Library Music

empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
Ladies and Gents,

Library music? I searched but I did not yield a thread about this.
In particular, I am curious about the various BBC Radiophonic Workship comps that are floating around. And to be more specific, I am looking for Rene Cosy recordings-----I have heard (and love) that track "Scrabble", as sampled by Dilla. I know there's got to be some funky ass s#!t out there, as well as some odd electronic bleepy business. Take me to school!

Note: I managed to suppress the urge to make a pun on "check out".
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
I know next to nothing about library music - but it's obscurity is part of the appeal for record/music nerds, I think. It's something that you have to study to get a bit of a grasp - how else to make sense of all those generic covers and track code numbers? The interest comes in part because the lack of Top 40 type commerical constraints meant that the composers could really bug out but this also means that library LPs are not likely to be cohesive albums - tracks are often pretty short as well. I also know that there's a few libraries that feature people like The Pretty Things, Pentangle etc. doing a bit of moonlighting which are obviously very collectible/desirable. However, the limited nature of the original releases means they can be very expensive if it's orignal pressing you're after. A good starting point might be the new Trunk compilation, G-Spots, which has some ace funky weirdness, from the London library company, Studio G.
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Ahm well, if you like a bit of Trunk, page down here to podcasts 4 & 5: http://www.fabriclondon.com/podcast/

Johnny Trunk at the helm - he plays a few library tracks and loads of other fantastic music (he also has a soundtrack show on Resonance Saturday afternoon, which I'm never in to listen to).

Thinking about it I don't think I actually own any libraries - I've brought a couple from charity shops but they've always been rubbish :p

There's a really good link I'm trying to remember which lists about 300, but I can't recall the URL...
 
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ether

Well-known member
Luke Vibert's Further Nuggets (my favorite compilation of this kid of stuff)

The Music Library Graphic Art & Sound (a book of sleeve design, but comes with a cd can't remember if its any good, somebody's borrowed my copy)

Johnny trunk ( has his own label and seems to compile extensive compilations of this kind of thing)

I wouldn't be surprised if Sounds of the Universe stock alot of these re-issue comps.

Stuart marconi plays a bit of this stuff on his freak zone show on 6music.
 
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ether

Well-known member
bought a radiophonic workshop vinyl in a charity shop down the road the other day,
the 'soundhouse' compilation I thinks its got my favorite kick drum sound ever on it, a really varied comp worth looking out for.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
sorry if this is a dumb question but what exactly is covered by 'library music'? does it just mean material recorded for (re-)use in broadcasting/production, etc. (e.g. BBC RW)? and maybe educational recordings as well? a friend once acquired an entire box of cassettes made to accompany educational film strips.

or does it also include, say, small run publicly funded stuff - archives of material that's deemed somehow important but lacking enough of a market to be commercially viable? for instance, i've got most of a collection of a 7"s from the 60s/70s of canadian electroacoustic and new/experimental music which i think you'd only ever have found in libraries.
 
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empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
i hate to be that guy, but the wiki explains it better than i could (in any case, it is easier just to hyperlink)
i just picked up the G-Spots jawn from Dusty Groove on vinyl
thank you dissensians
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
yeah wiki's what made me ask the question though

wiki said:
Production music is the name given to the music owned by production music libraries and licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media.
Click to expand...

that sounds like an industry definition. the article talks about business models and rights - no discussion of collector culture. so i'm asking, is that it? or do people in a place like dissensus mean something broader that might include some of the other stuff i described?
 
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empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
hmn. well it is nice to hash things out. rather reluctant to post another wiki article but here is the one on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

the gist of this library music thing, as i understand it, is music that isn't produced for the consumer directly, but for rather a kind of business to business model----source material for producers of film and television to plunder without having to pay the outrageous licensing fees for name-brand acts; of course, these recordings made it to vinyl eventually, but by that time already packaged to suit the productions that used the source material. (i told you the wiki would say it more succinctly!)
 
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M

mms

sometimes
empty mirror said:
Ladies and Gents,

Library music? I searched but I did not yield a thread about this.
In particular, I am curious about the various BBC Radiophonic Workship comps that are floating around. And to be more specific, I am looking for Rene Cosy recordings-----I have heard (and love) that track "Scrabble", as sampled by Dilla. I know there's got to be some funky ass s#!t out there, as well as some odd electronic bleepy business. Take me to school!

