Calypso Now was part of the

cassette culture The cassette culture (also known as the tape/cassette scene or cassette underground) refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. The cassett ...

movement. Calypso Now was founded in 1983 by the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

musician and

concert promoter Tour promoters (also known as concert promoters or talent buyers) are the individuals or companies responsible for organizing a live concert tour or special event performance. The tour promoter makes an offer of engagement to a particular artist, ...

HotchaLabel portrait on Discogs
/ref> (alias Rudi Tüscher), located in

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; , ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Biel/Bienne (administrative district), Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Swi ...

. Up to 1989, about 200 cassette releases were produced, mainly from Switzerland, Germany, UK, USA and Canada. The label was reactivated in autumn 2010, with reissues and new cassette releases. Calypso Now followed a licensing policy and often copied the cassettes on demand from

master tape Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all cop ...

s of foreign labels, thus keeping the investment low. There were also bigger productions, mainly compilations of Swiss

indie band Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording a ...

s, targeted at record shops, with printed covers in the LP-sized 12" format Examples are ''This Is Guitar Town'' with bands from

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, ''Chart Attack'', or a series of cassingles. Calypso Now also compiled tapes with Swiss

underground art Underground art is any form of art that operates outside of conventional norms in the art world, part of underground culture. This can include essentially any genre of art that is not popular in the art world, including visionary art and street a ...

ists for release by another label: ''Der Politische Katholizismus'' (1985) was released simultaneously in Japan, Germany and the USA; ''Sonique Suisse'' was initiated and released in 1988 by Carl Howard (at - Audiofile Tapes) in the US, and the ''Starspot Compilation''Starspot
/ref> was made in 1989 for Bi-Joopiter in the UK.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Calypso Now catalogue and blog
* Ane Hebeisen
''Der Schweizer Kassetten-Pionier.''
In: ''

Der Bund ''Der Bund'' (English: ''The Union'') is a Swiss German-language daily newspaper published in Bern. Established in 1850 and associated with the cause of liberalism, it was among the leading quality newspapers in Switzerland for much of the 19t ...

'', 22. August 2020 (German) Calypso music Cassette culture 1970s–1990s