Sterile Records
Encyclopedia
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,...
was formed in London in 1979
1979 in music
See also:Record labels established in 1979* 1979 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1979.-January–February:*January 1...
by Nigel Ayers
Nigel Ayers
Nigel Ayers is a multimedia artist born in Tideswell, Derbyshire, England, in 1957.His sound art has included numerous audio releases and live performances through his genre-busting group Nocturnal Emissions....
and Caroline K
Caroline K
Caroline Kaye Walters , known as Caroline K was an English singer, songwriter and artist/producer. She was a founder member of the UK based Nocturnal Emissions experimental/industrial music group in the 1980s. She co-founded Sterile Records with Nigel Ayers in London in 1980...
of the post-industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
group Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions is a sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music....
. With a background in the mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
networks, their intention was to create and promote a new form of music. Sterile Records’ approach was a combination of the experiments of musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
and Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
combined with the critical eye of conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
and the spontaneity and energy of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. The dark humour of industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
and the incomprehensible nonsense of various ultra-leftist political fractions were an essential part of the mix.
Sterile Records used both commercial and non-commercial media to deliver anti-capitalist messages, multi-coloured noise and information overload
Information overload
"Information overload" is a term popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book Future Shock. It refers to the difficulty a person can have understanding an issue and making decisions that can be caused by the presence of too much information...
. Growing from cassette culture
Cassette culture
Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio cassettes...
, output included records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
and videotapes. Caroline K
Caroline K
Caroline Kaye Walters , known as Caroline K was an English singer, songwriter and artist/producer. She was a founder member of the UK based Nocturnal Emissions experimental/industrial music group in the 1980s. She co-founded Sterile Records with Nigel Ayers in London in 1980...
left the label in 1983.
In 1986
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
the label was effectively dissolved as Ayers turned his attention to setting up the Earthly Delights company.
Discography
Cassettes:Various Standard Response SRC 1 (1979)
Tape zine compilation featuring: Leif Thuresson, Moving Finger, Lieutenant Murnau, S.M. Andrews, Cultural Amnesia, Organbank, The Nocturnal Emissions, MB, Murderwerkers, Johnny Alien, Loss of Head
The Pump Just Want to Dance SRC 2 (1980)
The Nocturnal Emissions Deathday SRC 3 (1980)
S.P.K. Live at the Crypt SRC 4 (1981)
The Nocturnal Emissions Whisky SRC 5 (1982)
Lustmord Lustmordekay SRC 6 (1983)
Nocturnal Emissions Diskinesia SRC 7 (1983)
Various Alchemy SRC 8 (1983)
Soundtrack from the Twinvision video featuring: Portion Control
SPK, Mark Pauline, P & R Rupenus, Andrew Hickinbotham, Test Dept, Robert,
Die Todliche Doris, Nocturnal Emissions, Art Core, Walter Gramming, La Loora,
Lustmord
Nocturnal Emissions Live at the ICA SRC 9 (1985)
Various A Joyful Noise SRC 10 (1990)
Tape zine compilation featuring: Deerpark, Fear of Thought, Blackhouse, Psyclones and Pacific 231, Nocturnal Emissions, Spanner thru ma Beatbox, Sue Ann Harkey, Xaliman and the Orchestrange, Equivalent Insecurity, Front Line Assembly, Club Dill Dough, Collectif et Cie, The Haters, FLETI, Plant Bach Ofnus, Webcore, Schuster
Vinyl:
The Nocturnal Emissions Tissue of Lies EMISS001 LP (1980)
The Nocturnal Emissions Fruiting Body ION2 LP (1981)
MB (Maurizio Bianchi) Symphony For a Genocide SR2 LP (1981)
Lustmord Lustmord LP SR 3(1983)
The Nocturnal Emissions Drowning in a Sea of Bliss SR4 LP (1983)
Nocturnal Emissions Befehlsnotstand SR5 LP (1983)
Nocturnal Emissions Songs of Love and Revolution SR6 LP (1985) with guest vocalist Ian Bone
Ian Bone
Ian Bone , is a prominent British anarchist and an active publisher of anarchist newspapers and tabloids, such as Class War and The Bristolian...
Nocturnal Emissions No Sacrifice 12 inch SR7 EP (1984)
Various Here We Go SR8 LP (1985)
A celebration of the UK Coal Miners' Strike 1984-1985
Compilation featuring: The Larks, Fallout, Assassins, The Band of Holy Joy, Bourbonese Qualk, Many Happy Returns, Nocturnal Emissions, Language, Max Closure and the Graves, The Hafler Trio, Lustmord, Annie Anxiety and the Asexuals
Nocturnal Emissions Shake Those Chains Rattle Those Cages SR9 LP (1985)
Konstruktivits Glenascaul LP SR10 (1985)
Controlled Bleeding Headcrack LP SR11 (1986)
Various Earthly Delights - a Sterile Sample SR12 LP (1986)
Compilation featuring: Eversione, Nocturnal Emissions, D-Box, Konstruktivits, Whores of Babylon, Reg Sailyne, Sebastian Hellfire, Pornosect, Y.T. Looter, Moonchildren,
R & D 28
Artists
- Annie Anxiety
- Bourbonese QualkBourbonese QualkBourbonese Qualk are an Experimental Music group which existed from 1980 to 2003.Bourbonese Qualk's credentials as early and important contributors to the Industrial scene is born out by their presence on the seminal Elephant Table compilation from 1983. Up until 1987, they were essentially a...
- Controlled BleedingControlled BleedingControlled Bleeding is a prolific experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member...
- Cultural AmnesiaCultural AmnesiaCultural Amnesia are an English post-punk music group, first active between 1979 and 1983 as participants in the so-called cassette culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK...
- The Hafler Trio
- KonstruktivitsKonstruktivitsKonstruktivits is a British industrial band. Formed in 1982, they were mostly active in the 1980s, with recording activity continuing until today....
- LustmordLustmordBrian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
- Maurizio BianchiMaurizio BianchiMaurizio Bianchi is an Italian pioneer of noise music, originating from Milan.-Biography:...
- Nocturnal EmissionsNocturnal EmissionsNocturnal Emissions is a sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music....
- SPK (band)SPK (band)SPK, formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music group. One member, Graeme Revell, would later go on to become a successful Hollywood movie composer.-History:...