An Introduction To Vitrine
11.3.15 by Bobby Power
Since first launching in 2013, Vitrine has gradually but steadily released a confounding series of cassettes that speak to label founder Allen Mozek’s varied and obsessive taste in esoteric sound. Ranging from squalored noise, Spartanic musique concrete, spoken word, and just about everything in-between, the label’s catalog boasts highlights from established experimental acts (Gene Pick, Adam Bohman, Three Legged Race, Darksmith, et al.), to relative newcomers and/or new projects (Copley Medal, 010001111000, Mel Bentley, et al.), and Mozek’s own projects (No Intention, Good Area). We caught up with Mozek to track the label’s history and explore the impetus behind its recent trio of tapes.
How did the label first come together? And can you speak to why the label seems to have been picking up speed in production this year?
The first batch of Vitrine cassettes were not released with the intent of starting a label (a comically lofty term for the endeavor to this day), instead, it was simply a method by which Gabi & I could better create a context for what we were doing, outside of affiliate associations. It was also meant to harken back to the small-run cassettes and home imprint which I cherish and collect obsessively to this day, despite ever dwindling funds. I don’t quite remember what the idea was behind the second batch of VT cassettes, Gene Pick & Safe House. If I remember correctly, the goal was to move beyond the nuclear core of a domestic couple to acts who I was personally acquainted with, as was the case with Chris / Gene Pick, or through the collector’s grapevine, as was the case with Shane English of Safe House. VT04 & VT05 were initiated while Good Area was still active and as such were begun more as jokes / elaborate conceits rather than the perpetuation of a label or aesthetic. Good Area dissolved while both cassettes were in development and as such became a greater personal focus for me. Vitrine evolved into my main focus following the dissolution of Good Area. I only like to release my own creative material sparingly, so the label became an outlet for me. These early VT releases still came out to the public irregularly, as I was paying for them out of pocket while attempting to subsist on a low income wage job. But despite the span of time between, say, the A.Bolus / Copley Medal batch & the Adam Bohman / No Intention batch, I was well underway planning releases for the next year plus. In fact, the reason for the increased activity can partially be attributed to a current slackening of financial responsibilities (as much of Vitrine comes out of pocket… I don’t make any money on the tapes) and a further increase in my free time.
That is to say, my life at 31 basically consists of waking up every morning, going to work, coming home, taking a nap, and then attending to this & that for the label until I pass out and start the process all over again. An additional reason for the increased activity is the fact that many projects which were initiated, say, a year plus ago, are now seeing fruition. My favorite releases are those which enjoy long gestation periods – the Stewart Skinner cassette was set in motion before I contacted either Chris or Shane for the second VT batch. In fact, the Stewart Skinner was originally meant to be a 70+ minute CD. That was Stew’s idea and it remains a damn good one. I think someone should take him up on that offer…
Sure, I love the times when I contact an artist and they give me audio & artwork within a month & both parties are good to go. But my favorite way of working remains the long incubation – the upcoming Byron Recital Hall was initiated around the same time I contacted Robert Beatty / Three Legged Race and there are a number of other artists who I contacted around the time of the comp whose cassettes I don’t foresee coming to light until April onward 2016. I have releases up until around VT36 mapped out. These will come out at a fairly quick clip, heaven allowing. If I suddenly stop moving units, well, then that will lead to a reorientation of goals. Currently the plan is to make it to VT50 & then disappear, though I also hope to release a handful of vinyl records – Good Area’s “Macbeth”, No Intention’s “Rabelais”, a handful of items from neglected contemporaries & an archival offering or two from buried artists who I find to be of some worth / import. Short answer – I currently have a lot of time on my hands, thus the increase in production. Natch.
The latest batch is relatively varied, in terms of your previous releases. How did this batch come together?
This current batch is one of my favorite VT collections yet. That is to say, I find it one of the most left-field assemblages yet. Darksmith has been a favorite artist for a long time. Once Vitrine solidified as an extroverted label, Tom was put on the short list of dream projects I wanted to work with. Vitrine, to risk hyperbole, was started because of the efforts of projects such as Darksmith. Tom was incredibly easy to deal with and was incredibly accommodating every step of the way. He asked me if there was any figure I wanted depicted on the cover of the cassette and I asked him to draw Anna Kavan – author of the unsung SF classic Ice. 010001111000 has been, to this day, the only unsolicited submission which has manifest into an actual Vitrine release. It’s not on account of a lack of inspired material directed my way, rather, I’m a cranky curmudgeon, and I have a specific, jaundiced vision for the label. 010001111000 just so happened to dovetail into many of my obsessions and further illuminated aesthetic nooks and crannies heretofore untraveled by the label. Contact with artists past and present in Japan remains of singular concern for me, and despite the sometimes frustrating language barrier, I am striving to foster a better intravenous of exchange. Mel Bentley is a writer and poet who I met through a gallery event in Philadelphia which I helped curate called Poems in a Room. She was recommended to me as an inspired writer, I booked her and was subsequently blown away. Amelia is a fantastic poet and also someone I greatly admire personally. Like her, I also came out of the creative writing workshop program, but whereas I drifted off following undergrad into a miasma of tape music and alcohol abuse, Mel has since fostered strong contacts with amazing poets and garnered worthwhile archival jobs with Ubuweb & Penn. I personally feel that her and I occasionally intersect in terms of method, but she is much more sophisticated and developed in her approach, while I remain wild in method, due to a self-imposed explosion from academia and attendant alcohol abuse. Her cassette is one of my favorites which I have heretofore released. I am confident Amelia will accrue an impressive array of publishing credits in the near future. It’s an honor for me to work with her at this juncture. Her & I have discussed a collaborative effort, but that has been perpetually forestalled by my trenchant lassitude.