Free Music Production (FMP) is a German record label that specialises in
free jazz
Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...
.
Origins
FMP originated from the New Artists Guild, which was an informal cooperative of musicians in the mid-1960s.
In 1968, The New Artists Guild sponsored the Total Music Meeting, a festival that presented different forms of music from those performed at the
Berliner Jazztage.
The name FMP was adopted the following year and the group "began operating as a cooperative venture under the administrative guidance of a former double bass player, Jost Gebers
..At some point the operation of FMP transferred from the cooperative to Gebers alone."
Company activities
The label's first release was
Manfred Schoof's ''
European Echoes''.
Specialising in free jazz from the beginning,
FMP soon released recordings by saxophonist
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann (6 March 1941 – 22 June 2023) was a German jazz saxophonist and clarinetist regarded as a central and pioneering figure in European free jazz. Throughout his career, he released over fifty albums as a bandleader. Amongst his m ...
, pianist
Alexander von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach (born 7 April 1938) is a German jazz pianist and composer. He came to prominence in the 1960s playing free jazz in a trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens, and as a member of the Globe Unity Orch ...
, bassist
Peter Kowald
Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist.
Career
A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European f ...
and drummer Detlef Schönenberg.
The collective ended in 1976 and Gebers, who was running the company part-time, decided to found a sub-label, SAJ, with drummer
Sven-Ake Johansson.
This concentrated on experimental and avant-garde music, releasing recordings by musicians such as
Hugh Davies,
Heiner Goebbels-
Alfred Harth and
Yoshi Wada.
In the late 1980s, SAJ was discontinued and CD releases were numbered from CD 1.
A lot of FMP's releases have been recordings of concert performances, including those that it organised.
In 1988 FMP recorded ''Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88'', an 11-CD, award-winning collection.
According to
Grove, "Vinyl stock was deleted in 1992".
In 2000 FMP-Publishing became the new owner of FMP, but a legal battle ensued between Gebers and the new group.
In 2007, he returned to being in charge of the label.
Some albums have been reissued by other labels, which include
Intakt Records and
Atavistic Records
Atavistic Records is an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois, known for its no wave and free jazz recordings.
Atavistic has released albums by Glenn Branca, Nels Cline, Lydia Lunch, Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Pinetop Seven, ...
.
In its first 40 years, FMP released "over 200 LPs and around 140 CDs".
See also
*
List of record labels
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Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, ...
References
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German independent record labels
Free improvisation
Record labels established in 1969
German jazz record labels