Tag: Chris Dooks

Out Now! Various Artists – The Home Diaries

We’re delighted to get back to making CDs again after our break over December. It was good to have some down time and to do some planning too but it’s wonderful to be back, with our exciting schedule for 2021.
We’d like to thank all of those who supported us over this period, getting involved with our winter sale. Our stock cupboard is looking lighter and at last there is some space in the drawer for this year’s release schedule!

First up is the double-album Home Diaries compilation, which includes a track from each of the 30 Home Diaries releases from last year. For those unfamiliar, Home Diaries was an invitation to artists to write a record about their situation in lockdown. It was a digital only series, put together to keep our label going after we had to stop releasing CDs.

We know that many prefer a physical edition and so we wanted to create something so that those who do are able to experience this series in some way. So we decided to go all out on the packaging for this one. There is a standard double gatefold edition as well as an ultra deluxe edition, in which the double gatefold CD is contained within a gold foil-printed matchbox, which also includes a booklet which contains a photo of each artist’s home.

There were only around 65 copies of the ultra deluxe to sell after artist allocations, and these have sold out already having been snapped up quickly by our subscribers. However, at the time of writing we have around 50 copies of the standard double album edition, which we feel is still quite a spectacle in itself. It’s complete with the cover artwork, which is an oil painting by Adrian Lane who re-imagined the original series cover.

Our low-run releases will be made available suddenly without official release dates, meaning they’re 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
“It’s fair to say that the events of the year 2020 will go down as quite a year and may form a large part of the history curriculum for the children of tomorrow. The pandemic is of course just part of the story, against a backdrop of political unrest, climate change and injustice too.

Whitelabrecs was affected with the closure of our local post office, meaning we were unable to ship our CDs. We also felt we had a duty not to hold up a queue of people and decided to stop production of our catalog. During that time, to make sure we still had a label left to return to, we launched the ambitious Home Diaries series. It ran for 3 months and in that relatively short space of time, the series reached 30 releases!

Home Diaries was an invitation to artists and musicians to create an album or EP to document their personal experience during the lockdown or social distancing conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The series reflects a range of sounds, styles and ideas, as each artist portrayed their own reflections uniquely, available as a digital only edition including a bonus interview and photos.
Each of the 30 digital editions in the Home Diaries series is an individual work of art, created to share the varying experiences felt by each artist.

This compilation album pulls together a track from each record, sequenced in a way that flows as a specially curated environment, over the course of two CDs. We have two versions available as follows:

A standard edition, which is a double-disc gatefold vinyl-effect CDr album, featuring a re-interpretation of the original cover artwork, painted by Adrian Lane.

A deluxe matchbox edition, in which the double-disc gatefold vinyl-effect CDr is housed inside a gold foil-etched box, which also contains a booklet which includes a photo from each artist’s home during lockdown. This version serves as a time capsule into the original series; a keepsake which is limited to just 70 copies.

If you opt for the digital version, this also includes the photo booklet as a bonus PDF item.“

credits
Released January 23, 2021

Painting and artwork by Adrian Lane
Booklet images provided by each respective artist
Packaging layout by Harry Towell
Compilation curated by Harry Towell

All tracks mastered by James Edward Armstrong, except:
12 ‘Out In The Open’ Mastered by John Hannon
17 ‘Distance Learning’ Mastered by Michael Southard
29 -‘Stanze e Distanze (part 2)’ Mastered by Francis M. Gri

Home Diaries 010: Chris Dooks

We’ve taken a pause from our schedule of CD albums due to our local post office closing, following the outbreak of Covid19. We launched a digital series called Home Diaries, in which we’ll release EPs and albums by an international line-up of artists, with the music created during lockdown and social distancing conditions.

The series reflects a range of sounds, styles and ideas, as each artist portrays their own reflections uniquely. Each release is digital only for now, as we hope to raise what we can to help keep our label ticking over at this time. The releases feature a recurring polaroid image of a small lonely house, with a coloured filter chosen by the artist for each respective release.

We’re now at 10 releases in our Home Diaries series today, as we welcome Edinburgh, Scotland’s Chris Dooks. Chris has released with labels such as Hibernate, Eilean and Idioholism and has even worked with Machinefabriek in a collaboration! Drones for The Borders is a five track mini-album of dynamic synths, field recordings and short wave radio. It includes music/video drone footage of the landscape near to the border, not far from where he lives. This record deals with this landscape, the drone footage and themes of failing communication too.

We have an exciting line-up to follow and each release will include bonus PDF liner notes, which has an interview with the artist on how they made the album, what their situation is like, what they have planned, their influences and what equipment/techniques they used.  There are also additional photos provided by the artist as part of the PDF too. Click on the link below to check it out:

-LABEL LINK-
https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/home-diaries-010

-ARTIST LINK-
https://chrisdooks.bandcamp.com/album/drones-for-the-borders

press release
“Home Diaries is an invitation to artists and musicians to create an album or EP to document their personal experience during the lockdown or social distancing conditions that are upon us, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The series reflects a range of sounds, styles and ideas, as each artist portrays their own reflections uniquely. Each release is digital only for now, as we hope to raise what we can to help keep our label ticking over at this time. The releases feature a recurring polaroid image of a small lonely house, with a coloured filter chosen by the artist for each respective release. We interview each artist and this is included as a bonus PDF with the download. You can also check out the Home Diaries series on Spotify if you prefer, which will be available to stream in due course.

For our tenth release, we’re joined by Edinburgh, UK based artist Chris Dooks who as well as being active in the photographic field, has releases on Hibernate, Eilean Rec, Idioholism and Komino. The latter was a collaboration with the prolific Machinefabriek for an album titled The Eskdalemuir Harmonium which was pressed to red vinyl back in 2012.

Chris and his family have remained indoors more frequently than others during lockdown, to shield themselves from risk. Drones for The Borders is a five track mini album of synth, field recordings and short wave radio. The work is full of dynamic character and wide ranging moods lending themselves to the landscape of the borders, which Chris captures during recorded drone flights. Themes of communication failure also bleed into the grand, wide-open spaces of this record, as the fuzz of short-wave radio hums. A short video for Soutra Aisle has been included as a bonus item as part of this Home Diaries release.”

credits
Written and produced by Chris Dooks
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Artwork by Harry Towell