Spheruleus

Out Now! Harry Towell & Friends – Petrologist’s Lens

Here’s our first release of 2023 which is called ‘Petrologist’s Lens‘ by our label owner Harry Towell as Harry Towell & Friends. It was made in collaboration with 12 artists who have had 2 or more releases on Whitelabrecs over the years. This album is out today in two runs of 100 CDrs; a standard gold edition, and a special marble-effect version. Both packaging versions include a 16 page booklet in our gatefold vinyl-effect. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll keep you updated when we have new releases.

press release
“Whitelabrecs label owner Harry Towell is perhaps best renowned for his long-standing Spheruleus project, with a discography listing releases on Lost Tribe Sound, Home Normal, Time Released Sound, Hibernate and Eilean, as well as his collaborations alongside Sven Laux, Guy Gelem, Ekca Liena and more. Harry returns to his own label, following 2021’s ‘Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires’ and EPs ‘Absent Frames’ and ‘Inaugurate’, in this special collaborative album called ‘Petrologist’s Lens’.

January is a month we usually reserve for a compilation album, such as our Sleeplaboratory series. This year Harry decided to invite 12 artists who had contributed more than 2 releases on Whitelabrecs to submit a short sketch or sample, and then he developed these into the tracks that make up this album. As with some of his more recent work, this album is created under his own name, but with ‘& friends’ added to credit the label artists and good friends which he has worked alongside.

The title ‘Petrologist’s Lens’ nods to the concept of this body of work, which is rooted in the ancient geological history of the earth. Harry studied the land history of the areas where his collaborators reside, to help form a title for each piece. Tracks are named after particular fragments of rock or sediments, land regions or fossils for example, and the compositions were developed in a way which mimics the layering of these. The layers tell a story, giving clues of how they came to be. Sonically, filigree details and eroded tape textures ride waves of modern classical orchestration, ambient drones and electronics.

The packaging for this release features cover artwork by Soraya Kornblum, an art student in Adrian Lane’s class, submitted to Whitelabrecs as part of a school project. Each of the 200 editions include a 16 page booklet with words provided by Neil McRoberts, who transcribed his thoughts after listening to the music and reflecting on the concept. Physical copies are split into two runs; a standard gold disc version and a special marble print deluxe edition.“

credits

Written and produced by Harry Towell
Additional production and inspiration provided by Adrian Lane, Andrew Heath, Blochemy, Edu Comelles, Glåsbird, Guy Gelem, James Edward Armstrong, Paweł Pruski, Phil Tomsett, Polaroid Notes, Simon McCorry, Sven Laux

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Coming soon… Harry Towell & Friends – Petrologist’s Lens

Our first release of 2023 is ‘Petrologist’s Lens‘ by our label owner Harry Towell as Harry Towell & Friends, in collaboration with 12 artists who have had 2 or more releases on Whitelabrecs over the years. This album will be available officially in two runs of 100 CDrs; a standard gold edition, and a special marble-effect version. Both packaging versions include a 16 page booklet in our gatefold vinyl-effect sleeves and will be out officially on Saturday the 14th of January after a pre-order on the 7th of January. If you follow us on Bandcamp (Click HERE) we’ll make sure you’re the first to hear.

credits

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

New series: eRecords

Whitelabrecs was set-up in 2016, originally releasing hand made CDrs that looked just like mini white label vinyl, complete with accompanying Polaroid art and title stamped in coloured ink. In 2018 we switched to printed gatefold vinyl effect CDrs and since the beginning, we’ve occasionally released digital work too.

We’re aware that the listening habits of future generations will change, with their needs increasingly likely to search for something immediate, streamable to Bluetooth speakers, space saving, and not impacting the environment. We still love our CDs, we still love vinyl, but we do love digital too and this format will always have a place in our catalog. The problem however has been that we love designing concepts, coming up with creative packaging ideas and sourcing high quality artwork. We’ve felt that digital has its drawbacks in terms of design and conveying that special feeling you get when you hold a physical edition.

Slowly, we have been working on a new series of digital editions to supplement our CDs. This will be a new space for artists to experiment, collaborate, record anonymously, promote themselves, not to mention an increased chance of featuring in our catalog. We receive so many quality demos that would be a good fit for the label, but making CDs is expensive and we have to agonise over every penny spent on making them, such is the landscape of selling physical music nowadays. This is an opportunity for us to work with more talented people, share more music, and for us to experiment more too.

Our new series takes an image of a vinyl sleeve and blank labelled disc, with a rubber-stamped logo and frame, and typewritten artist and title. For each release, colours and artists will change, but the dusty old sleeve design ideas remain the same. You’ll only hear one track on the release’s Bandcamp page and the rest are hidden. Everything is contained within the download which includes a range of high quality audio file format options and a PDF scrapbook which features liner notes, a Polaroid image of the cover art (reminiscent of our early releases), tracklist, credits, additional images and links from the artist. The duration of the music will not exceed the maximum length of a normal vinyl album and we hope that our digital releases are the closest they can be to capturing that magical feeling of holding a physical album, in a digital form.

