Sublime Frequencies is a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

that focuses exclusively on "acquiring and exposing obscure sights and sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers," mostly from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. The releases are usually divided into four categories:

field recordings Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibrat ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

and pop compilations, radio collages from specific geographic locales, and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s. The label is headed by

Alan Bishop Alan Bishop is an American musician best known for being the bassist and vocalist of experimental rock band Sun City Girls.Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

page where listeners can listen to and purchase digital copies of some albums or individual tracks, including some previously sold-out albums. In 2016 E. Tammy Kim and Michael E. Veal published Punk Ethnography: Artists & Scholars Listen to Sublime Frequencies which is a collection of interviews and essays about the label.

Releases

List up-to-date .

CDs

*SF 001 - Folk and Pop Sounds of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Vol.1 *SF 002 - Radio

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

*SF 003 - Night Recordings From Bali *SF 006 - Princess Nicotine: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma) *SF 007 - Radio Morocco *SF 008 - Radio Palestine: Sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean *SF 009 - I Remember Syria 2-CD *SF 011 - Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop music Vol. 1 *SF 012 - Bush Taxi Mali: Field Recordings From Mali *SF 013 - Brokenhearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia *SF 014 - Radio India: The Eternal Dream of Sound 2-CD *ANOM26 - Leaf Music, Drunks, Distant Drums *SF 016 - Streets of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

*SF 017 - Harmika Yab Yum: Folk Sounds From Nepal *SF 018 - Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol. 2 *SF 019 -

Molam Mor lam ( Lao: ໝໍລຳ; Thai/Isan: หมอลำ ; ) is a traditional Lao form of song in Laos and Isan. ''Mor lam'' means 'expert song', or 'expert singer', referring to the music or artist respectively. Other romanisations used inclu ...

: Thai Country Groove From

Isan Northeast Thailand or Isan (Isan/ th, อีสาน, ; lo, ອີສານ; also written as Isaan, Isarn, Issarn, Issan, Esan, or Esarn; from Pali ''īsānna'' or Sanskrit ईशान्य ''īśānya'' "northeast") consists of 20 provin ...

*SF 020 - Radio

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

*SF 021 - Radio Sumatra: The Indonesian FM Experience *SF 023 - Radio

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

: Commie Funk and Agit Pop from the Hermit Kingdom *SF 024 - Guitars of the Golden Triangle: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol. 2 *SF 025 - Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq *SF 027 - Ethnic Minority Music of Northeast Cambodia *SF 028 - Radio Thailand: Transmissions from the Tropical Kingdom 2-CD *SF 029 - Radio Algeria *SF 030 - Group Doueh: Guitar Music From The Western Sahara *SF 031 - Omar Souleyman: Highway to Hassake (Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria) *SF 032 - Thai Pop Spectacular (1960s-1980s) *SF 033 - Molam: Thai Country Groove From Isan Vol. 2 *SF 034 - Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez (Music of Niger) *SF 035 - Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar Vol. 3 *SF 036 - Ethnic Minority Music of Southern Laos *SF 037 - Ethnic Minority Music of North Vietnam *SF 038 - Proibidão C.V: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro *SF 039 - Latinamericarpet: Exploring the Vinyl Warp of Latin American Psychedelia Vol. 1 *SF 043 - Bollywood Steel Guitar *SF 044 - Radio Myanmar (Burma) *SF 045 - 1970's Algerian Proto-Raï, Rai Underground *SF 049 - Omar Souleyman: Dabke 2020 (Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria) *SF 050 - Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol. 2 *SF 051 - Singapore A-Go-Go *SF 052 - Omar Khorshid: Guitar El Chark (Guitar of the Orient) *SF 053 - Koes Bersaudara 1967 *SF 054 - Dara Puspita 1966-1968 *SF 055 - Omar Souleyman: Jazeera Nights *SF 057 - Ethnic Minority Music of Northwest Xinjiang (China) *SF 058 - Koes Plus Volumes 1 & 2 (1969-1970) *SF 059 - My Friend Rain *SF 060 - Saigon Rock & Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974 *SF 061 - Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez Vol 3 *SF 062 - Hayvanlar Alemi: Guarana Superpower *SF 065 - Staring Into The Sun DVD/CD/Book *SF 066 - Group Doueh: Zayna Jumma *SF 067 - Erkin Koray: Mechul (Singles and Rarities) *SF 068 - Omar Souleyman: Haflat Gharbia (The Western Concerts) *SF 079 - CD Pop Yeh Yeh: Psychedelic Rock from Singapore and Malaysia 1964-1970 *SF 081 - Ethnic Minority Music of Southern China *SF 086 - Radio Niger *SF 088 - 1970s Algerian Folk & Pop *SF 095 - Radio Vietnam *SF 099 - INDIAN TALKING MACHINE: 78rpm and Gramophone Collecting on the Sub-Continent Book + 2CD *SF 101 - Music Of Xinjiang *SF 102 - Outlier: Recordings From Madagascar *SF 104 - Burkina Faso: Volume 2 *SF 110 - The Photographs Of Charles Duvelle - Disques OCORA And Collection PROPHET (2CD + Book) *SF 112 - Deben Bhattacharya Paris To Calcutta (Men And Music On The Desert Road) (4CD + Book) *SF 113 - Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band - Sira Ba Kele *SF 114 - Senyawa - Sujud *SF 115 - Sound Storing Machines: The First 78rpm Records From Japan, 1903-1912

