An interview to Alex Marenga, artistic director of Eclectic productions
Eclectic is Italian independent label that can be considered historic , when and how did it start?
Eclectic was born in 1996 from an idea by Alex Grasselli , the Dr.Lops and myself . The 90s were a period in which flourished independent labels linked to the emergence of new genres of electronic music . I had just joined the crew of the Nature Records Marco Passarani and we had a great help to him and Sprawl (Andrea Benedetti).
Dr.Lops , Grasselli Alex and me, decided to move from an amateur production of cassettes in a real printing business.
Why you chose this name?
It was an idea of Alex Grasselli .
It soon became clear that we could not be a " normal" label dance tied to a single genre . The musical direction was very varied and so eclecticism was a very fitting symbo
What are the types of music that you want to spread?
We are interested in an experimental sound that crosses across musical genres . The technology is a common denominator , but not a sufficient element . We like a psychedelic sound , introspective , a sound research that also uses traditional instruments compared to innovative solutions . We do not care to be closed in the paradigms of dance music , we want to wander into different styles and influences. We have produced songs techno , drum and bass , dubstep , ambient, techno - trance , dub , space-rock , post-rock , psychedelic jazz , ethnic , experimental improvisation , even songs
Your business has suffered in 2014 a new acceleration , what happened?
We decided to invest again in new productions , and in 2015 we expect to publish vinyl , cd and liquid music . We will return to produce other artists , the first of which is Kenny Dahl in January.
What do you think of this phase of the history of the music business?
The disc is dead , remains the digital distribution as a mass phenomenon , but with little revenue for labels.
The media business is over, many labels close, such as Rephlex .
The physical disk is at best a business card for artists. the era in which artists and record labels earned selling discs is over.
This is the age of the streaming and downloading.
What do you think of the return of vinyl ?
It 's a passion for dj and fetishists , the vinyl record is expensive and cumbersome.
Obviously makes the happiness of label managers that buyers want to buy back old vinyl records.
The vinyl expresses the physical possession of the music , but it not preserves the quality . It is a nice item to own , physically rewarding ,
which will retain a niche audience , but it will never be the same again.
and in this context , because Eclectic continues to exist ??
We produce businesscards for artists .
We spread our music and that of other musicians that we like . Our mission is not to make money with the discs ,
but spread the good music
