Experimental Entity

Belgium is the new home of experimental music

With imprints such as Mystery Sea, Belgium already has a reputation to uphold when it comes to exciting experimental music. There is, however, even more to discover and, incredibly, some of it comes entirely for free.

For this, we have to thank entity, a weblabel with a mission. Disappointed with the current lack of courage among record companies and the long publishing cycles, which keep artists from releasing on a more frequent basis, they decided to do things in a different fashion. First of all, there are no real restrictions to what kind of music is published - you will find "mutating tentacle beats", "ethereal cryogenic objectscapes", "abstract swirling soundscapes" and "enigmatic emptional drones". The latter category is used to describe the output of Russian composer Cisfinitum, who is currently preparing for a tour through Germany and who has just put the finishing touch to the final chapter of a trilogy of drone records. His "Landschaft" album is one of the greatest netlabel releases of all times and a haunting mix of Dark Ambient and Drones that lacks any comparison. And you can download each release without paying a penny! If you want to get a rough idea, what kind of material to expect, you can move over to the entity-webpage, where you can find a list of recommended releases by the two founders, Nico de Gols and Jan Robbe (both composers in their own right).

And then, Entity is different from other WWW-based labels in that it actively searches for artists. So, if you're a musician operating in the fringe region of electronic music, you might well find an email from Belgium in your mailbox, asking you for a contribution. And by introducing a micropayment system, listeners can actually support their favourite sound sculptors.

It's the combination of weblabels and regular record companies that has shaped Belgium into a fascinating territory for new music. And for your first steps into this brave new world, entity is an excellent choice.

Homepage: Entity