A Closer Listen
When it came time to tally our votes, we discovered that this year’s winners had never been listed before! A huge congratulations to Wisconsin’s well-deserving and hard-working Lost Tribe Sound, A Closer Listen‘s Label of the Year for 2019, followed closely by London’s fine Village Green Recordings.
Lost Tribe Sound will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020, and is run by the tireless Ryan Keane. The label has gone from strength to strength over the course of the decade, bolstered by the talent of their prolific signature artist William Ryan Fritch (responsible for the label’s very first release as Vieo Abiungo) and two successful subscription series, the latest which wrapped up this year. In 2019 the label released nine albums, seven of which were part of the series and two of which were new film scores from Fritch (also found on our Best Film Scores list). The packaging was sublime; gorgeous artwork received the full vinyl treatment, and hardback editions continued to be a physical bonus.
Congratulations on being named our label of the year! We’ve been corresponding for years, so it’s an honor to be able to share this news with you.
You’re about to approach the decade mark (you’re one year older than we are). Looking back, can you tell us when you first thought of starting a label and how you chose the name?
What releases are you most proud of and why?
This year’s runner-up is London’s Village Green Recordings. Like Lost Tribe Sound, this is the first year they have been listed. As we tallied our year-end charts, we realized something else about them. The average chances of review at A Closer Listen are one in eight, but in 2019, Village Green issued five releases, and we covered all of them! That’s a clear sign of consistency. Active since 2012 (but kicking into a higher gear in 2016), the label has put out a slow, steady stream of quality releases and has built a beautiful roster. Enjoy the year’s full output below in order of release!
Richard Allen
Wed Dec 11 00:01:01 GMT 2019