Emerging Part 2

Small Pond Vinyl is back with a new release, Emerging Part 2 small pond’s new vinyl. Their first vinyl has been selling quickly ever since then. Vinyl records are coming back in style for many reasons, but the main thing that sets records apart from CDs or digital downloads is their sound quality. Vinyl has always had an analog sound to them that cannot be replicated digitally. In addition to being high-quality, Small Pond Vinyl releases have been very well received by critics as well as fans alike!

Small Pond is a band that reflects the diverse and exciting range of genres in which they work, so all forms of music will be considered for this project—from electronic pop to alt-rock to experimental prog and everything in between—so musicians shouldn’t be discouraged if their stuff is strange and wonderful. The team can’t wait to hear this year’s submissions!

Support Independent Musician

An independent musician is someone who creates and releases music independently of the major record labels. The independent musicians may create and sell their own music with limited distribution, or they may release free online albums that are available to anyone with an internet connection.

Independent musicians often rely more on direct fan support than on radio airplay because there are no big-buck interests to promote them. However, in order for independent musicians to survive in this industry, they have to have a good reputation for their music.

EMERGING Project Leader Liam McMillan

Small Pond Studios label manager and EMERGING project leader Liam McMillan says: “I’m really over the moon that we can work with a new group of talented young artists on our ‘Emerging’ project this year. We have been working really hard behind the scenes at Small Pond to create a host of new projects that support our local scene and beyond. It’s been an extremely challenging year, but delivering a project of this nature will undoubtedly have an immediate positive impact on our creative community.”

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The project, which has been funded by the Arts Council England, focuses on giving promising artists, talented young acts, up-and-coming artists a chance to go through the entire recording, mixing, receive support, account, and marketing process – and the end access to a record label. The process will culminate in the pressing and distribution of a compilation album on 12-inch vinyl and digital platforms in a spring 2021 release. The record will feature a track from each of the acts selected.

The scheme focuses on providing up-and-coming artists with the chance to go through all phases of a record’s creation and marketing. The process culminates and end result is the pressing and distribution of a vinyl album as a collection.

Support for Musicians

Musicians will get support and industry guidance in the form of workshops, pre-production meetings, and mentoring throughout the process, along with a custom-built marketing and PR campaign for the release. Each act will also receive an allocation of the finished vinyl to selling as merchandise, getting them on the way to earning a tangible income from their music.

The project was launched in 2020 with the resulting 8 track compilation Small Pond Presents Emerging featuring singles from MY-HI, CLT DRP, PLACID, El Moono, KING BEE, San Dingo, BADLAWS, and The Subtracks, with CLT DRP going on to sign a full album deal with Small Pond for the release of theirs.

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releases November 26, 2021

More Than Anything by Varsity Star

An expansive yet concise exploration in a synth- and sample-based songwriting, ‘More Than Anything’ is the new Mini-LP by Brooklyn-based electronic musician and audiovisual artist Varsity Star. Featuring lofi electro 808 drums and neon synths on “Summer”, precise and pristine sound design on “Pipes”, and futuristic synthetic four-on-the-floor beats on “LED”, this release spans a wide sonic palette unified by a focus on deeply personal songwriting.

Varsity Star explains, “For me, it’s about making emotional, encapsulated experiences that hit physically from the speakers. From Aphex Twin and the Miles Quintet, I learned a lot about exploring the tensions between those things, tearing music apart and putting it back together in one take. I found music that spoke to me in a real-life, non-theatrical, emotional way is something I’m always trying to get back to.”

releases November 5, 2021

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The Last Three Seconds by Voronoi

Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.

“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.” 

s the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.

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“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That’s a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.” 

Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club – not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.

The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers.

Gamma Signals, the first single off Voronoi’s The Last Three Seconds, is available to stream now. The full album releases on 7th of May via Small Pond Recordings and Art As Catharsis. 

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Pricing and Availability

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