Interview: Curious Music Label Boss Russ Curry

All we really have is the promise contained within the present moment… I want to hear something new

That was how Russ Curry, President of Curious Music concluded our interview. It was a thoughtful, personal statement. And perhaps the greatest mission statement any independent record label can hope to have.

Curious Music was founded in 1988 after Russ decided it was time to take his enthusiasm for cutting-edge electronic music and chart a new course in his life. The experimental electronic music label was born to champion the brave waves of electronic, ambient and minimal music happening around the globe. “Back then there was AM and FM radio. FM was very loose, groovy and didn’t have much formatting. It was not unusual for the DJ to play an album side or a very long cut that lasted 15 minutes or so. So, the day…I heard the first few minutes of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn – in an instant I was introduced to and transported to another world. This was astonishing”. For Russ Curry that was ‘the moment’ the door to the unique and wonderful music of Eno, Cluster, Devo and NEU! opened.

That moment inspired Russ to create a record label for artists and audiences that believe in the experimentation of Krautrock and German electronic music. He was convinced electronic music was poised enter the shores of the mainstream. “I became a slightly obnoxious evangelist for this music. I felt I had tapped into a kind of secret world with its own logic and language. I started Curious Music because I felt I was onto something…”

Vinyl Writers spoke with Russ about his personal journey and the groundbreaking musicians at Curious Music.

Thank you so much for talking with Vinyl Writers. Before the reboot of your label, had it been difficult to be away from the creativity and the music and artist?

Yes and no. I was very burnt out and really needed to make a clean break in about 2001. So I stopped. I have always been an active music and art appreciator. It was nice to be an observer again. I was in danger of losing my love. For a long time it wasn’t difficult and I didn’t miss it. But slowly, I realized that I was not just a “business” person per se but I also had a creative mind as well. It took me a long time to recognize and reconcile this within myself. Oce I figured this out, I started to become interested in some type of creative outlet again – which ultimately led to the reboot of Curious.

Curious Music has an amazing roster musicians. Did you have a connection to the artistic community before you formed the label?

I knew Achim (Hans-Joachim Roedelius) very well long before I started the label. When I was in high school I sent him a letter telling him how much his music had impacted me. I couple of months later, I received a lovely letter from him with a pressed flower in it! That totally blew my mind, I must say. I knew Tim (Tim Story) and Moebi (Dieter Moebius) a little bit when I started as well.

Many of your musicians have had huge impacts on electronic or ambient music …or music in general. Can you comment on the specific opportunities created by creating work with such important and legendary musicians?

Yes, all of the artists I work with make and made music that has significantly impacted our culture. I think there has been progress but the world is still catching up with them in some ways. On the other hand, you see many, many of their spiritual sons and daughter doing lovely work. So, it helps a little from a name recognition perspective perhaps a bit, but it astonishes me that Achim and Harold (Harold Budd) aren’t known at the level of Cardi B. I’m only half-joking. In a perfect world…. It has always been a source of reassurance that so many well-known musicians and artists also champion this music. Bowie and Eno are the most obvious examples but also many others including The Edge from U2 and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I have had conversations with Butthole Surfers, Orbitals, Hugo Largos and many others about Cluster, Harold Budd, et al. I once had a discussion with The Edge about how Harold Budd tunes a piano.

Correspondingly, do you worry about the expectations from the musicians? Or the public? Or for yourself?

I try to challenge myself to take what has been to given me and present it in a way that is a beautiful work of art that I half-jokingly describe as museum worthy. It takes a long time to put together a single release. I want it to be as perfect as it can be paying attention to all details. It may surprise some, or maybe not, to know that these artists don’t dwell on their past work and are all actively looking forward, as they always have. When I reissue old work, I take the perspective of almost presenting it as a new work of art. I try to modify and elevate the source material I am given to make something very special. It says something about the artist that I work with that they are usually on board when I want to introduce new elements or recontextualize what they have done. The listeners – old fans and new – seem to like it as well. I try to make sure the essence of the work is retained.

The physical records on Curious Music have a beauty and very real sense of dignity about them. Is the physical presentation on the music important? Does the packaging elevates the music in the eyes of the public?

Yes, I give the same importance to the music as to the visual presentation. I want to present a work of art that provides a special “moment” for the person who encounters Curious Music. As I myself encountered with Sky Records or Windham Hill when I was a boy, I want people to be interested in Curious Music because they know they will get a certain kind of presentation that is suitable to the music and elevates it to an object of art. So there is a kind of idée fixe that drives things forward and provides a certain recognition to my projects.

There seems to be a much greater acceptance of musicians continuing to creating vital & important work past their initial “brush with success” or prominence. For example, at Bob Dylan is creating worthwhile albums that are still anticipated by the public. Or is the music industry still youth-culture driven?

