It’s time for us to breathe a big sigh of relief, as at last we are able to announce a return to our release schedule of our signature vinyl-effect CDrs. Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, we already had a full 2020 planned and were excited to unveil the exciting artists we planned to work with. We’ve had just over 3 months of pause now, after the closure of our local post office meant we were unable to ship orders. So we launched the digital-only Home Diaries series and have curated 30 EPs, short and long albums. Some fantastic records that have kept us insanely busy.
With barely any time to draw breath between Home Diaries and the re-emergence of our CD catalog, we’re pretty sure we’re on track to release everything as planned this year with a few changes. We think all the changes we’ll make will be for the good of everyone involved, for our artists, our supporters and well, us. Firstly, we are now taking physical orders to be shipped from a local village post-office who are open from 5:30am. They’ll do a drop-off service for us, which means we’ll only be at the premises for a matter of minutes. So we’re confident our relaunch is safe and the right thing to do, as we had been concerned about regular visits to the post office and the queues of people we’d create.
Secondly, we’ll scrap our pre-orders. When we launched, we had 50 CDs of each release to sell and we thought creating a subscriber mailing list would be the fairest way to ensure that our regulars would be able to have a strong chance of getting a copy of an album before they sold out. Since we increased the run-count to 100, we’ve found that albums practically never sell out in days, so we feel there’s enough time for everyone to check out our new records. Of course, if things change this will review it as we value those who collect everything!
Finally, we will be releasing the albums two at a time. This is our way to make up for lost time but also, there’s the added bonus for those who plan to buy both albums in one go, as an extra copy will not increase the shipping cost and we don’t charge for a second item.
Onto our new releases then, first we have a beautifully minimal package completely designed and created by the artist. Some will remember Jens Pauly’s ‘Vihne’ from last year, which has long since sold out. Jens’ style is a deep and melancholic concoction of warm, textured drones. Fans of 12k artists such as Seaworthy, Marcus Fischer or Taylor Deupree should be all ears to this new one, ‘Below‘ and those who grabbed blochemy’s ‘nebe‘ from us earlier this year should also enjoy this. The sound has emerged from the dust of ‘Vihne’ into the peace and calm of ‘Below’. The packaging features a cover image taken by the artist last autumn, with minimal white inner panels and a flash of cobalt blue for the vinyl-CD itself.
The album will be released on Saturday the 27th of June with no pre-order. If you join our mailing list using the link below, we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.
Whitelabrecs low-run releases are likely to sell out fast. The best way to keep informed is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE
press release
“After a 3 month hiatus of physical releases, we’re delighted to have come through the other side to be able to resume our schedule of vinyl-effect CDrs. The catalog resumes with ‘Below’ by Cologne, Germany’s Jens Pauly, an artist whose album ‘Vihne’ was released by us last year.
Vihne is a ‘city’ album, full of dust and artificial light whereas Below is more free and open as it was inspired by the natural world. The cover image was taken by Jens last Autumn and in this record, he tried to reflect the peaceful moments he experienced during this time. There’s a calmness to the sound underpinned by a satisfying melancholy, as we take in these breezy reflections.
Below perpetuates the subtle beauty of a timeless moment. It’s fragile, and yet, in all its reduced textures, it’s demanding in its overall emotional undergrowth – closely intertwined in hope and yearning.”
credits
Written and produced by Jens Pauly
Mastered by Salz mastering
Artwork and design by Jens Pauly
Words by Ralph Schmidt
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