New Albion Records began in San Francisco in 1984. It was a record label that centered on modern art music, from a variety of styles. We released about five titles a year and have always searched for the most unusual and distinctive voices in composition. Some of our recordings are considered to be among the finest examples of their kind, including work by Ingram Marshall, Lou Harrison, Morton Feldman, John Cage, Somei Satoh, Terry RIley; a collection of nordic folk song; a recital of live solo horn improvisations; a chorus to memorialize the Armenian holocaust; an orchestra of native instruments performed by displaced youth from La Paz, Bolivia; a shakuhachi recital from Japan that is an aural sand garden, et cetera.
We have moved through the eras of the LP, cassette, CD, and now the digital experience. For us the LP was the most intriguing medium, and it defined our idea of how a recording should sound.
A good recording is an experience that shares some values a good book, a visual work of art, and a moment in a daydream can offer - it has no literate meaning yet it is evocative. It creates and invokes feelings. It is what the mind sees when the eyes close. Some music is about a world that is far away, a distant universe; some of it is the cry of tragedy; some of it is the rapture of the ecstatic. It can make you laugh. It can make you cry.
