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Seems to be a dispute between label founder Jost Gebers (new site) and marketer Helma Schleif (old site). Interestlingly, a lot of FMP archive stuff started showing up on Atavistic while newer releases were showing up Schleif's own a/l/l.

There's an interview with Schleif at AAJ:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=712

"FJ: Certain FMP catalog titles are being reissue through Atavistic Stateside.

HS: That's right. I was not very amused when I found out about this.

FJ: I was under the impression this was a cooperative effort. Do you not own the catalog?

HS: I do. I do. I'm the exclusive worldwide of FMP. As I said, I was not amused when I found out. I was not informed beforehand and this is something of a conflict now. Nipples, for example, was certainly done like that. As I heard before, it was intended to be re-released on FMP, but Jost Gebers couldn't find the outtakes or didn't want to, so Peter Br?tzmann, obviously, decided to give it to John Corbett in order to see it released at all. That is how it started, but the rest, there is a catalog of twenty-five titles I suppose, planned to be re-released through John Corbett's Unheard Music Series, which is something of let's say a legal conflict now."

Here's Jost Geber's take:

"Since 01.01.2000 the label's CDs are marketed by Ms Helma Schleif under licence

of FMP-Publishing.

On the basis of the production documentation owned and financed by the label,

Ms Schleif is authorized to manufacture, according to requirements (print and press)

and to market the CDs.

In the case of new productions she is obliged to deliver demo copies to

performers/contributors involved in the production and to submit promo copies

to the media worldwide in accordance with FMP-Publishing.

There are no rights regarding a say in the production planning, realization and

design of the CDs.

Further rights, in particular copyright and ancillary copyrights,

have not been conferred upon Ms Schleif.

Owing to the ongoing violation of the contract the licence agreement was cancelled

without prior warning in February 2003.

After an objection was filed on behalf of the licensee, action against the notice

of termination was pronounced in May 2003. A judicial ruling is still pending.

Independent of this decision the last four productions of the label were completed in 2004.

As a result of these developments, continuation of the label is no longer possible.

The lawsuit of the licensee against the summary dismissal of the licence agreement

was dismissed by judgement of May 15, 2006 at first instance by the district court."

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That's weird. So Gebers left and is now suing her? This is all very confusing...

FWIW, Brotzmann owns the tapes of Nipples and it was originally on Calig. There was never any intention to put that out on FMP if you go with PB's statements - that was, after all, one of the first UMS titles way back in the 90s.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Cuneiform did something with Ogun. I too haven't been impressed with the CD reissues. I tend not to like combining two vaguely-related sessions on one disc, however.

The Breuker-Mengelberg fallout seems to prevent the initial ICPs from being reissued at the moment. Too bad - those are great records!

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  • 9 months later...

Here's some more info from the Gebers' site:

Owing to the ongoing violation of the contract the licence agreement was cancelled

without prior warning in February 2003.

After an objection was filed on behalf of the licensee,

action against the notice of termination was pronounced in May 2003.

A judicial ruling is still pending.

Independent of this decision the last four productions of the label were completed

in 2004. As a result of these developments, continuation of the label is

no longer possible.

The lawsuit of the licensee against the summary dismissal of the licence agreement

was dismissed by judgement of May 15, 2006 at first instance by the district court.

The licensee Schleif filed an appeal against this decision at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

During the hearing which took place on November 21, 2006 it was determined

that the termination of the licence agreement without notice on February 16, 2003 was justified.

The costs for both lawsuits have to be borne by the complainant Schleif.

Furthermore FMP-Publishing has given her until December 31, 2008

to sell off her remaining stock of FMP CDs.

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so let's see helma's nipples, yuk yuk yuk... (i'd rather not.) interesting story but pretty pathetic-- corbett's half a tool but the atavistic reissues are exemplary & hopefully will continue. i can go years w/o der brotz but goddamn there's some superb sides still lost in the fmp aether... too bad atavistic or cuneiform can't do ogun-- do it RIGHT that is, or as right as cds allow (miss that glossy laminate--

Yeah I have one cd by Louis Moholo on Ogun. Amazingly, I found it in a dollar bin at Half Price Books! Its Moholo's Viva Le Black titled 'Exile'. Quite a good album (and nice packaging by Ogun-they were made in England). Along with the other one I have by Moholo, 'Tern' originally on FMP but reissued on UMS, is yet another great album. Would've been nice if FMP could've reissued the cd, as the book is really flemsy-but these are tiny qiubbles-I'm just glad its out on cd.

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