Erstwhile Records

Lore & Background

The first few Erstwhile releases were a mixed set, ranging from the melancholy avant-blues of Loren Connors to traditional free jazz by VHF. With the release of Tom and Gerry, a double-disc duet between Thomas Lehn and drummer Gerry Hemingway, the label's focus shifted notably; it was the first album containing electroacoustic improvisation techniques and meticulous post-production. The fifth release, World Turned Upside Down, featured guitarists Keith Rowe, Taku Sugimoto, and percussionist Günter Müller, whose abstract, sparse sound resembled live releases by AMM and MIMEO.

Reader's Guide

Erstwhile Records has become closely identified with the term electroacoustic improvisation (EAI), with some critics arguing that the label and the term are almost synonymous. NYC musician Jeremiah Cymerman regarded them as 'The Blue Note of lowercase music.' The label's aesthetic has yet to find an agreed-upon name, with terms like 'laminal music,' 'granular music,' 'reductionism,' 'the new London silence,' 'Onkyokei,' and 'Berlin minimalism' also used. The label's distinctive visual style, initially designed by Friederike Paetzold and later by Yuko Zama, often forgoes artist names and album titles, using stark, minimalist artwork. Critic John Eyles wrote that Erstwhile, like Blue Note, ECM, and Incus before it, has captured and defined the zeitgeist, with its own roster, sound, and visual style. Unusually, releases have been issued without UPCs.

Did You Know?

• Erstwhile releases have been issued without UPCs.
• The label's first electroacoustic improvisation album was Tom and Gerry, a duet between Thomas Lehn and Gerry Hemingway.
• Album covers were often painted by guitarist Keith Rowe or designed by Friederike Paetzold, who sometimes omitted artist names and instrumentation.
• Jon Abbey organized the Amplify Festival and the ErstQuake festival in collaboration with Tim Barnes' label Quakebasket and MoMA's The Artist Project.

Founding Vision & the Festival Ecosystem

Jon Abbey established Erstwhile Records in 1999 with a clear devotion to free improvisation, particularly its electroacoustic branch, alongside contemporary experimental composed work and the blending of both traditions. The label's identity is deeply intertwined with Abbey's personal taste and sensibility, making it less a corporate entity and more a curated extension of one musician's aesthetic compass. This intimate connection between founder and catalogue gives the imprint a coherence that larger labels rarely achieve. Abbey's vision extends well beyond the studio: he has organized the annual Amplify Festival of live free improvisation concerts, hosted events in Tokyo and New York, and collaborated with Tim Barnes' Quakebasket label and MoMA's The Artist Project on the ErstQuake festival. The label also operates a subsidiary imprint called ErstLive, through which recordings from the 2004 Amplify event have been released individually. This ecosystem of festivals, live documentation, and studio releases creates a self-reinforcing world where performance and recording feed into one another.

The Sound and Its Long Evolution

The earliest Erstwhile releases presented a somewhat eclectic landscape, spanning Loren Connors' melancholy avant-blues and VHF's more conventional free jazz. The turning point arrived with Tom and Gerry, a double-disc duet pairing Thomas Lehn with drummer Gerry Hemingway. This record introduced electroacoustic improvisation techniques and meticulous post-production that would become the label's signature. From that moment forward, the catalogue gravitated toward slow-moving, often hushed compositions built on non-standard electronics—Sachiko M's empty sampler, Toshimaru Nakamura's no-input mixing board—frequently paired with acoustic instruments played through amplification and extended techniques. The result is a sound of quiet, unmoving textures that critics have variously labeled lowercase music, laminal music, granular music, reductionism, the new London silence, Onkyokei, and Berlin minimalism. No single term has achieved consensus, though electroacoustic improvisation, or EAI, is perhaps the most widely used. Some listeners find the music genuinely demanding; Good Morning Good Night by Sachiko M, Nakamura, and Otomo Yoshihide stretches to one hundred minutes of piercing sine waves, static bursts, and vinyl crackle that challenges even seasoned avant-garde ears.

Roster, Generations & Instrumental Innovation

Erstwhile's artist roster spans generations and disciplines, anchored by figures like guitarist Keith Rowe, percussionist Günter Müller, and guitarist-turntablist Otomo Yoshihide, alongside younger voices such as clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski. The label has also drawn in artists connected to the Wandelweiser collective, including American composer Michael Pisaro. What unites these musicians is not a single genre but a shared interest in modified instrumentation and sonic exploration. Rowe's tabletop guitar, for instance, incorporates household objects and sampled radio transmissions through its pickups to generate textured soundscapes. Trumpeters Matt Davis and Axel Dörner have been known to blow through their instruments' valves rather than the mouthpiece. Fennesz blends guitar with laptop composition, while Burkhard Stangl and Thomas Lehn pair acoustic and electronic approaches. Some releases, like Martin Siewert and Martin Brandlmayr's Too Beautiful to Burn or Christof Kurzmann and Stangl's Schnee, retain melodic accessibility that brushes against post-rock and ambient territory. Yet the dominant aesthetic remains one of sparse, abstract, slowly evolving sound, echoing the live improvisation traditions of AMM and MIMEO.

Visual Identity & Cultural Standing

Erstwhile's visual presentation is as distinctive as its sound. For many years, designer Friederike Paetzold handled the packaging, producing covers that often omit artist names, instrumentation, and even album titles entirely. The artwork tends toward stark minimalism, frequently featuring paintings by Keith Rowe or Paetzold's own photography. More recently, producer Yuko Zama has taken over design duties. The label's physical releases carry another quirk: they are issued without UPC barcodes, setting them apart from mainstream distribution. Critics have drawn pointed comparisons to legendary imprints. John Eyles wrote that just as Blue Note, ECM, and Incus captured their eras, Erstwhile now defines its own moment, with a distinctive roster, sound, and visual language so cohesive that one can identify an Erstwhile release without seeing the logo. NYC musician Jeremiah Cymerman went so far as to call it the Blue Note of lowercase music. These comparisons underscore how a small, personality-driven label founded in 1999 has achieved the cultural weight typically reserved for major industry players.