The label owners tell us how it started, their fondest memories and the secrets behind creating a truly unique catalogue

What inspired you to start Noumenal Loom?

Isabel and I met and fell in love only a year prior to us starting Noumenal Loom. Our shared love of both experimental and pop music, and our similar interests in what was happening in the digital art, installation and sculpture worlds brought us together in a way that helped the foundation of Noumenal Loom develop. At the time, Isabel had a performance and sculpture practice that often incorporated original compositions, sound and voice, and I had what Isabel would call a very sculptural music practice. I had been daydreaming about starting a cassette label, and she has had the consistent desire to help facilitate a space for artists and community building, thus Noumenal Loom was born. It was a more simple and accessible way to start and also just fun for us! In the early days we duplicated our own cassettes and printed and folded our own j-cards. It was a sweet time to be present with one another, and good art and music, and continue to get to know each other through this collaboration. Our very first batch of releases included my debut as Holly Waxwing, Goldleaf Acrobatics, as well as works from Gerda Taro and Digital Natives whose pitch-shifted, bleary sound collages really inspired us. Collaborating with visual artists we respect has always played a really important role in Noumenal Loom, and we were thrilled to have Brenna Murphy design the j-cards and small teaser videos for our first batch of tapes.

Since we are on the subject ,we are going to share a list of some of the wonderful visual artists we've had the pleasure of collaborating with in our 10 years as a label - it feels important to shout them out: Brenna Murphy, Aidan Koch, Mateo Marquez, Birch Cooper, Neil Jackson, Travis Swinford, Seth Graham, Keith Rankin, Aoto Oouchi, Mathieu Dionne, Jasper Lee, Danny Espinoza, Matthew Sage, Mac Pogue, Rae Wilson, Sam Balfus, Matthew Schoen and Ellen Thomas. We highly recommend folks go see what they are up to! Also, on a side note, we are also quite proud of some of the designs we made ourselves. It bears mentioning that we started Noumenal Loom right before the crest of a huge renaissance of small, experimental tape labels releasing a lot of great synth and sample collage music. Giant Claw's Tunnel Mind, Digital Native's Blow Your Brain Out and Piotr Kurek's Heat are some releases that really stand out to us from this time. Rotifer, No Kings, NNA Tapes, Orange Milk, Hooker Vision, Tranquility and Space Slave were some of our favoUrite tape labels from this era. Also, huge shout out to Carl Koopmans of Space Slave – Carl was an invaluable resource as we started Noumenal Loom and gave us tons of great advice about producing super high quality, home-dubbed tapes. His releases still stand out as having the best production quality, as far as the tapes and packaging go, of probably anything we own.

What were you looking to achieve with each album? What was the prerequisite for a release on NL?

We wanted each album to live and flourish in its own aesthetic space. It's always a delicate balance trying to find a happy middle ground between each artist's individual vision for their release & the overarching vision of the label as a whole. There are moments where giving each release such creative leeway felt a little risky, because it didn't create a very streamlined, cohesive feel for the label as whole – like our friends over at Orange Milk or NNA Tapes have done such a beautiful job of. In the end, we really wanted Noumenal Loom to be a space where artists could fully realise their vision and somehow, in the end, this and our curatorial choices created their own sort of cohesiveness. There were no particular prerequisites for releasing on NL, and we certainly weren't closed off to any genres. For the demos that we received and released, and didn't solicit ourselves, in most cases there was an immediate connection with the music and the artist.

What is an album that you're particularly proud to have released?

We truly mean it when we say it has been such a gift to release all of the material in our discography and that it's been such a privilege to work with all of the artists we've collaborated with. We are immensely proud of all of the releases in the Noumenal Loom roster. That being said, if we were to pick one album here, we would choose Killd By's Neotropical. For those who do not know, Killd By was a music project by artist Colin Ward. Colin passed away before the release of the material on Neotropical but had wanted the release to live in the Noumenal Loom world. Much to our surprise, his friends and family reached out to us to ask if we would honour a posthumous release and work with them on a fundraiser for the CRFW Fund, a fund made in Colin's name and honour to help provide artists funding for space and resources.

We were so moved to be asked, and this release stands out to us because of the time we got to spend collaborating with Colin's mother and dearest friends, to lift up and honour the beautiful, radical and empathetic work he had done in his life before transitioning out of this world. It was an honour and privilege to be included in this process. 

