Jonny Greenwood's classical label puts out its first two records

Octatonic Records, the classical label Jonny Greenwood announced a week ago, has put out its first two records digitally today, with limited vinyl pressings to follow. Volume 1 is Daniel Pioro playing Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin. Volume 2 pairs Michael Gordon's “Industry” with Greenwood's “Three Miniatures from Water”, and Greenwood calls the two the extremes of what the label hopes to do.

The label grew out of the small concerts he has been putting on with the London Contemporary Orchestra, he told The Quietus. Every time we’ve done a show, I’ve thought about what a shame it is that this stuff isn’t being recorded.⁸ I stand in awe of classically trained UK musicians: a 20-something carrying a cello case will always be more impressive than someone with a guitar.¹ Some Steve Reich is planned for the next session, and Greenwood's own solo piano piece “88” is among the unrecorded music he means to add.

Greenwood produced both records. On “Industry” the cellist Oliver Coates plays and Greenwood works the distortion, which he says creeps in so slowly that a listener first blames the speakers, before it takes the piece over. Pioro and Katherine Tinker both played at the late-night Prom Greenwood curated at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 September.

The label's loose founding rule, he says, was to skip the 19th century altogether, an aversion he admits is childish. Listening to Bach has the same feeling as when you’re listening to Kraftwerk and you think ‘electronic music doesn’t get better than this’.⁸

The first two records