in my years studying at the sydney conservatorium i discovered the beautiful community of experimental soundmakers and instrumentalists operating in so-called sydney and so-called aus more broadly.

seeing so many of my friends play their beautiful music in interesting spaces around the city and inner west, i wanted to make some small step towards painting a picture of the scene that could be discovered by people on the outside.

live music lends itself to community-building, but releasing recorded music has become a fairly individualised process which encourages a kind of 'entrepreneurial' thinking which is in many ways antithetical to the creative process. the reality is that music relies on communities and networks of people, which run on more than money* alone.

within modest means, i realised that even the simple act of creating one bandcamp page where you can find lots of interesting post-jazz/experimental music from sydney would help to communicate the presence of an interconnected scene, and remind people that music can still be made by humans. with this ethos, i started 'people sound' in 2019. bandcamp is the obvious choice of platform since it features an artist-centred pricing model and brings attribution for creative labour to the fore (you can list extensive credits for the personnel, engineers, etc - try finding that information for a release on spotify).

this playlist is a primer for the sound of the label, with one track from each release. i will keep it updated as new music comes out. i hope that you find something interesting.

*releasing music is expensive. you have to pay a digital distribution service for the privilege of (basically) giving your music away for free on streaming platforms; you have to pay facebook/instagram to 'promote' a post just to reach your existing followers (let alone reaching potential new fans); some blogs charge artists for writeups and track premieres, etc; on top of all that there's the cost of recording and producing an album, which can cost thousands (you might be able to record mumblerap in your bedroom, but try a 4-piece instrumental group with wide dynamic range).