Note: I managed to suppress the urge to make a pun on "check out".
Click to expand...

jazzman does some 7 inches with a good selection of quite rare library tracks on it,
https://www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk/asp/default.asp


the funky side and there is a reissue bootleg label called dynamite soul
http://www.juno.co.uk/labels/Dynamite+Soul/

that re-released - probably illegally that scrabble track and some other famous dillas breaks.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
empty mirror said:
hmn. well it is nice to hash things out. rather reluctant to post another wiki article but here is the one on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Click to expand...
yes i'm familiar with them. mentioned in my first post ;)

empty mirror said:
the gist of this library music thing, as i understand it, is music that isn't produced for the consumer directly, but for rather a kind of business to business model----source material for producers of film and television to plunder without having to pay the outrageous licensing fees for name-brand acts; of course, these recordings made it to vinyl eventually, but by that time already packaged to suit the productions that used the source material. (i told you the wiki would say it more succinctly!)
Click to expand...
...which is more or less the wiki definition again. but if that's the start and finish of it as far as its contemporary fans are concerned then that answers my question.

so it sounds like small-run marginalia produced by and for public institutions falls into some other category of collectible audio. sounds like fodder for a wire primer.
 
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reeltoreel

Well-known member
I have the feeling that, from a collector's point of view, educational/public service recordings do get lumped in with library music. It's sort of appropriate, considering that they often have similar aesthetics and were often made by the same people, in the same studios.

It'd be good if someone investigated further...
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
reeltoreel said:
I have the feeling that, from a collector's point of view, educational/public service recordings do get lumped in with library music. It's sort of appropriate, considering that they often have similar aesthetics and were often made by the same people, in the same studios.
Click to expand...
see that's what i would have thought
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
reeltoreel said:
I have the feeling that, from a collector's point of view, educational/public service recordings do get lumped in with library music. It's sort of appropriate, considering that they often have similar aesthetics and were often made by the same people, in the same studios.

It'd be good if someone investigated further...
Click to expand...

I'm as much in the dark as anyone else here but strictly speaking, if a recording was commerically available (even for a minority audience) it's not really library music - it's for "home use" and therefore not part of the "library of sounds" - so maybe archival sounds don't fit into this definition. However, I certainly think educational/public service recordings would attract interest from collectors especially if they are weird/kooky/offbeat BUT the thing that really made the library ting take off was people hunting breaks and beats -educational recordings etc would seem to have less of the weird funky breaks going on to me, so might not attract everyone.

Idle Rich would be good on this - he has some very cool library stuff.
 
empty mirror

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
i guess i am missing the finer point here. it sounds like we are talking about the same thing? i imagine it is the same session musicians popping into the studio to record musical cues, somewhere down the line, it is appropriated for educational/instructional films, or like, commercials and whatnot. sorry i am maybe a bit dunderheaded.

anyhow, i just popped on another kirchin album "sounds of the industrial north" (trunk records)----half of it is from the "De Wolfe" musical library 10 inches. jimmy page plays on it. evan parker appears on "quantum", along with (iirc) Worlds Within Worlds/Charcoal Sketches.

more on "de wolfe" (from some liner notes for a "de wolfe comp": The De Wolfe Library (or Music De Wolfe) was started in 1909 by Meyer De Wolfe to cater for silent movies, but quickly established its high reputation with the advent of TV and radio. In the 70's, De Wolfe demonstrated their uniqueness from their rivals (KPM and Chappell) by employing composers who are considered the true musical innovators of their time (Alan Hawkshaw, Alan Parker and Nick Ingman to name a few) to experiment with new studio techniques. Amongst others, their music was used on the classic British TV series' The Sweeny and Whodunnit.

ok, i am not linking to the wiki, but i have to say the entry on de wolfe is illuminating (of note, the shaw bros scores!)
 
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nomos

nomos

Administrator
actually, sampling for hip hop was how my old friend and i came across a lot of this stuff, some of it acquired from a friendly librarian at his high school. the cassettes and vinyls from the educational film strips were actually some of weirdest sounding! lessons on atoms, human organs etc. set to tone bursts, synth bleeps and grainy field recordings. very fun.

my understanding of the other batch of material i mentioned - the collection of canadian experimental music - is that it was intended mainly for public libraries and university music departments. that led me to wonder about recordings funded by cultural funding arms and destined more or less exclusively for archives. recently, i came across a series of records featuring psychiatrists discussing various conditions amongst themselves. exceedingly boring and almost certainly meant for a tiny institutional audience.

anyway, sorry if this is a derailment. was just wondering where all of these oddities fit in the discussion. i've always found the variety and volume of obscure, not for general consumption, recorded material kind of fascinating.
 
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