Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: Introduction
Welcome to Netlabel Profiles, the show that explores some of the best and most diverse music on the internet today. On this episode of Netlabel Profiles we visit Montpellier, France.
Montpellier is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as the Hérault department. Montpellier is the 8th largest city of France, and is also the fastest growing city in the country over the past 25 years. Nearly one third of the population is made of students from the multiple universities in the city. [1] Located on the south coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, it is the third-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille and Nice.
Montpellier was founded under the Guilhem feudal dynasty in the middle ages. Montpellier came to prominence in the 12th century as a trading center, with trading links across the Mediterranean world. In the 16th century, many of the inhabitants of Montpellier became Protestants, and the city became a stronghold of Protestant resistance to the Catholic French crown. In 1622, King Louis XIII besieged the city which surrendered after a rude two months siege (Siege of Montpellier).
During the 19th century the city developed into an industrial center. In the 1960s, its population grew dramatically after French settlers in Algeria were resettled in the city following Algeria’s independence from France. Between 1999 and 2004, the population of the city increased by 1.7%, a real Baby Boom!
So, what Netlabel is located in Montpellier? That shall be revealed after a track from our featured Netlabel…
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile
That was Them never love the flowers by Dub One! on our featured netlabel: LibreCommLair, from Montpellier, France.
LibreCommLair describes themselves:
LCL stands for LibreCommeLair (Free as air in English). We are a french label offering free online music since 2006. We believe that sharing is the basis of culture, so we quickly learned about the Creative Commons Licenses soon after founding the label, and have continued to use it.
LCL is mainly dub (and all variances), but more than a precise musical style, it’s first a state of mind that defines our netlabel.
Over the technical qualities (which remain important, but not the foremost importance) we are looking for musical originality and personality, mind opening and a serious taste for collaboration. We regularly encourage meetings and collaborative with inner or outer artists.
Our catalog contain about 50 EPs and LPs and a few mixtapes, representing more than 40 artists from all around the world.
Let’s check out some more music from our featured Netlabel, LibreCommLair…
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: Closing
Thanks for joining us for Netlabel Profiles featuring the LibreCommLair netlabel. If you enjoyed the music on this show, be sure to check out LibreCommLair at http://www.lclweb.org/
This show is released under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial Share Alike license. All of the music from LibreCommLair played on this show is released under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commerical, No Derivatives license.
Be sure to check out the enhanced version of this show on The CerebralRift (http://cerebralrift.org). The posting on The CerebralRift includes:
- Additional selections from the LibreCommLair catalog
- Links to all the music played on this show
- Links to the references used in preparing the profile of LibreCommLair
- Links to the LibreCommLair website, and social media sites
- A printed transcript of this profile
- And an exclusive printed interview with LibreCommLair’s founders.
Thanks for joining us for Netlabel Profiles. This is your host SndChaser signing off, and wishing you the best of free listening!
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: References
- Montpellier Facts: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Montpellier.aspx
- Montpellier History Facts and Timeline: http://www.world-guides.com/europe/france/languedoc-roussillon/montpellier/montpellier_history.html
- Europe Cities: Montpellier: http://europe-cities.com/destinations/france/cities/montpellier/
- Wikipedia – Montpellier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpellier
- FMA – LCL: http://freemusicarchive.org/member/LCL
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: Playlist
All of the tracks used on this show were part of the 9 Years
compilation by LibreCommLair which was posted on the Free Music
Archive. All of the tracks (and a lot more) can be heard and/or
downloaded here: http://freemusicarchive.org/member/LCL/FMA_9_years_mixtape
LCL Intro
Dub One! Them never love the flowers
LCL Profile
Don Goliath Fittest of the fittest
CLDSCP Sade
Volfoniq A love riddim (Feat. Stephanie Grisel)
Mastermind XS Memories of a machine
Caballo Snake Charmer
Lowknee No Banned Dubs (Greece)
Zengineers Your name is Taiwan (Germany)
Bo Marley + Disrupt + Volfoniq L’Anchoïade
DU3normal Long walk (feat. Zsofia Derts)
Malasorti Malasorti
Ras Amerlock Pre Historiker Dub (Ras Amerlock meets Uffe)
Uffe Henri Martin Affair (Sweden)
Dr RemiX Anything Dub
mildtape and Ebsa Free As Air [Original mix]
LCL Close
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: Interview
1. Please introduce yourself / yourselves.
The two people behind LCL are in love in three ways : with music, with food, and with eachother.
2. How did you decide that you wanted to run a netlabel? (Did anyone or anything inspire you to do this?)
We actually started to put music online before even knowing the concept of netlabel, around 2003. First our own music, then friends music. Shortly after we met thru the web Jan Gleichmar (Disrupt) with who we collaborated on a release for his netlabel Jahtari (at this time it was only a netlabel). We liked the idea of the online label immediately as it was the perfect tool for connecting musicians without the constraints of the usual physical scheme. We naturaly decided to turn our website in a netabel, as it was, in the facts, already one.