In a sentence, how would you describe the following releases: 

Dumbledogs – DJ Voilà 

"House incantations by and for Canids."

MEAT SHOT IDYLLIC – Jan Julius 

I don't think Jan's quote can be topped "...[Meat Shot Idyllic is]...a queer future-pop celebration of the unstable collective utopias that arise in opposition to the nihilistic dystopia of our capitalist present."

Days - Earthly 

"A soft embrace, a rush of sun spilling on your face, an ice cream social, unbridled ecstasy."

What is a beautiful moment involving NL that you'll remember forever?

It is hard to pick one particular moment, but the shows and events we've curated really stand out since it meant we were connecting with our artists for the first time, or again, IRL. We used to host dance parties at The Firehouse in Birmingham, AL, which is now also a wonderful community arts centre/non-profit run by dear friends of ours. These were all so fun and generally very well attended by folks of all ages. Holly's release parties for both Goldleaf Acrobatics at Jingle Records (Montevallo, AL) and Peach Winks at The Firehouse (Birmingham, AL) were some of our favourite early events as a label. Hanging out with the Earthly boys, Brint and Edaan, in North Carolina and seeing them play at Moogfest is a really dear memory to us both.

Lifelong friendships are what really make Noumenal Loom's legacy infinite

Having our dear friend Keith Rankin/Giant Claw visit to record with Holly a number of times was definitely a highlight. In more recent years, we have hosted Julius Smack here in Providence, RI and in collaboration with Commend/RVNG in NYC, gone on tour with Emotional Indulgence and hosted a farewell/10th anniversary party for the label at Public Records NYC. All of the above to say – lifelong friendships are what really make Noumenal Loom's legacy infinite and are for sure our favourite part of running the label. We now have a community all over the country, and much of the world. 

What is one thing that no one ever talks about when it comes to managing an independent record label? 

Well, we've alluded to this already but the delicate dance of respecting an artist's vision, and not being overly prescriptive, while realising that running a label is inherently curatorial and sometimes your role is to encourage artists to push harder or try new things out. It's always a delicate thing when an artist comes to you with a fully finished album that you love with already commissioned artwork that you as a label and curator, do not feel fits the music or the output of the label. That's difficult though right? Ha, because the person making the music clearly had a vision for the visual. Anyway, the nuances are tricky. Also, maybe this is more talked about, but in more recent years so much of running a label is worrying about PR and also playlisting and licensing. It's important to realise how much this administrative work is a part of the everyday for smaller labels. It's unfortunate, but it's very much the moment we are in. 

Can you give an insight into what you will both be getting up to after NL?

Well, we run a sound design company and are throwing ourselves into its growth. It's called We Time Audio House, check us out! We recently scored and did the sound design for Sonnyé Lim's animated short, Happy Green. Sonnyé is such a thoughtful artist, and it was so very fun for us to work on this project. We are hoping for more experiences like this! Another fun branch of the We Time World is our CSA (Community Supported Audio). Different sound designers create a short sound design piece for We Time to host on our website and Soundcloud each month. We took a pause from this as we were closing out Noumenal Loom, but we are excited to get back to curating more pieces over the summer! Beyond work, we hope to spend more time out in nature, foraging and watching birds, cooking meals with friends, reading and watching good films. All of these things that nourish us and also contribute to our personal artistic practices. Holly hopes to start working on his next album and also has a couple of cover collaborations in mind..details tba and Isabel has been getting into clay and is hoping to continue exploring its potential to return to her sculpture practice.

Where can people find you?

Hopefully out in a field somewhere or on a winter walk on a moody beach. We both hope to spend less time in front of a screen this year and more time elsewhere, but of course you can find us via We Time. Garrett has several social media accounts including a fun one for his mushroom foraging. He also plans to play some Holly Waxwing shows in the coming year, still to be confirmed. Isa is not in the social media realm now that Noumenal Loom is on pause, though she is considering starting an Are.na page. Anyway, hopefully we'll be travelling some if we are lucky, otherwise we'll be in Rhode Island doing all the things previously mentioned, maybe occasionally curating something in strange online spaces but mostly in our home drinking tea with our fluffy curly pup, Echo <3