordings is a UKindependent record label specialising in 1970sprogressive rock,folk,psychedelic, andjazz-rock reissues as part ofCherry Red Records. Its releases include both catalogue reissues and new works from artists who share a similar musical heritage.
The label's founder is Mark Powell, who has been a freelance music consultant forUniversal,Sony andEMI since 2000; he has also worked withSoft Machine,Caravan,Camel,Man, andHawkwind, as well as producing label retrospectives coveringDeram,Decca,Vertigo,Harvest andUnited Artists. His consultancy work led to the formation of an independent reissue label, titled Eclectic Discs, to license overlooked releases he considered worthwhile but weren't of sufficient commercial stature to interest major labels. Other releases are sourced from the artists themselves, while the label has also been involved in the release of DVD material from artists includingBarclay James Harvest.
Speaking in 2008, Powell said:
The inspiration is the way that labels like Island or Harvest worked between the late 60s and early 70s, whereby things could be stylistically different but appealed to a similar kind of audience. Some of the stuff will be folk, some jazzy stuff, some harder rock, some psychedelic, some electronic – the stuff that I suppose in that period was classed, loosely, as progressive. But that took in an awful lot of things. All of which I love personally, and it's really going through records I have or used to have, and think should be on CD. And luckily there are some people out there who share my view.
Among the label's releases have been box sets including the six-CDJack BruceCan You Follow? and the four-CDBill NelsonTrial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours) as well as standalone releases by artists including: Man,Claire Hamill,The Keef Hartley Band,Egg,Michael Moorcock,Gary Farr,Daevid Allen, andRare Bird.
In 2012, Esoteric Recordings started a front line record label, Esoteric Antenna, which put out the debut album by Squackett (Steve Hackett and Chris Squire) calledA Life Within a Day. It has also signed the Oxford-based band Sanguine Hum and guitarist Matt Stevens (ofThe Fierce and the Dead[1][2]).
1. Interview with Alex Ogg for 'My Favourite Flavour' magazine issue 006 2008
