efore I begin, allow me to first quote directly from the Irdial~Disc web site:

"Irdial~Discs is a world renowned publisher, driven by a relentless, ferocious and uncompromising vision of what the public should expect from music, sound recordings, print and publishing.

"During its long history, Irdial~Discs has been responsible for exposing the public to many revered artists and the most extraordinary and important of historical sound projects.

"This year's projects will see us consolidating our position as one of Europe's greatest labels, with new releases and surprising collaborations to come."

Obviously, the people who run Irdial have no problems bragging. But is their audacity justified? In one area, it is: found art, or art not directly created for aesthetic reasons but nevertheless possessing many aesthetic qualities. Two releases from Irdial's immense catalogue are perhaps the finest examples of found music ever released. The first is a work I've reviewed at this site, one I've discussed on many occasions: The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations. This is an unbelievably important release that not only sheds light on an area of the Cold War (and beyond) otherwise ignored by historians but also possesses an amazingly creepy aura that sucks the listener in and doesn't let up for any of the release's four disks. It is, I think, one of the greatest recordings of all time. Another Irdial release of found art that deserves attention is Electric Enigma: The VLF Recordings of Stephan P. McGreevy. VLF signals are radio signals produced by the Earth's magnetic field, most prominently evident during the so-called "northern lights" displays. These sounds are very low in the radio spectrum, but Stephan McGreevy built a device to listen in to the signals, and this release documents some of his more interesting recordings. The sounds are amazing: sounding like crickets at one point, like tin whistles at another, and like warm, rumbling overtones at another.

So, Irdial's found art is fantastic. What of their more traditional offerings? Well, it's not as impressive. They've released about 70-odd works over the 15 years the label has been in business. Some of the work, like InSync's "Storm," is certainly interesting and challenging and even (at times) extraordinary. But most of these releases are simply mediocre works that don't really impress me all that much.

Of course, feel free to ignore my comments and check the music out for yourself. The best feature of Irdial~Disc is: free music. Yes, that's right: most of the label's back catalogue is available for download on their web site. This includes The Conet Project and Electric Enigma, by the way, along with other Irdial artists such as InSync, Aqua Regia, Anthony Manning, and a bunch of others.

Why do they do this? Well, as they note, "Irdial~Disks embraces the Free Music Philosophy," a philosophy founded upon "the idea that creating, copying, and distributing music must be as unrestricted as breathing air, swimming in the sea, or basking in the rays of the sun." Air? Sea? Sun? Hmm. No wonder their found music is so good!

Important Releases:
The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
Electric Enigma: The VLF Recordings of Stephan P. McGreevy