Ezra Buchla “A Cruel Man” / “Hail Nothing”

05 Apr 2013 — Henning Lahmann

Spending a good deal of his time as a fellow at Berlin's University of the Arts, Gerhard Schultz founded Care Of Editions in October of last year, a label set out to explore 'the relationship between physical and digital distribution through the means of an experimental business model', as stated on its website. A finite project limited to six releases in total over the course of 2012 and this year, in essence the label pays people to download their releases; to do so, it's using the profits from vinyl sales of those same albums. On the foundation of that concept lies an intriguing yet pretty complicated model based on the idea of 'negative money':

Payments for downloads are funded in real time, as records sell, so the downloads become unavailable whenever there's insufficient money coming in from the vinyl. The amount of money a person would receive is tied to the download number, so it starts with one dollar and increases by one dollar for every download. Each edition contains 118 vinyl and 45 downloads. The last person to download would get 45 dollars.

As I said, it's really rather difficult to grasp, but nonetheless well worth your time, so I'd recommend you read the whole story over here, or, if you happen to have a day off or no plans for the weekend, you may also want to read Schultz's essay on the label's concept, which is available right here.

Though based in Berlin, musically, Care Of Editions focuses on the Los Angeles experimental music scene, with artists whose work is rooted in variants of musique concrète, with defining components of drone and noise. The latest release, Ezra Buchla's At the Door, is the most accessible record so far. The LP comprises four tracks, three on the a-side and a single 20-minute musing on the flip side. Buchla creates immersive, intricate, and at times overwhelming soundscapes carried by masterful viola and synth renditions, broken up only by his dark yet soft, almost hushed voice. Check out two of the tracks below, "A Cruel Man" and "Hail Nothing".

At the Door is out now. Get it here. Highly recommended.