

Corvo Records
Corvo Records is a German record label from Berlin founded in 2010 by Wendelin Büchler. Corvo is subordinate to Holger Lund’s curated sub-label Global Pop First Wave, which overwhelmingly publishes compilations of Turkish, Arabic, and Indian music. Büchler sees his work as a label founder as a logical consequence of his previous occupation as an organizer of concert series in the experimental area and as a member of the organization Stuttgart Platform for Current Music. »My own musical exchange with musicians from the areas of Free Jazz, Improvisation, Noise and contemporary Electronic gave me the idea to record their music on vinyl«, Büchler describes the gradual process, which has been supported by the Alesandra Eramo, who in the meanwhile became a publishing artist herself. The name – Latin for »crow« – implicitly summarizes Corvo’s self-understanding as well as the musical claim of the label. »Like crows, the musicians are also busy developing playful, artistic borders and new ideas through the risky misinterpretation of instruments, media, or voices.« The outcome is elaborately designed records that point to Corvo’s background in the Fine Arts. »Gatefold-cardboard packaging, silk-screen prints, stamped holes, coloured vinyls, picture discs, original drawing inlays«, Büchler counts the variety of formats of the label, which visually compliment the implicit motto of the label: »Risk your neck, then art and life comes out!«
Whilst Corvo concentrates on contemporary music experiments between microtonal tuba-drones, turntablism, or North African Berber music, Global Pop First Wave dives deep into the past, to »re-map Pop history, which is still shaped too much by a western hegemony«, as Büchler says about the work of his colleague Lunds. »In other words: do we not miss out central parts of Pop history, just because it is spatially in the „periphery“, of what we think about?« At the start, there was the compilation »Saz Beat«, which marked the arrival of Pop music in Turkey in the 60’s. With the »The Trip« tetralogy, a type of geographical migration of Central Europe to the Far East was recorded. »The concept first began with GPFW, which crystalized often over years«, explains Büchler. Consequently it takes a bit longer for the finished archive. »The compilations are then regularly curated, concerning the selection and sequence of the pieces of music, in order to demonstrate a particular historical course.« An undertaking, which not only satisfies fans of Funk or Psych-music, but also serves a scientific purpose through the academic articles written by Lund.
Yet again, how does this fit together with the music of Corvo? »Both labels occupy themselves with music, which questions what music can be«, Büchler says. »When it builds hybrids from global and local strands or questions, what music nowadays can be.«