Table of the Elements is now on Soundcloud
Experimental stalwart uploads highlights of its discography for easy access
- Courtesy Table of the Elements
Ever since Table of the Elements closed up shop in 2011, Atlanta has been on the search for a cornerstone of experimental music. There are certainly bastions of outsider music, from venues like Eyedrum and Mammal Gallery to labels Mission Trips and Primitive Patterns. But Table of the Elements’ dissolve dismantled a bridge from the Southeast to the global experimental scene. Co-founded by Jeff Hunt in 1993, the label chartered a steady course up through the ranks of drone, noise, and other atonal curiosities, eventually working on projects that led to landmark albums by the likes of Tony Conrad, John Cale, Keiji Haino, Rhys Chatham, Faust, Loren Connors, and many more. Founded under explicit terms to release only 118 albums, enough music to fill the periodic table, the label ran its course from 1993 to 2011. To get around the rather limiting premise, Hunt spawned a number of sub-labels, each fragmenting into a splintered focus all their own, including Radium, Xeric, and a fascinating Guitar Series, featuring single-sided slabs of vinyl with music by everyone from Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley to Belong and David Daniel, among many others.
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Four years later, the label has broken its silence and began uploading highlights from its catalog onto Soundcloud. As Hunt explains, “Table of the Elements was a creature of paper and ink and string and petrochemical goo and not meant to survive into the digital age. But what this moment lacks in durability, it gains in potential for conversation and discourse. To that extent, all of those increasingly dilapidated (dogeared, faded) and diminishing (melted, broken) records can live again with renewed purpose. Prosaically, I’m building a great big website, but one that’s meant to constantly expand. We always talked about Tony Conrad being at the center of the “Big Bang” of minimalism, and we did indirectly participate in this. So, we’ll launch the thing and ... hear what happens.”
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There also seems to have been a recent update at the label’s site, but your best bet for following Hunt’s activity is his own site. Wade through the sonic murk issued during the label’s heyday.
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