Sony Music Masterworks Announces Launch Of New Label: XXIM Records. Icelandic Composer Eydís Evensen and Uèle Lamore, Franco-American composer, conductor, orchestrator and arranger Sign To New Sony Imprint Xxim Records.
SONY MUSIC MASTERWORKS ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF NEW LABEL:
XXIM RECORDS
Sony Music Masterworks announces the launch of XXIM RECORDS, an all-new imprint focused on the development of innovative, progressive instrumental music around the world.
Pronounced ‘Twenty-One M’, XXIM features a bespoke roster of a new generation of artists whose work explores and integrates neo-classical, post-rock, electronic, and ambient sounds among others.
The label is based in Berlin with additional A&R support in New York and arrives with an impressive, international line up of highly talented musicians. It includes compelling newcomers EYDÍS EVENSEN, an Icelandic pianist and composer, and UÈLE LAMORE, a Franco-American composer, conductor, producer and arranger, as well as the genre-bending Icelandic band HUGAR and the Berlin electro-acoustic duo STIMMING X LAMBERT. News of additional signings will follow.
Says Per Hauber, President of Sony Classical and Co-Head of Sony Music Masterworks, “The intersection of acoustic instrumentation and electronic sounds is presenting exciting new creative avenues for artists and attracting increasing numbers of fans around the world. We are pleased to be launching XXIM Records to support our growing roster of artists in fulfilling their creative vision and connecting with the passionate global fan community for progressive instrumental music.”
Alexander Buhr, Senior Vice President of International A&R and Business Opportunities for Sony Classical, will oversee XXIM’s creative operations working closely with Hauber. Buhr previously founded the post classical label Mercury KX, and has worked with a number of leading acts in the progressive instrumental scene including Ólafur Arnalds, Anoushka Shankar, Lambert and Jean-Michel Blais.
Says Buhr, “In a musical universe that has, for the most part, moved beyond the confinements of genre, it is expression and values which tie musicians together. With XXIM we are creating a place to bring together likeminded acts whose visions we share, to support them in their musical and visual adventures, and to help them connect with the biggest possible audience. Our ambition is to create a strong, worldwide platform for highly individual, creative artists.”
At the heart of XXIM’s ethos lie experimentation and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of furnishing a strong platform for creative development.
EYDÍS EVENSEN was recently selected by The Line Of Best Fit as one of their ‘Artists On The Rise 2021’ and will open the XXIM catalogue with the release of her first single ‘BROTIN’ on 29th January. The deeply felt piano instrumental is taken from her exceptional debut album, BYLUR, due to arrive in the spring of 2021.
UÈLE LAMORE, described by i-D magazine as “an artist as unclassifiable as she is essential” has been an associate conductor, orchestrator and arranger for the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) since 2019. She will announce details of her debut album for the label soon.
HUGAR’s most recent album, The Vasulka Effect: Music for the Motion Picture, was released in late 2020, and the band has been praised by Rolling Stone for their “quietly unfolding post-rock impressionism with an assuring melodic spell”. Details for a forthcoming album will be announced soon.
STIMMING X LAMBERT was formed by Hamburg- based electronic composer and producer Martin Stimming, who was awarded a German Music Authors’ Prize in 2018, and fellow Hamburg native, the enduringly masked pianist and composer Lambert. Information on a new album will be shared soon.
ICELANDIC COMPOSER
EYDÍS EVENSEN SIGNS TO NEW SONY IMPRINT XXIM RECORDS
RELEASES DEBUT SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘BROTIN’
XXIM Records, Sony Masterworks’ new imprint for innovative, progressive instrumental music, is proud to welcome Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer EYDÍS EVENSEN to its artist family. EVENSEN’s debut single, ‘BROTIN’, is available digitally from today marking the label’s first official release.
EVENSEN, who was recently selected by The Line Of Best Fit as one of their ‘Artists On The Rise 2021’, hails from the remote town of Blönduós in the north of Iceland. Drawn to music from an early age, she began studying the piano aged six and wrote her first piece of music as a seven-year-old. Having abandoned her plans to become a professional classical pianist, however, EVENSEN instead moved to London and New York, where she worked in various jobs while focusing on developing her language as a composer. She returned to Iceland in 2020 to record her debut album, BYLUR, which is slated for release by XXIM this spring.
