Prophecy Productions is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 located in Zeltingen-Rachtig

Zeltingen-Rachtig

Zeltingen-Rachtig is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...

, founded by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims being a "label for eerie emotional music", which roughly comprises artists with a dark metal, black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

, or neofolk

Neofolk

Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...

 background, but a unique and unconventional approach to music.

History

Since 1993, Martin Koller used the moniker Prophecy for his small, self-operated mail-order business. According to him, the actual birth of Prophecy Productions as a label was the release of the album A Wintersunset... by Empyrium

Empyrium

Empyrium is a German symphonic folk/doom metal and neofolk/dark folk band.- Band's history :Empyrium was founded in 1994 by Markus Stock and Andreas Bach, but later many other participated....

. While this record was intended to be the sole release under the name of Prophecy, the success of it encouraged Koller to continue the label. In 1998, the place of business was moved from Wittlich

Wittlich

The town of Wittlich is the seat of the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and thereby the middle centre for a feeder area of 56 municipalities in the Eifel and Moselle area with its population of roughly 64,000...

 to nearby Zeltingen-Rachtig

Zeltingen-Rachtig

Zeltingen-Rachtig is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...

, and a long-term cooperation was decided on with Markus Stock and his recording studio Klangschmiede Studio E to ensure a continuous high standard for Prophecy's music productions. The year 2002 saw Prophecy emerge as a book publisher as well, the first release being the German translation of the book Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan

Michael Moynihan (journalist)

Michael Moynihan is an American journalist, publisher and musician. He is best known for co-writing the book Lords of Chaos, about black metal....

 and Didrik Søderlind. In 2005, they released the book Looking for Europe, a history of apocalyptic folk by Andreas Diesel and Dieter Gerten. In the meantime, Index Verlag continues the book-publishing business.

Concept

On their admission, it is Prophecy's underlying idea to release "high-quality, 'eerie emotional' music." Their goal is to enchant listeners not only by the music, but also by beautifully designed products. Prophecy isn't restricted to just one specific style of music. On the label's roster, there is a wide range from dark metal via intense acoustic music to progressive and indie rock, not shying away from unconventional music of every stripe. The label's releases aren't bound to any particular genre, even though the majority of them are from the fields of black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

, rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

/metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, and neofolk

Neofolk

Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...

 but sometimes also pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

.

Sub-labels

In 2003, the sub-labels Lupus Lounge and Auerbach Tonträger were founded, mainly out of practical considerations: the different labels were meant as a sort of guidance for the audience, and they were considered helpful to press and distribution partners in classifying Prophecy's diversified output. While Lupus Lounge primarily is a platform for cooperation with musicians from the black metal genre, Auerbach Tonträger is principally devoted to styles of music that, because of predominantly acoustic arrangements and a more tranquil nature, can be described as contemporary folk in the widest sense of the word.

External links

• Official Homepage
• Prophecy Productions at MySpace
  MySpace
  Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....