I love Bob Dylan’s last few of albums. He is doing fantastic work, I think. Modern Times is amazing. I liked Bowie’s Blackstar a lot but not so much The Next Day. The way he seemed to plan Blackstar as a farewell was really something. In fact, it is fair to say “something happened on the day he died” which was probably the moment the thought of rebooting Curious Music first entered my head.

As I said, I run my label first from the aspect of doing creative work that interests me and pursuing new ideas – not only which releases I do and which artists I work with but in how I present the work. I try to stay aware of what is happening but I always listen most to the inner voice. But I never pay attention to the “industry” so to speak. As my friend Robert Rich so brilliantly said to me one day, it’s about building a mountain with toothpicks. So I do guerilla work, an army of one, building relationships and trying to present something of interest. I try to pay attention and hope the work finds an audience.

Let’s discuss a few of the label’s specific new releases. Roedelius & Hausswolff’s Nordlicht and Harold Budd’s Luxa. Both are filled with amazing and challenging music. Forward thinking and intimate. Can you comment on this albums? Maybe give us some insight into the creation of both?

Nordlicht was unusual and a real surprise. I was in the middle of working on Buzzle with Tim Story. He went off on one of his fancy vacations, so the project had a little time to “cool off”

Around the same time, I had emailed Achim and told him how nice it would be if he would let me release a record of his pure tone-generator experiments from the 70s. By chance, he had these four pieces that he had been working on with Carl Michael. The longest track, which is 17 minutes, had one of his old tone-generator tracks as the bedding. So it all fell together very quickly which is highly unusual for me. The whole project came together in about four weeks which is unheard of. I will never work on a project at that pace again, I’m sure. Buzzle was supposed to come out before Nordlicht – but it sort of birthed itself, leapfrogged that record and I just rolled with it.

Luxa has always been one of my favorite Harold albums. I have known Dominic with All Saints since back when we were working with Achim and Roger Eno in the 90s. So I was pleased to be allowed to take a crack at Luxa. I am almost embarrassed to say the gorgeous cover of that record – the Malibu tiles of the Serra Retreat – was a primary inspiration. For some reason, I have carried that image in my head for a long time, visualizing it as a record cover with no text. Bizarre, but that idea had been “sleeping” in my head for a long time, haunting me. And then the music – stunningly original with its own internal language. There is no record, even of Harold’s that sounds quite like Luxa. So I knew I could give it the Curious treatment and create something special. Some of these tracks have a very low synth bass type of sound with a high top end of African percussion. I rarely listen to my record releases after I am done with them. But I do occasionally listen to Nordlicht and Luxa because they came out so well.

On your website, it’s stated that the Curious Music Label, “places its artistic collaborators on equal footing with the audience, the unifying characteristic being a shared curiosity for exploring the creative moment”. This seems really important statement of purpose that you can feel with each release. How does Curious Music implement that purpose in the day-to-day operations.

I try to think of Curious Music as an ongoing dialogue between that artists, myself and our collective audience. So, as I stated, I want to create an environment where each encounter allows the listener to be part of that dialogue, becoming immersed in this little world, or moment, that we have created for their benefit.

From a day-to- day perspective, my communications with our audience or fans of Curious Music is just as important and I am always interested in what they are thinking. It helps inspire me moving forward. I always want to make the next project is a better representation of something that is meaningful, perhaps even spiritual for one who encounters it. It’s one reason why the label is called Curious Music – that interaction is the essence of it.

Are there other artists/musicians you want to work with in the future? Or wish you could work with from the past?

There are plenty of old and new projects that are possibilities with the people I have worked with. I would have like to have worked with Klaus Dinger. We almost did something together. I was aware of his reputation, but our interactions were nothing but pleasant. I would like to work with Mark Mothersbaugh or Michael Rother or Julia Holter.

The thing that excites me at the moment is working with Tim Story’s Smudges. He has created a new way of making music that to me, is very moving and spiritual. Hard to put into words, but I hope people will check it out. He is hoping to do a series of these so I am interested to see if we can expand this into some interesting physical formatting. Tim’s work has often flown under the radar and this work would be a great introduction to his world. He is on to something and also has numerous other interesting projects afoot.

The Curious Music label is that special place where audience, artist and label come together. Russ said something during the interview related to the death of his father last September; “His passing reminded me that all we really have is the promise contained within the present moment. I want to see what’s around the corner, through the hill, and beyond the horizon. I want to hear something new”. The statement is a wonderful tribute to his father and to a label dedicated to being a home for music that that means more than simply commerce.

Thanks to Russ for this interview / by Shawn Ciavattone, February 2019