Altrock, the label

[aith01]

I've been carrying around this particular bit of poison for over a dozen years. Maybe it is time to let some light and air in.

[...]

Like I said, I knew it was all over when that happened. It just took a while for me to realize I couldn't fight those forces and those trends and that mindset.

Holy cow, Steve... That's terrible. I'm sorry.

Thank you for sharing that story. It's certainly enlightening; indicative of the larger problem, sadly.

[Buddhabreath]

What a depressing thread. Who knows what will happen in the future, there have been dark ages and awakenings before, but it is truly dire on the music selling side for all but the chosen few and the corporate shills just now.

On the bright side, the online community has had the effect of increasing communication and disseminating information which has contributed to a renaissance of guitar playing IMO: there are now so many fantastic players pushing the envelope more than ever before and great teachers like the oft-mentioned Rick Beato out there that are raising the bar.

That RIO story of your's Steve is truly harrowing: "Hi Steve, here's how I'm helping to destroy your beloved business and life's passion, aren't I great?". Un-fucking-believable!.

[Steve F.]

That RIO story of your's Steve is truly harrowing: "Hi Steve, here's how I'm helping to destroy your beloved business and life's passion, aren't I great?". Un-fucking-believable!.

Nah, man! He was spreading the word. Obviously doing a much better job of it than I was. If I'd been doing it right, he wouldn't have needed to do the work he felt he had to do....

[Buddhabreath]

^^^ well I'm glad yer keeping yer sense of humor anyway - otherwise the buggers truly win. ;-)

[pwawrzyn]

hey guys,

i've been promoting altrock for years and we (Camembert) were the first french band signed on it. We were 25. Altrock was a dream come true. A collective of artist united by a charismatic and kind hearted duo of guys (Francesco Zago and Marcello Marinone). When it grew up, Altrock organized its own festival. Bands were interacting together (First camembert features F. Zago, Ske features Camembert, ..... so many exchanges). Altrock created a family of people/friends who are still united.

And then Marcello had less time for the label because of life, which is perfectly normal.
Then the label was sold to maracash.

Suddenly the artists were badly treated (no cds were sent to them, contracts were amateurish, no promotion was made...). The family spirit dissapeared in the cloud of money making. We were at least 5 bands to be f*** by no communication and nothing. Marcello tried to do his best to solve the problem but the label wasn't his label anymore. Our second album Negative Toe wasn't even sent to the french jazz magazines i asked for. I'm so freaking angry with that lack of promotion that i won't shut up on this topic.

For Camembert (and now many more) the consequence is that we will go somewhere else (maybe autoproduction maybe a non-prog label). What we expect from a label now is promotion in order to get GIGS. Gigs are the best way for a band to exist and to get some money for making music.

We reissued Schnörgl Attahk on our own.
We will make a crowdfunding for a new EP to be released in May 2020.

Autoproduction-Gigs-Crowdfunding are the 3 thing we can do to fill the hole that the end of the golden altrock years left and keep up doing our music.

Anyway, Marcello, thank you from the bottom of the heart for allowing us to exist.
Hugs.

[Steve F.]

^ ^ ^ ^

hey Pierre,

That's a REALLY nice tribute. I know it will make Marcello extremely happy if he sees it [and you should make certain that he sees it!]

I'm sure Marcello knows how everyone he worked with [that includes Wayside Music in a different but related capacity] feels about his very good work on behalf of the music for many years, but it doesn't hurt to remind him of it!

I'm just sorry that it wasn't sustainable for him.

[pwawrzyn]

^ ^ ^ ^

hey Pierre,

That's a REALLY nice tribute. I know it will make Marcello extremely happy if he sees it [and you should make certain that he sees it!]

I'm sure Marcello knows how everyone he worked with [that includes Wayside Music in a different but related capacity] feels about his very good work on behalf of the music for many years, but it doesn't hurt to remind him of it!

I'm just sorry that it wasn't sustainable for him.

Steve, it's just the dream i lived in. No exaggeration. I wish i could reform something like this but much more on the dur-et-doux format.

Still, now, we need some gigs as many other prog bands and labels are not doing that really right now. This is why self production seems not such a bad idea....

[smcfee]

I'm sympathetic to Marcello. Often when trying to make things better in this scene, the best case scenario is you survive to do it a bit longer, and the worst case is it all blows up in your face. The people who have been able to sustain things for decades deserve a big hand.

[Marcello]

Hi guys, thank you all for the nice words!
But I'm still alive! :-) My contacts are the same you can keep in touch with me guys whatever you want! :-)
It's really complicated to explain in a few words why a label/collective like AltrOck was forced to stop the activities. Whatever project you want to build it's necessary to help it to become a business. Without earning money you can't sustain it only with the passion and your work, because if you have a life, family...you can't pay the costs of a life with the passion...:-/
Not in a specific order but fans, bands, some "not professional" labels got responsibility on this, but in general I think the real problem is that the music business, not only for not-conventional music, is in a big decline.
The discussion on this matters is too big and probably boring...
Staying on topic I can say I'll make again some productions sooner or later, because the music still remain in my heart and mind, so I'll keep you updated guys!
Hugs to all of you and to my uncle Steve! :-D

[thedunno]

Thanks for all the wonderful music you brought us over the years Marcello!

I just played Chance: Risiko again. What a helluva find this band was.

Maybe my all time favorite Altrock release is The Blue Ship. A band that I probably would never have found if Altrock had not brought it under my attention.

[Udi Koomran]

Good to hear from you Marcello

[ske]

It feels nice to see so much love towards something as meaningful to me as AltrOck was.
Reading those labelmates names brought back lots of memories.

Sadly I have fewer and fewer time these days/months/years to share thoughts about the music we love.
This website choose to remind me that, with the following:
"Your password is 602 days old, and has therefore expired."
LOL/

I have read all the thread with much interest. The topic is sad and hard to swallow. The world nowadays is crazy fast. Maybe we are going to be in even deeper shit, in the future. But hey, we never liked simple things, did we?

On a brighter side, I have not stopped making music. Baby children take most of my day time these days, but I still have the nights. I have /almost/ finished to score the new SKE (still trying to understand if I need this one last tune or not, but really it's over), Marcello will help me on that as in good old days, so...there you go. Still alive!
I will post some demos and more infos soon enough.
This is just to say...that with or without the AltrOck name on it...it will still be AltrOck in our hearts
Take care
SKe

[Marcello]

Thanks for all the wonderful music you brought us over the years Marcello!

I just played Chance: Risiko again. What a helluva find this band was.

Maybe my all time favorite Altrock release is The Blue Ship. A band that I probably would never have found if Altrock had not brought it under my attention.

Thank you bro!

[Marcello]

Good to hear from you Marcello

Ciao Udi, my friend!

[Steve F.]

Uncle Steve hugs you back!

[aith01]

Cheers, Marcello. Thank you for helping some truly wonderful music to find its audience. Good to hear from you.

[NogbadTheBad]

Hi Marcello, thanks for all the music! Got a bunch of gems from you guys.

[Trane]

Hi Marcello, thanks for all the music! Got a bunch of gems from you guys.

absolutely

Take care and let us know when you're planning to climb back on the horse, Marcello

[Steve F.]

absolutely

Take care and let us know when you're planning to climb back on the horse, Marcello

Yes! He'd like to know when he can check them out of his library.

[Trane]

Yes! He'd like to know when he can check them out of his library.

Post #7 to see that I own some 20 Altrock albums, Mr Mean Spirit.


Out of curiosity, I checked out how many Altrock releases are on their catalogue and it came up empty, so they've got none there.

and only 9 Moonjune.

[NogbadTheBad]

Post #7 to see that I own some 20 Altrock albums, Mr Mean Spirit. :P


Out of curiosity, I checked out how many Altrock releases are on their catalogue and it came up empty.

Looks like I have around 55.

[Steve F.]

Mr Mean Spirit. :P

It's nice work if you can get it....and I got it!

[Scrotum Scissor]

Listening to Autumn Chorus' The Village of the Vale from 2012, one of only two British acts to release anything on AltrOck - the other being ultra-quirky 'metamodernist' concept-project/ensemble a.P.A.t.T.

