Obscure Records

Obscure Records was a U.K. record label which existed from 1975 to 1978. It was created and run by Brian Eno, who also produced the albums (credited as executive producer in one instance). Ten albums were issued in the series. Most have detailed liner notes on their back covers, analyzing the compositions and providing a biography of the composer, in a format typical of classical music albums, and much of the material can be regarded as 20th century classical music. The label provided a venue for experimental music, and its association with Eno gave increased public exposure to its composers and musicians.

In their original editions, all albums used variations of the same cover art of a collage by John Bonis, covered up by an overprinting of black ink. The picture beneath the ink can be seen somewhat clearly under a strong light. Each volume except the seventh has one small window in the black overprint to reveal a different portion of the picture on each album. The red and white label design is a blurred photo that appears to be spires on roofs of buildings.

Brian Eno's album Music for Airports (1978) was intended as the eleventh Obscure album, and has catalogue number OBS-11 written and then scratched out in the matrix area on original UK copies. But this album became the first volume of a new Ambient Records series ("Ambient 1") instead, and this decision marked the end of the Obscure label. The Ambient series consists of four albums issued from 1978 to 1982.

Read more about Obscure Records:  Discography, Releases and Editions

Famous quotes containing the words obscure and/or records:

    Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    Although crowds gathered once if she but showed her face,
    And even old men’s eyes grew dim, this hand alone,
    Like some last courtier at a gypsy camping-place
    Babbling of fallen majesty, records what’s gone.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)