Our first edition of the new eRecords series is from Whitelabrecs’ very own Harry Towell, under his Spheruleus project which has been active since 2008. The EP will be out on the 26th of February and fittingly, is entitled ‘Inaugurate’ as the series commences.

For eRecords, we will not create the 5 minute Soundcloud previews of all the tracks. Instead, we will share one full track or an excerpt from the record to give you a hint of what the full release sounds like.
Click on the player above, where you can take a listen to ‘a blank horizon’ from the very first eRecord in this new series.

Out Now! Spheruleus – Absent Frames

Absent Frames by Spheruleus is released today for Bandcamp Friday in digital only formats. The best way to keep informed about our releases is to join our mailing list which can be located through our website menu or you can click HERE

press release
“Spheruleus is the long-standing artist name of Whitelabrecs owner Harry Towell, with releases outside of his own label appearing on the likes of Fluid Audio, Home Normal, Hibernate and Lost Tribe Sound. The project has been active since the netlabel days of 2009 and he has also collaborated with artists such as Sven Laux, Pleq and Ekca Liena. This new EP called Absent Frames is a short, conceptual work that delves back to his early work as a sound artist.

Harry had discovered some old field recordings he captured onto an Olympus digital recorder between 2007 and 2009. On listening to the collection, there were very few sounds that he could relate to; most were rain, birdsong or poorly recorded out-takes. In some cases, forgotten memories were recalled and overlapping events became a little clearer. But a clear and complete picture could not be recalled, due to the time that had elapsed and the lack of information to jog his memory.

The medium used to capture a moment in time does not record every tiny detail. A field recording doesn’t capture the visual experiences or tell you the location. For example, the rain droplets you hear could be from anywhere on the planet. A photograph does not always tell the story, the scent, the mood, the location. We use memory to recall the detail if we were present, but some of the detail may be stored in our subconscious or perhaps lost completely. We may easily recall some or most of the experience, but parts may be missing from even the most vivid of memories.

Recently, Harry took a photo of a swan swimming one evening in a local lake called Rutland Water. He can still recall the events earlier that day, the time of night, the section of the lake that his family were stood by, the time that they left the car park. The original photograph gave plenty of detail that would help him recall the memories from when it was taken. To match the theme of Absent Frames, Harry edited the image by replacing the horizon along the water surface, with the cloudy sky of a completely different image, from which memories will be much harder to recall.

Absent Frames is an EP consisting of two mid-length drone pieces, placing multiple field recordings at different volumes, along with drones to which he added multiple effects chains. The intent was to further blur the recordings, to make the content even harder to distinguish. So that in years to become, this theme becomes even more poignant.”

credits
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography and artwork by Harry Towell

Out Now! Spheruleus – Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires

The second of our new releases for March out today, sees the return of our label owner Harry Towell as Spheruleus. Harry has not released a CD on his label since 2016’s Obsolarium and with Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires he presents a double album of lockdown sound diaries. Some may recall Canvas Homes from Harry’s Home Diaries edition but 2nd Disc Supplémentaires is a new album, created during November’s lockdown mark II.

This limited edition double CDr edition uses photographs Harry captured during family walks as cover artwork and the sounds within these records cover field recordings, acoustic instrument sketches, household sounds and orchestral tones.

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
“Spheruleus is Lincolnshire, UK based artist Harry Towell, who also runs Whitelabrecs and records alongside his brother Stuart as Paper Relics. Harry has been active in the modern Ambient music scene for over a decade and has released works with labels such as Eilean, Hibernate, Home Normal and Time Released Sound. His output on his own imprint has been scarce however, limited to one CD edition ‘Obsolarium’, released back in 2016.

We launched last year’s digital Home Diaries series off the back of ‘Canvas Homes’ which was a sonic diary of life at home during lockdown. The recording for this album began around 1 year ago with three key sound elements: field recordings, sketches made using acoustic instruments and MIDI keyboard arrangements. The sketches were all captured during brief 1-2 minute recordings to an iPhone whilst in his daughter Isla’s playroom. She unwittingly became part of the album and a positive constant during the strange events that were unfolding across the spring and summer. Walks out into local parks and woodlands became a source of field recordings and a connection to the natural world. Then evenings were a time of reflection and processing, as the sounds captured were orchestrated into tracks.

