Sublime Frequencies

Sublime Frequencies
Founded2003 (2003)
FounderAlan Bishop, Richard Bishop, Hisham Mayet
Country of originUnited States
LocationSeattle, Washington
Official websitewww.sublimefrequencies.com

Sublime Frequencies is a record label based in Seattle, Washington that focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers," mostly from Southeast Asia, North Africa and West Africa and the Middle East.

The releases are usually divided into four categories: field recordings, folk and pop compilations, radio collages from specific geographic locales,[1] and DVDs. The label was founded in 2003 by Richard Bishop and Alan Bishop of the experimental rock band Sun City Girls, and Hisham Mayet.[2] It is headed by Alan Bishop and Hisham Mayet.[3] Its releases are produced in limited quantities, usually up to a thousand copies.

Its mission statement is: Sublime Frequencies is a collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers via film and video, field recordings, radio and short wave transmissions, international folk and pop music, sound anomalies, and other forms of human and natural expression not documented sufficiently through all channels of academic research, the modern recording industry, media, or corporate foundations. Sublime Frequencies is focused on an aesthetic of extra-geography and soulful experience inspired by music and culture, world travel, research.

In 2014 Sublime Frequencies created a Bandcamp page where listeners can listen to and purchase digital copies of some albums or individual tracks, including some previously sold-out albums. In 2016 E. Tammy Kim and Michael E. Veal published Punk Ethnography: Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies, which is a collection of interviews and essays about the label.[4]

  1. ^ Whitmore, Aleysia K. (2020). World Music and the Black Atlantic: Producing and Consuming African-Cuban Musics on World Music Stages. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-19-008397-7.
  2. ^ Veal, Michael E.; Kim, E. Tammy (2016). Punk Ethnography: Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies. Wesleyan University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8195-7654-5.
  3. ^ Gray, Louise (2009). The No-Nonsense Guide to World Music. New Internationalist. pp. 120–121. ISBN 978-1-906523-70-1.
  4. ^ Veal, Michael; Kim, E. Tammy (eds.). Punk Ethnography Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies. Wesleyan Press. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-8195-7653-8. Retrieved 2 October 2016.