When I was researching my recent 10+ series of annual round-ups of adventurous releases from several countries across the world, I must confess that I struggled with South America as my knowledge of all things experimental and electroacoustic is very much Eurocentric. Aside from obvious ports of call such as Colombia, which the excellent work of sound artists Miguel Isaza and David Velez contributed to put on the field-recording, ambient & drone map, I was pretty much lost. If I thought of Argentina, for instance, I could only think of Federico Durand. Guyana, Suriname, Uruguay, Paraguay, all drew a blank. One of the more dynamic countries in this domain, though, seemed to be Mexico. So it was with great excitement that I welcomed the birth of a new label based in Tula in early January 2016. Nova Fund Recordings is an independent imprint focused on the promotion of contemporary arts & music. As befits many new ventures, the first release is a V/A compilation out on tape in a sadly already sold out edition of 50.
The lineup includes many familiar names such as David Velez, David Escallon, Omar Alejandro, but is by no means limited to South American artists. The Italians Dramavinile and MonoLogue, for instance, both make an appearance alongside the Japan based Darren McClure. There’s a deliberate lo-fi quality to much of the music on offer with accidents and errors dictating the overriding tone, but this is by no means an homogenous release. Field recordings (David Velez) buried opera excerpts (Dino Spiluttini), improv (Diego Martínez & Armando Castro), and digital beats (Me & Myself) all sit side by side. This is an intriguing project, which merits to be followed closely.
Random – V/A collected by by José Soberanes is available as a name your price digital release on Nova Fund Recordings.