Asthmatic Kitty is an American independent

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 ...

founded in 1999 by a community of musicians from

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black River). ...

led by

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...

and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend local colleges and universities. While the original Holland nucleus has dispersed across the country, the community has grown, with new artists and shared projects with other independent labels. The Library Catalog Music Series, inaugurated in 2009, showcases instrumental music by a wide variety of musicians, with eighteen albums in print as of February 2013, and more scheduled for release. Asthmatic Kitty is now based in

Lander, Wyoming Lander is a city in Wyoming, United States, and the county seat of Fremont County. It is in central Wyoming, along the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River, just south of the Wind River Indian Reservation. It is a tourism center with several near ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. The label's name refers to Sara, a stray with

feline asthma Feline asthma is a common allergic respiratory disease in cats, affecting at least one percent of all adult cats worldwide. It is a chronic progressive disease for which there is no cure. Common symptoms include wheezing, coughing, labored breathi ...

adopted by Lowell in 1994. From 2002 on, she lived in Lander, Wyoming (elevation 5,358 ft / 1,633 m), where the thin, dry air alleviated most of her asthma symptoms. Sara died in December, 2008,at fifteen or sixteen years old. Unusual Animals 2007–2010 was a special series of limited edition vinyl, parties, art and music events. In 2007 The Unusual Animals Project Space founded by Michael Kaufmann at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis featured exhibitions by Cindy Hinant and Stuart Snoddy. In 2020, Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams released ''Aporia,'' a 21-track album. The album has been described as "mixing organic instrumentation with experimental electronics, intertwining both new age and ambient music."

Active artists

* James McAlister 900X * Angelo De Augustine *

Castanets Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a similar ...

Denison Witmer Denison Witmer is an American singer-songwriter from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. His first release, in 1995, was a cassette titled ''My Luck, My Love''. He has since released six studio LPs; two live albums, a cover album (''Recover ...

Half-handed Cloud Half-handed Cloud is an American recording project, based in Helsinki, Finland since 2015. It was started in 1999 as a one-man band by John Ringhofer, who created the band name based on an occurrence in the Old Testament. The majority of Half-hand ...

Linda Perhacs Linda Perhacs (born 1943) is an American psychedelic folk singer, who released her first album, ''Parallelograms'', in 1970 to scant notice or sales. The album was rediscovered by record enthusiasts and reissued numerous times beginning in 1998, g ...

Sisyphus In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos (; Ancient Greek: Σίσυφος ''Sísyphos'') was the founder and king of Ancient Corinth, Ephyra (now known as Corinth). Hades punished him for cheating death twice by forcing him to roll an immense bo ...

The Welcome Wagon The Welcome Wagon is a Gospel/indie pop band from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The group consists of Presbyterian minister Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife, Monique. Their debut album, ''Welcome to the Welcome Wagon'' (2008), was produced by Su ...

Inactive artists and alumni

* Bunky *

Chris Schlarb Chris Schlarb (born July 10, 1977) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and guitarist. He is best known as the founder and leader of the Psychic Temple cult. Career In 1998, Schlarb co-founded the free improvisation ensemble Cre ...

Cryptacize Cryptacize is a California pop band founded by Nedelle Torrisi and Chris Cohen in 2006. They released two records on the Asthmatic Kitty label. After seeing percussionist Michael Carreira's solo cowbell videos on YouTube, Cohen and Torrisi ask ...

DM Stith David Michael Stith is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who released his first album ''Heavy Ghost'' in 2009 on the Asthmatic Kitty label. He currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. David Stith comes from a musical family: his fa ...

Dots Will Echo Dots Will Echo is an indie rock group from Ridgewood, New Jersey. The band consists of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick Berry and drummer Kurt Biroc. History Musician William Ackerman produced and released Dots Will Echo's first official ...

* Epstein *

Fol Chen Fol Chen is an American electronic band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2009.Staff (undated)"Fol Chen" Asthmatic Kitty Records. Retrieved February 18, 2013. The band is signed to Asthmatic Kitty Records and has released three full-len ...

Helado Negro Roberto Carlos Lange (born 1980), better known by his stage name Helado Negro, is an American musician. In 2019 he was awarded a United States Artists Fellow in Music and also the recipient of a 2019 Grants to Artists award in Music from the Fo ...

* Hermas Zopoula * I Heart Lung * Jookabox *

Julianna Barwick Julianna Barwick is an American musician who composes using electronic loops. Her first album, '' The Magic Place'', was released in 2011. Music career Barwick has said that her music is influenced by her participation in church choir while gro ...

* Land of a Thousand Rappers *

Lily & Madeleine Lily & Madeleine are an American folk pop duo from Indianapolis, Indiana, consisting of the sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz. They have released four full-length studio albums, ''Lily & Madeleine'' (2013) and ''Fumes'' (2014) on Asthmatic Ki ...

* Liz Janes *

Mozart's Sister ''Mozart's Sister'' (French title: ''Nannerl, la sœur de Mozart'') is a 2010 French drama film written and directed by René Féret, and starring two of his daughters. It presents a fictional account of the early life of Maria Anna Mozart, nick ...

My Brightest Diamond My Brightest Diamond is the project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova. The band has released five studio albums and a remix album, five studio EPs and four remix EPs, and made several tours across the United States. Histo ...

* Ombre * Osso String Quartet *

Pepe Deluxé Pepe Deluxé is a Finnish electronic music oriented band, formed in 1996 by DJ Slow (Vellu Maurola) JA-Jazz (Tomi Castrén, formerly Paajanen) and James Spectrum (Jari Salo) in Helsinki, Finland. They started to experiment with sounds of hip ho ...

Rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated ...

* Raymond Byron and the White Freighter * Roberts and Lord *

Royal City Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ...

Shannon Stephens Shannon Stephens is an American singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington, United States. She has released three solo albums, an EP entitled ''How I Got Away'' (1999), and also has exclusive tracks featured on both Asthmatic Kitty Records Sample ...

Shapes and Sizes Shapes and Sizes are a Canadian indie rock band from Victoria, British Columbia. There are four members—Nathan Gage, singers Caila Thompson-Hannant and Rory Seydel, and John Crellin. History Shapes and Sizes came together in Victoria and se ...

The Curtains The Curtains is an American band founded by Chris Cohen and visual artist Trevor Shimizu in San Francisco, California in 2000. Style Their first three albums are mostly instrumental music which uses electric guitar, Moog Concertmate MG-1 and d ...

Trumans Water Trumans Water are an American indie rock band, hailing from San Diego, California. They have released over a dozen albums over their career, on which they collaborated with acts in genre, including Azalia Snail, Chan Marshall and Thurston Moore. ...

References

External links

Official site

Interview with Lowell Brams

Interview with Michael Kaufmann
American independent record labels Record labels established in 1999 Indie rock record labels Experimental music record labels Companies based in Indianapolis Companies based in Wyoming Companies based in New York City 1999 establishments in Michigan {{Record-label-stub

Active artists

Inactive artists and alumni

See also

References

External links