Jeremy Bible, in Paris
Jeremy Bible, who runs Experimedia, is a friend of mine—one of those friendships that grows from a shared secret, where that secret fills in the blanks of years. The friendship acts as both a point of origin and trajectory, and it doesn't matter that you're not the oldest friends who've known each other for a million years, but you both know a secret that transcends time. In this case, the secret is synonymous with passion and the passion is music and it's not really a secret at all.
When Jeremy asked for my help in writing this piece about Experimedia and what it's about, I first approached it in a restrained format, as if I were an interviewer and he the interviewee and our relationship ended there. This was fine and informative but missed an important point. Why did Jeremy ask me to write this? Why did I agree?
The obvious answer is because we are friends, friends who share a common passion (I've ditched the secret analogy). This passion means, in part, that once a month Jeremy comes out to an arts space that I help run in Akron called Rubber City Noise, and he DJs and slangs the latest records from the Experimedia store. It means a whole lot more too, but I think you'd rather read about what Experimedia is all about, rather than how sweet it is that we're friends (though you might read about that too).
Keith Freund, Constant Comments
Experimedia began, like any labor of love, on very little money and a whole lot of desire. Jeremy started using the name in 2000 as a means to throw multimedia shows in Northeast Ohio. Since then the name has encompassed a whole bunch of things (a quick rundown: event-throwing, gallery curation, pirate radio, net label and forum, tour management) before liquid settling into a solid record label and mail-order store/distributor. Jeremy still does a lot of stuff, but Experimedia is now best known for those two things.
The records that Experimedia puts out are classy. There's an attention to detail in both the sound and presentation, and this reflects Jeremy's personal aesthetic. The layouts are simple and effective, not quite minimalist but evoking many of the same feelings. The sounds traverse a broad but ordered spectrum—textural worlds that evoke their own stories. I tend to avoid tossing too many genre tags on things, as it can limit and detract, but at the same time it's a helpful indicator for like minds. Some of the records that Experimedia has released can be labeled thus (although this stays malleable)—ambient, classical, drone, noise, electronic, field recording, jazz, etc. These genres shift and intertwine and form their own universes. Each album is its own entity, as unique as the human beings who created them.
The store that shares the name Experimedia, it's classy too. One of the parts that's classy about it is that it's easy to navigate and stocks the world's best new music w/ more new music than I can handle coming out every week. I'm biased—I can go over to Jeremy's house and dig through the stacks of records, tapes, magazines, videos, and other media and creations. It's a bit overwhelming, but also refreshing, to see how much great music this planet is putting out every day. Jeremy has turned me on to some of the raddest artists and labels and, seriously, played an integral role in my musical growth. Experimedia has helped me see a portion of the spectrum of infinite sounds that keep on coming from every corner of Terra every single second. The website reflects the label's not-quite-minimalist aesthetic and is easy to get around and check out. Jeremy puts a lot of work into Experimedia and it shows. For example, he tediously rips new music every week and creates Soundcloud previews just so someone can check out what they are buying. That's rad.
Celer, Evaporate and Wonder
I'm glad that the editor here at Impose recognized that the tone of the first thing I wrote was just a bit off. I'm glad because rewriting this has made me realize how much I dig Experimedia and Jeremy's enthusiasm for music. We live in a time when the galaxy of music creation and consumption is more accessible than it has ever been, and things like Experimedia are a perfect representation of the endless possibilities at our disposal. Thanks buddy.
Follow Experimedia on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and/or Vimeo.
Recent releases by: Aaron Martin, Piiptsjilling, Lüüp, Charles-Eric Charrier, Jannick Schou, Keith Freund, Dolphins Into The Future, Floris Vanhoof, Black Swan, Lawrence English, From The Mouth of The Sun, and Celer.
Forthcoming releases by: Damian Valles, Sean McCann, Superstorms, and RxRy.
Experimedia has recently partnered with the established Cincinnati based label Students of Decay, curated by Alex Cobb, with recent releases by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Caboladies, Aquarelle, Danny Paul Grody, and Bryter Layter. Forthcoming releases by En, Marielle V Jakobsons, Chihei Hatakeyama, Anne Guthrie and Ekin Fil. Students of Decay is the first of several labels Experimedia plans to partner with and support directly through pressing, distribution, and label management.