3. Why did you decide to release your works under a Creative Commons license?
From the start our idea was to provide music for free but it was too blur for the listeners and users to understand what thay could do with it. Some friends involved into the open source community told us about creative commons licenses, and about their application to music. Just like the netlabel was more light and modular than the physical label, Creative commons appeard to be the ecaxt same benefit but regarding juridic aspects, so we adopted them.
4. How much time do you spend on running your netlabel?
It depens of the time of the year but let’s count at least a few hours every weak.
5. Have there been any projects (ie netlabel related, but not necessarily about a release, like maybe you set up a concert / festival / etc.) that are especially memorable to you?
Almost each of our release is in our hearts, but if we had to chose some : – “Jam in sauce” : we organized in our hometown Montpellier a dub festival in 2007 where we invited band from germany (Disrupt), Denmark (Bo Marley) and Nederlands (Dr Dub). We spent a few days alltogether after the festival in a country house chillin and jaming, and made a few raw live recordings. 3 were arranged and released as an EP. It has been a wonderful souvenir for all of us ! – The “Recto Versus” serie (2 opus) working on the following concept : an artists is connected to other musicians, and either remixes them, or is remixed by them, if not both. We always try to have emulation and encouters in our projects and these ones were specially rich, as there were connexions between musical styles that were – “La boite a son” : we first put online a sound bank willed with samples and loops provided by the artists we released. Then we pushed the idea farther and launched a composition contest with some of the creative commons actors as a jury. And of course, we relesed their selection on the netlabel, the loop was looped ! As you understood, we have a weakness for collaborative works
6. Is there a long-term goal for your label?
It always remained the same : going on sharing music we like and playing the sonic matchmakers as long as we can.
7. Are you involved in anything else other than producing music? (IE, videos, CD’s, wallpapers, t-shirts, etc.)
Apart from working full time with our dayjobs, and raising our kids, the label i’m affraid don’t leave that much free space for something else
8. Any cool stories about projects / releases? (IE, they got used in someone else’s movie / video, or something similar.)
We always are very proud when some of the musicians we released gets gigs or featurings thru our work, but don’t really keep the count of them. Some worked with choregraphers, movie makers …
9. What is your take on the future of music? (IE, do you think streaming will be more important than downloads, do you think the major labels will go bankrupt, do you think more people are turning to netlabels than traditional music sources, etc.)
There are so many things to say and imagine about this ! Our personal belief is that definitely the streaming will (is already) bury downloads. That is not a bad thing in itself, as there is no real difference between keeping an mp3 or a streaming link on your device. Where we see a problem, is the platform you use to stream. And there is a huge difference between collecting links from Freemusicarchive.org and using Itunes, Deezer or so. In the first case you are in an opened, curious and tolerant aproach, where you can connect with the artists; in the second one you accept in a certain way being told what is interesting and consuming music by making richer multinational corporations who only leave crumbs to the artists. And that is why we think netlabels and creative commons have an importantrole to play by puting music again in the right place : between the ears and in the hearts. Our slogan resumes this state of mind : “Music is still breathing”.
Maybe the majors will sink in their actual form, what is sure is that the companies that hold the streaming technologies are already more important. Immediate profitability bein the norm in this system, streamed music will be more likely fast-food music, but i think (and hope) that good music will still accidentaly reach this network from time to time. Anyway the music that need time and attention to be produced will continue to live out of the system, so to be honest i’m not really pessimistic. You can’t reasonably ask 99% of the people to like the same thing.
There will surely still be a place for physical objects (vinyl, CDs, even tapes) but I guess they will probably be bought by audiophiles and collectors who can afford to pay for the object and the playing device, as the cost should logically raise because of the reduced number of issues.
10. Any upcoming projects / releases / events you would like to mention?
Apart from the “regular” releases that are planned, we are working on a project around a riddim produced by Volfoniq. Starting from french lyrics talking about the virtue of talking and sharing among fearing and fighting, we asked to foreign singers to write their own lyrics on the same topics, and to sing them on the very same lyrics. Language is both the topic and the tool. We have a 10th of different versions in progress, and already got versions in Taiwanese, Russian and Esperanto. We are very looking forward to put all of them together for a realease ! However due to the number of people involved it’s a long term project and we don’t have a release date yet, as it’s often the case for this can of project…
Enhanced LibreCommLaire Netlabel Profile: Contacts
Label LCL Netlabel
Long Name LibreCommLaire
Contact Name
Email [email protected] or [email protected]
Website http://www.lclweb.org/
Blog http://lclweb.blogspot.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LCLnetlabel
Twitter @LCL_netlabel
SoundCloud http://soundcloud.com/lcl
Blip.fm http://blip.fm/LCL_netlabel