I suppose the beguiling divergence or diversity displayed between the two of them somehow serves to explain a) why the label as such could arguably never have hoped to survive indefinitely (who does?) with such a determined commitment to avant-garde "abstractions" in a day when even a term such as "progressive rock" means near-to-nothing, and b) there's no actual or real "progressive community/scene" either.

This album is -so- much a piece positively and/or symptomatically of its time, both in musical influences and expressions and thus also in tokens of cultural confusion. A young quartet with one amazingly ambitious release to its merit (I dunno if they were ever a performing unit), I must say that I find it almost puzzling how such a grand-scale, thoroughly through-arranged and -produced work of modern UK rock music could simply vanish into oblivion with intended audiences. In terms of overall sonic scope they remind me somewhat of US concept-band The Mandrake Project (who released the excellent A Miraculous Container in 2009), although arguably even more introvert yet dramatic in sound. The "tunes" are basically gross-form frames of tentatively emotional visualizations on melody, delivered on canvas as massive as a flicker-theatre exposition but all about the moment of hearing. Sources yield from Sigur Rós and Mogwai through Roy Harper and Jackie Leven to Radiohead and what reminds almost uncannily of Ed Droste's voice from Grizzly Bear. In other words, somewhere between post-rock, contemporary cinematic-psychedelic and experimental singer-songwriter.

I just realized that one of the band members passed away (in his 30s) a few years back, which of course could go a long way in explaining how they ceased operations. What a shame.

I keep wondering how a release such as this would have fared if it said 'Wilson' on the cover.

[battema]

Listening to Autumn Chorus' The Village of the Vale from 2012, one of only two British acts to release anything on AltrOck - the other being ultra-quirky 'metamodernist' concept-project/ensemble a.P.A.t.T.

I suppose the beguiling divergence or diversity displayed between the two of them somehow serves to explain a) why the label as such could arguably never have hoped to survive indefinitely (who does?) with such a determined commitment to avant-garde "abstractions" in a day when even a term such as "progressive rock" means near-to-nothing, and b) there's no actual or real "progressive community/scene" either.

This album is -so- much a piece positively and/or symptomatically of its time, both in musical influences and expressions and thus also in tokens of cultural confusion. A young quartet with one amazingly ambitious release to its merit (I dunno if they were ever a performing unit), I must say that I find it almost puzzling how such a grand-scale, thoroughly through-arranged and -produced work of modern UK rock music could simply vanish into oblivion with intended audiences. In terms of overall sonic scope they remind me somewhat of US concept-band The Mandrake Project (who released the excellent A Miraculous Container in 2009), although arguably even more introvert yet dramatic in sound. The "tunes" are basically gross-form frames of tentatively emotional visualizations on melody, delivered on canvas as massive as a flicker-theatre exposition but all about the moment of hearing. Sources yield from Sigur Rós and Mogwai through Roy Harper and Jackie Leven to Radiohead and what reminds almost uncannily of Ed Droste's voice from Grizzly Bear. In other words, somewhere between post-rock, contemporary cinematic-psychedelic and experimental singer-songwriter.

I just realized that one of the band members passed away (in his 30s) a few years back, which of course could go a long way in explaining how they ceased operations. What a shame.

I keep wondering how a release such as this would have fared if it said 'Wilson' on the cover.

It's a lovely album. I sometimes bucket it in with Bauer's "Astronauta Olvidado" probably because both evoked Sigur Rós to my ears but without being clones.

Ha ha...the Mandrake Project got CRAZY rotation too...I moved in 2009 just after it came out and it was one of only about 7-8 CDs that weren't already packed up so for the few weeks until I could get everything else organized those albums got serious attention. As with Autumn Chorus, hasn't been on my playlist of late. Thinking it's time to revisit

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ John, not to derail about the Mandrakes - 'cause I'm binging on ol' AltrOck this evening and will continue espousing impressions thereon - but what on earth ever happened to them, the 'drakes? That Container release is such a mammoth large-scale conceptual production I could hardly get over the apparent ignorance from "usual suspects". Was it financing? In keeping such a demanding endeavour going without fair revenue for a professional staff obviously needed?

This has sure been a crazy decade of descention.