In November another lockdown was announced and Harry decided to repeat the process as a compare and contrast from his original process. The idea to create a second album began with the assembly of a new item of furniture for Isla’s room which arrived from France. A bag of spare fixings was labelled ‘Supplémentaires’ and Harry decided to set about a series of additional recordings with a view to release it as part of a double album. This time, the weather had turned cold resulting in a different lockdown altogether, with more time spent indoors. Isla had grown considerably in the space of just 6 months and her speech was much clearer. A familiarity with the ‘new normal’ also seems to have translated into the music, with longer, cosier tracks drawing out the winter months. There are more moments of calm and warmth; ‘les dormeurs’ was created at low volume one afternoon, as the household napped. ‘notre cocon’ establishes a sleepy comfort in the descent towards the festive period before ‘le résumé’ plays out a recollection of the year 2020, with Harry using every field recording he’d captured during this most eventful of years. The cover photograph was captured during a family walk in the summer; a reflective gaze into the local ‘Bourne Eau’.“

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

Coming soon…Spheruleus – Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires

The second of our new releases for March sees the return of our label owner Harry Towell as Spheruleus. Harry has not released a CD on his label since 2016’s Obsolarium and with Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires he presents a double album of lockdown sound diaries. Some may recall Canvas Homes from Harry’s Home Diaries edition but 2nd Disc Supplémentaires is a new album, created during November’s lockdown mark II.

The album will be released on Saturday the 20th of March 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

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

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 006: Spheruleus

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 overat 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.

Next we welcome our label owner Harry, who records as Spheruleus. He hasn’t released with Whitelabrecs since the year we launched back in 2016 and his Home Diaries submission follows last year’s Light Through Open Blinds on Lost Tribe Sound. Canvas Homes is the working title and it makes use of guitar and ukulele sketches made whilst working from home and then when furloughed from work, whilst his daughter Isla played around the house. In the evenings, Harry expanded these sketches into electro-acoustic compositions, adding field recordings and orchestral textures using a MIDI keyboard.

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-006

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 sixth release, our label owner Harry Towell returns to the catalog for the first time since 2016’s Obsolarium. Harry records as Spheruleus and has released with labels such as Hibernate, Home Normal and most recently, Lost Tribe Sound with vinyl edition Light Through Open Blinds. This was an album about Harry’s first year or so as a home owner, when he recorded acoustic instruments and set it against various household recordings to preserve the experience.

This new Spheruleus album effectively became the spark to create the Home Diaries series. Harry recorded short guitar or ukulele sketches during the day as his daughter Isla played, before adapting these into tracks at night. Canvas Homes is a sonic diary of the events that unfolded, telling tales of Harry’s experience of lockdown, as he spent the time at home with his family. The work takes on the raw and unplanned nature of the acoustic sketches, adorned with documentary field recordings and orchestral MIDI textures.”

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

Out Now! Various Artists – Sleeplaboratory2.0

2019 was a truly landmark year for us, with our new gatefold-LP packaging style being so well received, not to mention all of the support and great feedback we received from fans and the press alike. We started the year with a special compilation album themed on sleep; Sleeplaboratory1.0. We’re delighted to launch a new decade and exciting times ahead with the follow-up to this series, Sleeplaboratory2.0. We’ve been working behind the scenes on this one since last summer and we’re proud of the results in an album which features established artists within the scene, alongside label familiar favourites.

Sleeplaboratory2.0 was released to subscribers of our mailing list last weekend and unfortunately these have now sold out already! You can still stream the album on Bandcamp and of course, grab a digital version by clicking the link below or image above. To avoid missing out on future releases, you can join our mailing list HERE

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/sleeplaboratory20

press release
“Sleeplaboratory is a compilation series that we launched in 2019 and the success of this effectively launched our printed gatefold-LP style CDrs which featured all of last year. The Sleeplaboratory1/.0 compilation was created as a special celebration for our fiftieth release and we enjoyed the concept so much, that we decided to run another one. Sleeplaboratory2.0 continues the themes of sleep, rest and personal reflection, not necessarily aiming to meet the current trend of mindfulness and well-being but instead, it intends to rest the listener in a way that is appropriate to them.

The idea was originally came about after our label owner Harry and his wife had a baby daughter, Isla. Harry curated a full-length compilation to help soothe his daughter to sleep and whilst Isla hasn’t needed much of a helping hand where sleep is concerned, he was keen to continue this project as a series. Throughout much of last year, we have been working on a follow-up, inviting artists to meet this sleepy brief of minimalist Ambient tones. We’ve invited familiar label artists back as well as established names and perhaps you’ll see that the odd one or two go on to have releases with us later this year.

Over the 16 tracks, a serene and enveloping environment is established. The physical product is as usual presented across four printed panels and this time, artwork is provided by Harry’s wife Beth in an image taken on a family day out. As usual, we will not make any recommendation on how our listeners might best enjoy this record and so it’s down to you to choose the best environment to listen, whether this be late at night with headphones, on a loud system or perhaps played through Bluetooth speakers in and around your home.”

credits
Curated by Harry Towell
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Photography by Bethany Towell
Packaging design by Harry Towell

Coming soon…Various Artists – Sleeplaboratory2.0

Whitelabrecs 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