by Adam Richards

In the second part of a two part feature on Qbico Records and their series of Unite concerts, Adam Richards and Cory Card chat with the man behind the tiny empire of sounds from the outside that is Qbico. The interview took place via email and pleasantries were exchanged at Unite VII in Buffalo, NY.

I started Qbico in March 2001 with a pic disk called "Dark Revolution Collective". These pretty unique recordings where taken from Makoto Kawabata's 10 CD-R box set titled "Early works". This particular one was made by Makoto in 1978 (when he was 13 years old?!), along with two other friends in his school's chemistry lab, using some glass test-tubes as perc. instruments so to create an hypnotic and dense "perc carpet", over which he later on overdubbed a distorted synth that he borrowed from a friend... it came out a pretty futuristic/ahead of it's time sound, considering also the young age !

The 1st U-nite was organized in NYC @ Tonic, March 2004 with: the Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Andrew Barker, Daniel Carter, Charles Waters, Shanir-Ezra Blumenkrantz and poet Steve Dalachinsky. The special guest was Perry Robinson.

The 2nd one was done @ Cinema Nova in Bruxelles as part of a big and very interesting Festival called "Free jazz, great black music", with rare film, photos exhibition and concerts... I invited: Alan Silva, Laukeat Lampaat, Vibracathedral Orchestra and as special guests Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty (May '04). 3rd one still @ Cinema Nova, this time around with Family Underground and Rahuan Orkesteri (February '06). The 4th one was in Aarhus, Denmark last year (March '06) with FU and Daniel Carter/Vin Paternostro/Ed Wilcox. The 5th was in Turku, Finland (May 06) with: Lau Nau/Kuupuu/Laukeat Lampaat (4et with two male/two female, my idea) + Pompiduo (with Ville from Cluster) and Rakhim (Circle side project) which invited as special guest Hans-Joachim Irmler from Faust!

In Buffalo I did the Qbico U-nite VII, after Detroit which was of course #6. I was planning to do an LP by Steve Baczkowski (in duo with Ravi Padmanabha) and at the bottom of Steve's mail mentioned that he is music director of Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center over there, so it was quite natural for me to ask him if he might be interested in doing a Qbico night, more as a kind of record release party... he was so cool also finding some funds (that already happened @ Cinema Nova and in Aarhus)

The concept behind the U-nite's idea is very simple: I set up a Qbico night where artists from different background, age & gender and who have or will rec. for Qbico, got the chance to play live, jam and express themselves freely; hopefully in a familiar and joyful atmosphere. Also it's a chance for me to travel, see friends and hear great music... all things that I like (smile)!

For 2007 I'm working on some Qbico U-nites in Ireland, Denmark and Finland, we'll see... one day to unite in Japan, would not be bad... also I'm pretty happy that I just fixed the one and only ever Qbico U-nite (VIII) in Italy for Feb 11 @ DobiaLab in Monfalcone (close to Gorizia) with Valerio Cosi/Enzo Franchini, Neokarma Jooklo sextet (the new and young very exciting generation of creative musicians from Italy) and Makoto Kawabata as special guest. It'll be something REALLY special and not to be missed!

Yes, sir! In 2007 I'll issue an incredible three-sided complete unreleased live rec. from 1972 by Eruption (Conrad Schnitzler's loose collective, see Qbico 32 for their 1st rec.)... Another Con archival rec.'ll be "Silver", rec. in the mid 70's as part of his famous "colored" series. Then in 2008 i'll put out a mid 70's rec. by Hartmut Geerken called "Amanita" (rec. under magic mushrooms influence) in which he played a "sunharp" built and given to him by Sun Ra in Egypt in 1971 and an Indian "swarmandal" (stringed instruments) given to him in Delhi by one of the Dagar Brothers; these are some of the most far out and alien sounds I have ever heard!!!

More archival material from Arthur Doyle as well: a fierce 24 minutes long version of "Nature Boy" rec. in trio with Charles Stephens and Rashied Sinan in 1972 (it'll "cover" a period of Doyle's career, from 1969 to 1976 in which no rec. had been ever available yet); it'll be a one-sided LP.

Another one-sided by Arthur Doyle called "Live @ the Alterknit, 1997" is in the pipeline, this time a trio with Wilber Morris & Rashid Bakr (this'll complete the "cut corner's" series of one-sided); musically speaking it'll reach Arthur's most insane moment... surprise! More old stuff also from Bobby Beausoleil with "Mantra" which I think it was originally rec. in the mid 80's; I just got the artworks for this new forthcoming pic disk, wow!

Sorry, can't answer this, top secret (smile)! BUT, I'd tell you some of the musicians that I contacted in the past 5 years with whom unfortunately I was not able to complete a project together (hoping others will be luckier then me):

-Pekka Airaksinen, "reissue" of a test press only called Mythologinen duo
-EYE/Ohtake duo called "Puzzle punk" (I met by accident EYE in a London record shop...)
-a compilation of free funk pieces culled from my personal collection of old
free jazz vinyl (too many license to ask for...)
-Harry Smith Archive
-Tetsu Ito
-Hans Dulfer El Ritmo Natural
-Eddie Gale Ghetto Music
-Eero Koivistonen
-Father Yod
-Peter Brotzmann in duo with Hamid Drake
-The People Band/OMMU
-William Parker solo over animal sounds; I'd have liked to dedicate this album to the late Peter Kowald who'd have issued that rec. as Qbico 02
-Norman Howard "Burn, baby, burn" (trumpet player with Albert Ayler, rec. which would have come out on ESP back in the day)
-Ivo Perelman project called by me "free Brazilian grooves"
-Charles Gayle duo with Andrew Barker and/or trio with Sirone
-Cairo Free Jazz Band (I arrived too late...)

