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 Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter. Career Schoof was born in Magdeburg, Germany. He studied music in Kassel and Cologne, where one of his teachers was the big band leader Kurt Edelhagen. Schoof performed on Edelhagen' ...

'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 Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, Conductor (music), conductor and professor at University of Giessen, Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 201 ...

Alfred Harth Alfred Harth, now known as Alfred 23 Harth or A23H, is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who creatively mixes genres. Career Harth founded a free improvisation band, Just Music (band), Just M ...

and

Yoshi Wada Yoshimasa "Yoshi" Wada (11 November 1943 – 18 May 2021) was a Fluxus-related Japanese sound art installation artist and new music musician who lived in New York City before moving to San Francisco, California. Life Born in Japan, after movi ...

. 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 Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich, Switzerland. History The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. ...

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".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fmp German independent record labels Free improvisation Record labels established in 1969 German jazz record labels

Origins

Company activities

See also

References