DVDs

*SF 004 - Nat (spirit), Nat Pwe: Burma's Carnival of Spirit Soul *SF 005 - Djemaa el Fna, Jemaa El Fna: Morocco's Rendezvous of the Dead *SF 010 - Folk Music of the Sahara: Among the Tuareg people, Tuareg of Libya *SF 015 - Isan: Folk and Pop Music of Northeast Thailand *SF 022 - Niger: Magic and Ecstasy in the Sahel *SF 026 - Pee Ta Khon, Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan *SF 040 - Sumatran Folk Cinema *SF 041 - Musical Brotherhoods From The Trans-Sahara Highway, Trans-Saharan Highway *SF 047 - Palace of the Winds *SF 059 - My Friend Rain *SF 065 - Staring Into The Sun DVD/CD/Book *SF 073 - This World Is Unreal Like A Snake In A Rope *SF 075 - The Divine River: Ceremonial Pageantry In The Sahel *SF 080 - The Pierced Heart and the Machete *SF 082 - Small Path Music (With Laurent Jeanneau) *SF 089 - Vodoun Gods On The Slave Coast *SF 094 - The Stirring of a Thousand Bells

LPs

*SF 001 - Folk and Pop Sounds of Sumatra Vol 1 LP *SF 006 - Princess Nicotine: Folk and Pop Sounds of Myanmar (Burma) Vol 1 LP *SF 011 - Cambodian Cassette Archives: Khmer Folk & Pop music Vol. 1 2-LP *SF 019 -

: Thai Country Groove From

*SF 025 - Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds from Iraq 2LP *SF 030 - Group Doueh: Guitar Music From The Western Sahara *SF 031 - Omar Souleyman: Highway to Hassake (Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria) 2-LP *SF 034 - Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez (Music of Niger) *SF 042 - Shadow Music Of Thailand *SF 043 - Bollywood Steel Guitar *SF 045 - 1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground *SF 046 - Group Bombino - Guitars From Agadez, Vol. 2 *SF 048 - Group Doueh: Treeg Salaam *SF 052 - Omar Khorshid: Guitar El Chark (Guitar of the Orient) *SF 056 - Ecstatic Music of the Jemaa El Fna *SF 060 - Saigon Rock & Soul: Vietnamese Classic Tracks 1968-1974 *SF 061 - Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez Vol 3 *SF 062 - Hayvanlar Alemi: Guarana Superpower *SF 063 - Group Doueh: Beatte Harab *SF 064 - Pakistan: Folk & Pop Instrumentals 1966 - 1976 *SF 066 - Group Doueh - Zayna Jumma *SF 067 - Erkin Koray: Mechul (Singles and Rarities) *SF 068 - Omar Souleyman: Haflat Gharbia (The Western Concerts) *SF 071 - Eat the Dream: Gnawa Music from Essaouira *SF 074 - Staring into the Sun: Ethiopian Tribal Music *SF 077 - Scattered Melodies: Korean Gayageum, Kayagum Sanjo (music), Sanjo *SF 078 - The Crying Princess: 78 rpm Records From Burma *SF 083 - Hassānīya Music from the Western Sahara and Mauritania *SF 084 - Koudede: Guitars from Agadez Vol. 7 *SF 085 - Choubi Choubi! Folk and Pop Sounds From Iraq Vol. 2 *SF 087 - Rajasthan Street Music *SF 088 - 1970s Algerian Folk & Pop *SF 090 - Folk Music Of The Sahel Vol.1: Niger 2-LP *SF 091 - Omar Khorshid and his Group: Live In Australia 1981 *SF 092 - The Traveling Archive- Folk Music From Bengal *SF 093 - A Distant Invitation: Ceremonial Street Recordings from Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand *SF 096 - Music Of Tanzania 2-LP *SF 097 - Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band - Juguya *SF 098 - Adnan Othman - Bersyukor: A Retrospective of Hits by a Malaysian Pop Yeh Yeh Legend *SF 101 - Music of Xinjiang: Uyghur and Kazakh Music from Northwest Xinjiang (China) *SF 102 - Outlier: Recordings from Madagascar

EPs

*SF 069 - Group Inerane: Guitars From Agadez Volume. 4 *SF 070 - Hayvanlar Alemi - Yekermo Sew *SF 072 - Koudede - Guitars from Agadez Vol. 5 *SF 076 - Koudede: Guitars from Agadez Vol. 6

Books

*SF 099 - INDIAN TALKING MACHINE: 78rpm and Gramophone Collecting on the Sub-Continent Book + 2CD *SF 112 - Paris to Calcutta (Men and Music on The Desert Road) by Deben Bhattacharya + 4CD (2018)

References

External links

*
Sublime Frequencies Bandcamp page

Dusted magazine's early profile of the label and review of its first batch of releases

Conversation with Mark Gergis (Sublime Frequencies collaborator) on his sound collection (2011)

Interview with Mark Gergis (Sublime Frequencies collaborator) on his sound collection (2011)
{{Authority control Ethnomusicology American record labels Experimental music record labels

Releases

CDs

DVDs

LPs

EPs

Books

See also

References

External links