Sonic Weekend

In 2007 White label Music, the independent music label, began a series of ‘sonic experiments’. Along with their producer Tim Dorney and his ‘mobile studio’, they selected a series of different locations around The UK and set about recording an impromptu album over the course of 3 days with an invited group of international artists and musicians.
Approx 30 international artists from diverse musical backgrounds spend a weekend in residence recording an album based on literary and film production.
We hire country houses, old schools, etc and set up camp and studio.
Sonic Weekend promote interaction and knowledge-sharing among its residents, facilitating a dialogue between different cultures, generations and artistic disciplines.
Different themes such as the film ‘Dark Star’ and ‘The Seasons’ have been used as the starting point for each recording to give the project a direction and a raison d’etre.

Statement
‘It is just as important that we must diversify as a record label in the same way musicians are constantly exploring different sound techniques and experimenting. We want to challenge what has become a lethargic and stale industry. We [W.L.M.] have proved that this experiment was financially viable, and most importantly the musicians’ can walk away with a collectively owned piece of work, a great album.’
‘None of the artists involved had tried anything like this before and as far as I am aware, no other record label had attempted it either’ explained Marc Hunter of White Label Music. ‘We wanted to see if it was possible to put all these musicians together and come up with a cohesive recording.’
We knew that it was important to execute something like this to challenge standard recording practice. Purpose built studios can be a stifling and predictable environment, usually located in uninspiring places, but here we were in an environment new to all of us. We were hell bent on attempting a new recording method and to instigate cross-pollination between the musicians.

Team:
Ann Shenton : Organiser & Co-Producer
Marc Hunter : Organiser & Label Manager
Tim Dorney : Producer & Engineer