I also spoke with these fellas but unfortunately nothing ever materialized:

Ntshukumo Bonga, Kahil El'Zabar, John Duncan, Roland P Young, Adam Rudolph Go Organic Orchestra, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Phil Cohran, Nicole Willis, Carlos Nino, Najite, Mikko Innanen, ect...

Arthur, Arthur Doyle, oh yes he's for sure one of the most representative musician of my label!
I really admire him as a musician and as a man: he's 100% real, he never compromises and he always chooses to stay on the fringes, live the hard life... he's a kind of cult figures, thanks to the reputation of his LP "Alabama Feeling" which is considered by many a masterpiece of raw power and free playing, but I'm of the opinion that he still hasn't received the real credit/respect he deserves, especially from the "specialized" press... AND I really hope one day to finally prove his highly individual and unique artistry. He's from out of this world, he was born in "The Magic City" (Birmingham, Alabama; same birthplace as Sun Ra with whom he even briefly played in the 70's...), he's The true Outsider! I have heard amazing stories about him from such experienced players such as Daniel Carter and Perry Robinson, who told me how hip Arthur was back in NYC in the 70's for the way he "walk", talk, dress and PLAY !

Thanks for your compliments. I appreciate it. I think that in every art, being music, painting, photography, whatever... one of the most important thing, is to be immediately recognized among the rest: that means that your work is quite personal/original, unique/different from all others AND that was my goal since I started Qbico records! For example, I don't wanna sound snobby (I’m not): there had been in the past other labels who did colored records BUT I think that none reach 50 or more releases... so probably Qbico'll be difficult to imitate... anyway, I REALLY hope Qbico'll be also some day, of some influence to young and new labels! There are so many small vinyl labels out there (I buy 95% only vinyl)... probably with most, the problem is continuity.... Well to get back to yr question, I dig a lot old labels such as: ESP, Futura, FMP, Saturn, Blue Note, Prestige, ICP, Incus, Strata-East, Folkways, Philips "silver" series, etc. Now I dig: American Tapes, Eclipse, Honest Johns, Weird Forest, Time-Lag, Ultra Eczema, Ufo-Mungo, HP Cycle and a while ago: Twisted Village, Ecstatic Yod and PSF...and I really hope there'll be more and more in the future... especially ones who present new or unreleased old music, I don't consider re-issuing "labels" so exciting. For young ones probably the most difficult problem is continuity...

Regarding artworks/covers and design in general probably the one who influenced me the most is ESP, it was groundbreaking!

Please try to hold a stylus between yr fingers, place it in the 1st grooves and watch it "grooving around/playing the grooves", this only "act/feeling", makes vinyl far more groovy then any other audio/recording medium! Apart from that, many things fascinate me about records:

-it's weight
-it's format
-it's packaging (cover/labels)
-there is an endless groove at the end of each side
-even not much care had been taken to his surface, you'd still play a record
and most of the times the noise remains in the background (sometimes CDs
skips, can't be played properly)...
-the possibility to "act" upon it by adding colors, artworks for pic disks, etc … sometimes it sounds more as an artisan labour: for example the 1st Qbico was done one-by-one, by humans, adding different colors and the result is that each one is a unique bit!

-as a recording medium it'll probably never die, it'll probably never be killed by the so called "progress"! Being the "progress" hidden under the names of CDs, iPod, MP3, whatever! That's totally fascinating if you think that vinyl is around 100 years old! I'm trying to bring it to the next level, both musically and aesthetically...

On the contrary, just few days ago, I was thinking on how many are the risks/negative factors which could compromise a good quality pressing:

-bubbles
-not centered holes
-"fat" edges
-background noises
-little scuffs
-label printed in the grooves
-warped vinyl

not to speak about covers... most can't really imagine how much work and traps there'd be behind a complete well-done LP... Anyway, all this makes you even more proud & happy when a final satisfactory result is reached: the harder is "the mission", the better are the rewards, Right!? Right on!

Boring.
BUT it seems that a new young generation is coming out... see the light...

Cold, poor.
Just an example: months ago a BIG distributor in Europe wrote me (think Tower Records, but is not), showing some interest in my stuff. They asked for 3 copies of some titles only AND if they'd take them on "consignment", which means that they'll pay me ONLY if they sold them?! I'm nothing compared to them but I said to them that if I take some risks (and I take a FEW!), they'd take some as well, otherwise is too easy baby!

Good one, yes here's the Qbico pipeline:

2007-

QBICO 54 The SB- Who will feed them.
QBICO 55 Pengo- Toads tools amongst the tombstones
QBICO 56 Alan Sondheim- 56
QBICO 57 Smegma with Perry Robinson- Live @ the No Fun Fest
(focus on the expermental/electronic US scene)

VCO, Mick Flower solo, Astral Social Club, Ashtray Navigations
(focus on the UK scene)

U-nite IV, Aarhus, Denmark w/Daniel Carter/Vin Paternostro/Ed Wilcox & FU
Trulofa
(focus on Denmark)

Eruption '72
Datashock and Shivers
(electronic/experimental music from Germany, past and present)

U-Nite V, Turku, Finland
Black Motor, Boris Morgana, Aineettomaksi Temperamentin
(focus on Finland)

Peace.