Of signing to the label, EVENSEN says, “I’m incredibly excited and grateful to have the opportunity to release my very first album on the new imprint, and to be working alongside such a wonderful international team.”
EVENSEN’s manager, Nick Knowles of KxKn Management, added “we look forward to beginning this journey with the incredible team at XXIM Records and Sony in bringing Eydís’ music to a worldwide audience.”
Alexander Buhr, SVP of International A&R at Sony Masterworks, comments, “Eydís is a hugely promising artist with a remarkable flair for both music and visuals. We are very excited to introduce her to the world, and to have ‘BROTIN’ set the tone for our new label.”
‘BROTIN’ – which means ‘broken’ in Icelandic – is EVENSEN’s first glimpse into her musical universe, and it’s a deeply felt instrumental piece for piano written, she confides, at a time of singular personal vulnerability. The song is accompanied by a music video created by EVENSEN and acclaimed Icelandic photographer Anna Maggý.
“BROTIN represents my most vulnerable emotional state,” EVENSEN explains. “My good friend Anna and I developed the concept for the video in relation to the feelings that ‘BROTIN‘ reflects: isolation, a sense of being emotionally overwhelmed, and of essentially being broken.” Maggý says, “It felt surreal shooting this music video during the darkest, roughest and coldest hours of wintertime in Iceland, and this added to the suffocating solitude.”
Preview the Video for Brotin here
‘BROTIN’ was the final piece EVENSEN composed for her debut album BYLUR, which was recorded and produced at Reykjavík’s Greenhouse Studios by its co-founder, composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has also worked with a varied array of artists, including Björk, Nico Muhly and Ben Frost. The album takes its name from the Icelandic word for ‘snowstorm’, and is reflective of both the impact that the nature and weather had upon her as a child growing up in her homeland’s remote, northern region, and of the emotional turbulence she went through in her years of travel. “All of the pieces represent moments from my life,” EVENSEN concludes. “So many ups and downs: all of my joy, darkness, happiness, heartbreak and melancholia.”
Further details about BYLUR will be revealed soon.
Connect with Eydís Evensen:
NEW SONY IMPRINT
XXIM RECORDS WELCOMES
UÈLE LAMORE TO ITS ROSTER
XXIM Records, Sony Masterworks’ new imprint for innovative, progressive instrumental music, is thrilled to announce the signing of UÈLE LAMORE. The 27-year-old Franco-American composer, conductor, orchestrator and arranger specializes in blending orchestral and acoustic textures with modular, electronic and synthetic elements. Mirroring her new label’s aesthetic and intent, LAMORE’s ambitious compositions submit to no single format or genre, and are as likely inspired by electro, new wave, indie, minimal, ambient and trip-hop as by the classical music whose instrumentation she sometimes employs. Her debut album, Loom, is planned for release in autumn 2021, with details to be revealed soon.
Commenting on the signing, LAMORE says: “I’m very happy to be joining XXIM Records, as I believe it will be the perfect place for me to express myself artistically, while at the same time having the means to achieve – and go beyond – my musical goals.”
Alexander Buhr, SVP International A&R at Sony Masterworks said: “We are truly excited to welcome Uèle to our new label. She is a supremely talented musician and represents everything we want the label to be about. I’m fascinated by her musical adventures, and can’t wait to hear where she takes us.”
Described by i-D magazine as “an artist as unclassifiable as she is essential” and as a “woman of the future” by Maire Claire, LAMORE gave a first insight into her rich world of influences and inspirations with Tracks, her debut EP. Self-released late last year, the project paid tribute to the cities of Kyoto and Vitry through a retrospective journey infused with the melancholia of train travel.
As an arranger and orchestrator, LAMORE, who is based in Paris, has collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including Alfa Mist, Max Cooper, Etienne Daho and Moor Mother. In addition, she has worked since 2019 as an associate conductor, orchestrator and arranger for the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), and has contributed special orchestral projects to festivals, among them Printemps de Bourges Festival and Variations on France.tv. She has also composed soundtracks for different media, from documentaries to animation movies, and is currently working on a number of OSTs, including Aïssa Maïga’s directorial debut, “Walking On Water”.
Connect with Uèle Lamore: