Kscope is an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

that is part of

Snapper Music Snapper Music is an independent record label founded in 1996 by former head of Castle Communications Jon Beecher, Dougie Dudgeon and funded by Mark Levinson from Palan Music Publishing. In 1999, Snapper broke away from its Palan parent company ...

, and a sister-label of

Peaceville Peaceville Records is a British independent heavy metal record label. The label was founded by Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw (of the bands Instigators and Civilised Society, as well as a former drummer of Sore Throat) in Dewsbury, England, in 1987. ...

. It is dedicated to artists in the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

genre. The label has released albums by

Steven Wilson Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosi ...

and his projects

Porcupine Tree Porcupine Tree are an English rock band formed by musician Steven Wilson in 1987. During an initial career spanning more than twenty years, they earned critical acclaim from critics and fellow musicians, developed a cult following, and became ...

(mostly re-issue only),

No-Man No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island (Except the Isle of Man) by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtake ...

and

Blackfield Blackfield is a collaborative music project by the English musician and founder of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, and Israeli rock musician Aviv Geffen. Together, six albums have been released under the moniker. The first two records, '' Blac ...

. In 2008 it branched out and has since signed the post-progressive artists

Anathema The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...

Lunatic Soul Lunatic Soul is a progressive rock side-project founded by Riverside vocalist and bass guitarist Mariusz Duda in 2008. Originally conceived to allow him to explore genres outside of rock, the project was described by Duda in 2014 as progressive ...

and

Ulver Ulver (Norwegian for "wolves") is a Norwegian Experimental electronic music, experimental electronica band founded in 1993, by vocalist Kristoffer Rygg. Their early works, such as debut album ''Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler, Bergtatt'', ...

, and progressive rock stalwart

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician best known for being the chief vocalist, Flute, flautist, and acoustic guitarist of the British rock band Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also p ...

to their roster. In 2013, the Steven Wilson release ''

The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) ''The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)'' is the third solo album by British musician Steven Wilson, released by Kscope Music Records on 25 February 2013. Each track on the album is based on a story of the supernatural. Alan Parso ...

'' received the Album of the Year award at the Progressive Music Awards.

History

Established in the late 1990s, the label was initially used exclusively by Wilson and Porcupine Tree. In this first incarnation, Kscope was featured as an outlet for the 1999 album ''

Stupid Dream ''Stupid Dream'' is the fifth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. It was first released in March 1999, and then re-released on 15 May 2006 due to the band's rising popularity on major record label Lava Records with thei ...

'', with Snapper Music as the distributor. It was followed by ''

Lightbulb Sun ''Lightbulb Sun'' is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2000, and later reissued in 2008 on CD, DVD-A surround sound, and vinyl. This album, along with their prior album '' Stupid Drea ...

'' in 2000 and a collection of left-over material ''

Recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

''. After the band signed up with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

in 2002, the name was used for Wilson's side projects. This included the albums ''

Together We're Stranger ''Together We're Stranger'' is No-Man's fifth studio album released by the Snapper Music label in 2003. The first four songs are linked to form a 28-minute suite of continuous music with recurring lyrical and musical themes. The remaining thre ...

'' (2003) and the re-issue of the ''

Flowermouth ''Flowermouth'' is the second studio album by British duo No-Man, released in 1994 on the One Little Indian Records label, and subsequently reissued in September 1999 by 3rd. Stone Ltd, and in a deluxe format by Snapper Music in February 2005. ...

'' (2005) by No-Man. It also released ''Blackfield'' (2004) and ''Blackfield II'' (2007)—a collaboration with

Aviv Geffen Aviv Geffen (; born 10 May 1973) is an Israeli rock musician, singer-songwriter, music producer and author. In addition to his solo career, Geffen is a founding member of the band Blackfield, he was also the global music director for WeWork. Ge ...

''.'' When Snapper Music acquired the earlier Porcupine Tree recordings from

Delerium Records Delerium Records was a British independent record label, that specialised in psychedelic music and which existed from 1991 to 2003, and was notable in promoting the careers of bands including Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, Kava Kava, Mandrag ...

in 2006, a re-release programme was rolled out. At the same time, talks began to expand the remit of the label, and Wilson suggested to "have tfor releasing only new music. Just go after some of these ost progressivebands and model yourselves on those old ’70s labels, like

Harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

and Vertigo, howould allow artists to develop both musically and with a fan base over a period of albums”. As a result, Snapper music remodeled Kscope to focus on

post-progressive Post-progressive is a type of rock music distinguished from vintage progressive rock styles, specifically 1970s prog. Post-progressive draws upon newer developments in popular music and the avant-garde since the mid-1970s. It especially draws f ...

music, with Wilson actively involved with the acts that were signed. One of the label's earliest signings was

The Pineapple Thief The Pineapple Thief are an English progressive rock band founded in 1999 by Bruce Soord in Yeovil, Somerset. , the group consists of Soord on vocals, guitars, and keyboards, Jon Sykes on bass, Steve Kitch on keyboards, and Gavin Harrison on d ...

after its frontman Bruce Soord was contacted by Wilson. The first release was the '' Tightly Unwound'' album that received the catalogue number 101. Within two years Kscope built up its roster with Johnny Wilks commenting that by this stage "the label had really got going and we were working with Engineers, Gazpacho & Steven Wilson. I really felt we were establishing ourselves as a label". At the same time, Kscope continued to release Wilson-related material, including ''

Schoolyard Ghosts ''Schoolyard Ghosts'' is the sixth studio album by British art rock band No-Man. Recorded in the UK, France, Sweden and the USA and released on 12 May 2008, the album features contributions from Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club, Red House Pai ...

'' by No-Man on 12 May 2008. A number of re-releases included the first solo album, ''Things Buried'', by

Richard Barbieri Richard Barbieri (born 30 November 1957) is an English musician, composer and sound designer. Originally a member of new wave band Japan (and their brief 1989–1991 reincarnation as Rain Tree Crow), he became the keyboard player in the prog ...

in 2007. In 2008 the band Anathema made their debut on the label with album ''

Hindsight Hindsight bias, also known as the knew-it-all-along phenomenon or creeping determinism, is the common tendency for people to perceive past events as having been more predictable than they were. After an event has occurred, people often believe ...

'', while

from Poland and the Italian band Nosound were added to the roster. The label packages their albums in elaborate digibooks, super

jewel case Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

s or digipacks with additional DVD material, like the Steven Wilson solo album ''Insurgentes'' (2009), which included a documentary and a DVD-Audio option. Another prominent release was '' We’re Here Because We’re Here'' by Anathema. In 2013, the label celebrated its fifth anniversary with two concerts in London, headlined by Amplifier and Anathema. In April 2014 the label released the '' Homo Erraticus'' album by Ian Anderson, which reached #14 in the UK album chart. Kscope have a monthly

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

hosted by

Billy Reeves Billy Reeves (born 7 June 1965) is an English songwriter, musician, record producer and broadcaster. In 1996 he formed the London-based indie-band Theaudience, (featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor on vocals). Theaudience quickly established themselv ...

, which features new music and interviews from artists on the label.

Signed artists

Amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It is a two-port electronic circuit that uses electric power from a power su ...

* The Anchoress *

Anekdoten Anekdoten is a Sweden, Swedish progressive rock band, composed of guitarist/vocalist Nicklas Barker, cellist/keyboardist Anna Sofi Dahlberg, bassist/vocalist Jan Erik Liljeström and drummer Peter Nordins. They are notable for the use of the mello ...

* Paul Draper *

Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

* Envy of None * Henry Fool *

Gavin Harrison Gavin Richard Harrison (born May 28, 1963) is an English musician. He is best known for playing with the progressive rock bands Porcupine Tree (2002–2010; 2021–present), King Crimson (2008, and 2014–2021) and The Pineapple Thief (2016� ...

& 05Ric *

Gazpacho Gazpacho () or gaspacho (), also called Andalusian gazpacho (from Spanish ''gazpacho andaluz''), is a cold soup and drink made of raw, blended vegetables. It originated in the southern regions of the Iberian Peninsula and spread into other are ...

* Godsticks *

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

Steve Hogarth Steve Hogarth (born Ronald Stephen Hoggarth, 14 May 1956), also known as "h", is an English musician. Since 1989, he has been the lead singer of the rock band Marillion, for which he also performs additional keyboards and guitar. Hogarth was f ...

* Iamthemorning * Ihlo *

Steve Jansen Steve Jansen (born Stephen Ian Batt, born 1 December 1959) is an English musician, composer and record producer. Biography Jansen was a founding member of the band Japan (band), Japan, along with his brother David Sylvian (vocals, guitars and ...

Katatonia Katatonia is a Swedish Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for their love of death metal. Increasing popularity ...

* Leafblade *

Mick Karn Andonis Michaelides (Greek: Αντώνης Μιχαηλίδης; 24 July 1958 – 4 January 2011), better known as Mick Karn, was a British musician who rose to fame as the bassist for the art rock/ new wave band Japan. His distinctive fretles ...

* Mothlite *

* Nordic Giants * North Atlantic Oscillation * Nosound * O.R.k. * Old Fire ( John Mark Lapham) *

Ozric Tentacles Ozric Tentacles are an English instrumental rock band, whose music incorporates elements from a diverse range of genres, including psychedelic rock, progressive rock, space rock, jazz fusion, electronic music, dub music, world music, and ambie ...

* Paul Draper *

(1999–2001) * Se Delan * Sweet Billy Pilgrim * The Receiver *

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

TesseracT In geometry, a tesseract or 4-cube is a four-dimensional hypercube, analogous to a two-dimensional square and a three-dimensional cube. Just as the perimeter of the square consists of four edges and the surface of the cube consists of six ...

(including Bruce Soord (solo) and Wisdom of Crowds) *

White Moth Black Butterfly White Moth Black Butterfly is a British/Indian/American cross-continental progressive pop project with members from Nottinghamshire, UK, New Delhi, India, and Salt Lake City, Utah, US. The group consists of Tesseract (band), TesseracT lead singer ...

(2009–2016)

References

External links

Official Kscope site

Official Snapper Music site
{{Authority control British independent record labels Progressive rock record labels

History

Signed artists

See also

References

External links