Asthmatic Kitty

Lore & Background

The label's name honors Sara, a stray cat with feline asthma adopted by Lowell Brams in 1994. From 2002 onward, Sara lived in Lander, Wyoming (elevation 5,358 ft), where the thin, dry air alleviated most of her asthma symptoms. She died in December 2008, aged fifteen or sixteen. Between 2007 and 2010, Asthmatic Kitty ran the Unusual Animals series of limited-edition vinyl releases, parties, artist showcases, and music events. In 2007, the Unusual Animals Project Space, founded by Michael Kaufmann at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis, featured exhibitions by Cindy Hinant and Stuart Snoddy. In 2009, the label launched the Library Catalog Music Series, publishing instrumental music for personal and commercial use. In 2020, Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams released Aporia, a 21-track album described as 'mixing organic instrumentation with experimental electronics, intertwining both new age and ambient music.'

Reader's Guide

Asthmatic Kitty Records occupies a distinctive niche in independent music as a label founded by a community of musicians rather than a single entrepreneur. Its unusual name—drawn from a stray cat with asthma—reflects the personal, idiosyncratic character that has defined its output. The label's significance lies in its support of experimental and genre-blending work, exemplified by the 2020 album Aporia, which fused organic instrumentation with electronic and ambient elements. The Unusual Animals series (2007–2010) expanded the label's reach into visual art and live events, while the Library Catalog Music Series (launched 2009) provided a platform for instrumental music for licensing. By maintaining operations across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, Asthmatic Kitty has sustained a global presence while retaining its roots in Holland, Michigan, and Bloomington, Indiana. Its legacy includes fostering a community of artists and releasing music that defies easy categorization.

Did You Know?

• The label's name comes from Sara, a stray cat with feline asthma adopted by Lowell Brams in 1994.
• Sara lived in Lander, Wyoming (elevation 5,358 ft) from 2002 until her death in December 2008.
• Between 2007 and 2010, the label ran the Unusual Animals series of limited-edition vinyl releases and events.
• In 2020, Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams released Aporia, a 21-track album blending new age and ambient music.

Origins in Holland, Michigan

Asthmatic Kitty Records traces its roots to a tight-knit community of musicians in Holland, Michigan, a small city on the western shore of Lake Michigan. In 1999, that collective coalesced into a formal independent label under the leadership of Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather, Lowell Brams. The partnership between the young songwriter and his stepfather gave the venture both creative vision and practical business grounding from the very start. What began as a local endeavor in Michigan has since expanded into a transatlantic operation, with operations spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The label's primary business address is now located in Bloomington, Indiana, reflecting how the organization has grown beyond its original hometown while retaining its independent, artist-driven ethos. The fact that a label born from a small Midwestern music scene now maintains a presence on three continents speaks to the organic, community-first philosophy that Stevens and Brams embedded in its DNA from day one.

Sara, the Stray Who Gave the Label Its Name

The label's distinctive name is a tribute to a stray cat named Sara, who was adopted by Lowell Brams in 1994. Sara suffered from feline asthma, a condition that would later make her a fitting namesake for a label whose very title evokes a kind of breathless, searching quality. In 2002, Sara relocated to Lander, Wyoming, a town sitting at an elevation of 5,358 feet. The thin, dry mountain air there significantly eased her breathing difficulties, allowing her to live more comfortably in her later years. Sara passed away in December 2008, believed to have been either fifteen or sixteen years old. Her story—of a sickly stray finding relief in the high plains and becoming the namesake of an independent record label—carries a quiet, bittersweet poignancy that mirrors the intimate, personal storytelling for which Asthmatic Kitty's roster is known.

Unusual Animals and the Library Catalog

Beyond releasing albums, Asthmatic Kitty cultivated a broader cultural programming identity through two notable initiatives. The Unusual Animals series ran from 2007 to 2010 and functioned as a multi-faceted platform combining limited-edition vinyl pressings, live parties, artist showcases, and music events. In 2007, Michael Kaufmann established the Unusual Animals Project Space at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis, where visual exhibitions by artists Cindy Hinant and Stuart Snoddy were presented, bridging the label's musical world with the visual arts. Separately, the Library Catalog Music Series, launched in 2009, took a different approach by publishing instrumental compositions from a range of artists, made available for both personal listening and commercial use. Together, these programs reveal a label that viewed itself as a cultural ecosystem rather than a mere distribution channel, actively fostering cross-disciplinary creativity and making music accessible in unconventional formats.

Aporia and the Label's Sonic Signature

In 2020, Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams released Aporia, a twenty-one-track album that stands as a concentrated statement of the label's artistic range. The record has been characterized as weaving together organic instrumentation with experimental electronics, while simultaneously touching on the textures of new age and ambient music. That blend—acoustic warmth married to electronic abstraction, meditative atmosphere layered over structured composition—captures the kind of boundary-pushing sound Asthmatic Kitty has championed since its founding. The fact that this album emerged from the same partnership that built the label in Holland, Michigan, underscores how the Stevens-Brams collaboration remains the creative engine at the label's core. Aporia's sprawling, genre-fluid approach reflects a label that has never confined itself to a single sound, instead nurturing artists and projects that span the full spectrum of contemporary independent music.