23 Mar 2012 — Henning Lahmann
With
Portals, the world has already seen the birth of one exciting collective web venture in 2012, and with
Ad Hoc, of course, we hope you'll see another great one starting soon. In between however and with much less fuss, a third collective webzine was recently founded, one that in terms of ambition and sense of mission might very well surpass all other similar projects.
Amour & Discipline, online since March 8, is the brainchild of Lyon-based Olivié and "two other pretentious snobbish idealistic d.i.y. activists" who've been working hard to make this internet-age dream come true for quite some time, at least since last August, when they first contacted us to present their, indeed breathtaking, concept (By the way, those folks sure have a knack for thoroughness and curious methods to deliver their message. That first mail aptly started with the words, "Life is short, but this e-mail is endless.").
Amour & Discipline is not a collective webzine. I mean it is, and to be clear, it's set to become one of the best out there, gathering contributions by distinguished cultural authorities as widespread and illustrious as imaginable, including bloggers such as 20 Jazz Funk Greats or Weed Temple, labels such as Aguirre, Dekorder, or Upset the Rhythm, and a whole bunch of artists including countless NFOP favorites like Ensemble Economique, Ela Orleans, Dirty Beaches, Julian Lynch, or Sun Araw, to name but a few. It is
here where all those beautiful people from now on will submit their musings about all aspects of our cherished global underground cultures, in a manner and with a passion that only two weeks after launching should already force half of the blogosphere to fall silent (including us, probably).
But as I said, it's so much more than that. Amour & Discipline is also a mission, a mission to make us change the way we think about music and arts in a digitalized world. In their
"Breathtaking Full Manifesto" (and indeed it is long, but here's also the
"Short, Reductive and Incomplete Manifesto For Those in a Hurry"), the site's initiators conceive nothing less than an alternative model to fund and financially support musicians based on the concept of a
gift economy that is, to leave no doubt, "not about guilt, but common decency". Via the site's
Donation Platform that will go online soon, people will be able to give money "to any independent band or label in the universe". That's it, and of course it's both a bold assertion and a grand gesture, and an experiment, but one that is surely worth trying out. And above all, it's most likely just the amount of unashamed idealism we all could use these days.
Anything else? Have I mentioned that the site's design is truly unique and totally beautiful? Well, I guess I have now. Check it out,
seriously.
