Spool (record label)

Spool was a record label from 1998–2008 started by Vern Weber and Daniel Kernohan. During its life it put out 41 CDs primarily of improvised music, but also electroacoustic music, experimental music, and avant-rock.

Contents

• Series LINE
• Series FIELD
• Series ARC
• Series POINT
• References

The label divided its releases into four series, LINE, FIELD, POINT, and ARC. Roughly, LINE was the improviser series, POINT, the composer series, FIELD, electro-acoustic series and ARC, the avant-rock series.

Spool featured such prominent jazz artists as Anthony Braxton, Dewey Redman, George Lewis, Paul Rutherford, Ken Vandermark, and Mats Gustafsson.

A particular feature of the label was the documentation of the Vancouver scene, covering up and coming musicians and veterans alike including Paul Plimley, François Houle, Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff, Tony Wilson, and NOW Orchestra.

Toronto and Montreal scene were also covered with artists such as Allison Cameron, François Carrier, Lori Freedman, Marilyn Lerner, Brett Larner, Sarah Peebles, Gayle Young, John Oswald & AIMToronto Orchestra.

European performers of note were Fred Frith, John Butcher, Joëlle Léandre, Michael Moore, and Tobias Delius.

Spool was profiled in CODA by Greg Buium. Spool releases received reviews by Mark Miller (The Globe and Mail), Geoff Chapman (Toronto Star) and in several magazines such Cadence Magazine, Down Beat, Exclaim!, The Georgia Straight,, ImproJazz, JazzLive, Signal to Noise, The Province, and The Wire. The label was nominated twice by the National Jazz Awards of Canada.

In December 2001, Mark Miller writing in The Globe & Mail said, "It's work supported not by the majors, but by smaller companies, as small as the Uxbridge, Ont., label Spool, which released two of the most interesting Canadian CDs of 2001, West Coast guitarist Tony Wilson's melancholic Lowest Note and a boisterous collaboration between trombonist/composer George Lewis and Vancouver's NOW Orchestra, The Shadowgraph Series."