Rattle Records, established in 1991, is a contemporary art-music label based in
Auckland, New Zealand. It releases compositions generally by New Zealand
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
s in contemporary art genres. It has been described as "the de facto home of New Zealand music that didn't fit the three-minute pop song format"
History
Rattle Records as a label and a studio was established by Steve Garden, Tim Gummer and Keith Hill in 1991 to publish music 'outside of the usual commercial musical imperatives'.
They used the German label
ECM Records
ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...
as an inspiration. Rattle was owned by
Victoria University of Wellington's publishing division for a time and when that ended Steve Garden took over again.
There have been over 150 releases and over 44 award nominations. In the
Aotearoa Music Awards 2020 all three finalists in the Best Classical Artist category were Rattle recordings with ''11 Frames'' by Andrew Beer & Sarah Watkins winning.
Artists
Rattle has represented over 100 different artists since its inception including:
*
Whirimako Black
Whirimako Black (born ) is a New Zealand Māori recording artist and actress.
Black sings mostly in the Māori language, uses traditional Māori musical forms and collaborates with traditional taonga pūoro instruments. Her musical achievement ...
* Jonathan Besser
*
Jack Body
John Stanley Body (7 October 1944 – 10 May 2015) was a New Zealand composer, ethnomusicologist, photographer, teacher, and arts producer. As a composer, his work comprised concert music, music theatre, electronic music, music for film and da ...
* Chris Gendall
*
Michael Houstoun
*
Diedre Irons
Diedre Allison Irons (born 9 March 1945) is a Canadian-born concert pianist who has been based in New Zealand since 1977.
Biography
Irons was a child prodigy and a star pupil of the Russian-born Canadian composer and virtuoso pianist Sophie- ...
*
Natalia Mann
*
Hirini Melbourne
Hirini (Sid) Melbourne (21 July 1949 – 6 January 2003) was a Māori composer, singer, university lecturer, poet and author who was notable for his contribution to the development of Māori music and the revival of Māori culture. He played trad ...
* Jian Liu
* Sam Leamy
*
Jenny McLeod
* NZ Guitar Quartet
* Nga Tae
* Keith Price
*
Richard Nunns
*
John Psathas
* Jenny Wollerman
* Sounddome
*
Eve de Castro-Robinson,
*
Roger Fox
This article contains information on the central characters in ''FoxTrot'', a comic strip created by Bill Amend. The strip centers on a nuclear family composed of mother Andy, father Roger, and their three children Peter, Paige and Jason, along wit ...
*
Gillian Whitehead
* Te Koki Trio
*
Ariana Tikao
Ariana Rahera Tikao (born 1971) is a New Zealand singer, musician and author. Her works explore her identity as a Kāi Tahu woman and her music often utilises taonga pūoro (traditional Māori musical instruments). Notably, she co-composed the ...
See also
*
List of record labels
*
Music of New Zealand
External links
Rattle Records websiteDirectory
References
Sources
* Audio Culture, The noisy library of New Zealand music. Sourced 21 March 2020.
* NZ Musician, a print and online music magazine that deals with music in and from New Zealand.
{{Authority control
New Zealand record labels
Record labels established in 1991