Jump to content

Outhere Music acquires HatHut Records


7/4

Recommended Posts

Outhere Music acquires HatHut Records

"Outhere Music is proud to announce the acquisition of the catalogue of the legendary Swiss jazz
and contemporary music label HatHut Records. HatHut Records boasts an impressive number of
more than 500 CD’s and LP’s, produced by its visionary founder, Werner X. Uehlinger over 40
years. Major composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Giacinto Scelsi, Galina Ustvolskaya
and interpreters like Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin, Steve Lacy, Joe McPhee, Cecil
Taylor or the Sun Ra Arkestra have put their faith in the label.


The integration into the Outhere Music group will enable HatHut Records to perpetuate its
pioneering role while strengthening Outhere’s position in the fields of jazz and of contemporary
music. Werner X. Uehlinger of Hat Hut Records will collaborate closely with the Outhere team to
keep the label’s spirit. Around 12 to 16 new CD releases will be produced each year.
Charles Adriaenssen, founder and president of Outhere Music says: “HatHut Records is a mythical
label and its founder Werner an incredibly progressive idealist. His productions are as fresh and
stimulating today as they were 40 years ago. I’m proud and happy to work with him to perpetuate and
develop his creation.”

Werner X. Uehlinger, founder of HatHut Records said: “With offices in Brussels, Paris, Cologne, Milan
and recently in London, Outhere Music will provide a wider reach for HatHut Records albums and
artists and will integrate the label into its worldwide digital and physical distribution network from
early 2017. By this acquisition,  Outhere confirms its policy of supporting creative labels and achieves an
interesting diversification.”"

MORE

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was posted in the "All Things Hat" thread on 1 Feb . I'm hopeful. I recently bought two classical box sets on  Ricercar (one of the acquiring company's labels) and they were classy productions with excellent art and booklets (full-size book in one case). Outhere seems to own several niche labels including Linn and Arcana. Their Outnote label has a lot of jazz. English homepage here

Edited by T.D.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heard about this a few weeks ago, at the Swiss distributor's of Outhere -- and now Hat.

Outhere does some great classical releases ... guess it's as good news as was possible with WXU (I have some reason to assume that no one wo_man could quite live up to the expectations that were around). The alternative was probably for Hat to just fade away. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wouldn't fit ... and from what happens to labels "integrated" into Outhere, I'm not sure Hat will continue as a brand as we know it ... it might change its face and be merged with other jazz holdings of Outhere (i.e. the jazz productions done by Zig Zag Territoires, mainly a classical label that was acquired by Outhere not too long ago). But this is pure speculation of course. And all in all, these hatOLOGY cardboard sets may look nice when they're new, but discs get scratched, cardboard gets scoffed ... on the other hand, same happens to us, so that's alright in some ways ;) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, king ubu said:

Wouldn't fit ... and from what happens to labels "integrated" into Outhere, I'm not sure Hat will continue as a brand as we know it ... it might change its face and be merged with other jazz holdings of Outhere (i.e. the jazz productions done by Zig Zag Territoires, mainly a classical label that was acquired by Outhere not too long ago). But this is pure speculation of course. And all in all, these hatOLOGY cardboard sets may look nice when they're new, but discs get scratched, cardboard gets scoffed ... on the other hand, same happens to us, so that's alright in some ways ;) 

Nevertheless these do have a special flair and some careful handling can work wonders :D .... bout probably this news is a reminder to acquiere some of the missing items as long as they exist in this edition .... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, king ubu said:

Wouldn't fit ... and from what happens to labels "integrated" into Outhere, I'm not sure Hat will continue as a brand as we know it ... it might change its face and be merged with other jazz holdings of Outhere (i.e. the jazz productions done by Zig Zag Territoires, mainly a classical label that was acquired by Outhere not too long ago). But this is pure speculation of course. And all in all, these hatOLOGY cardboard sets may look nice when they're new, but discs get scratched, cardboard gets scoffed ... on the other hand, same happens to us, so that's alright in some ways ;) 

One thing I've noticed in classical is that Outhere often makes box sets out of collections of previously released single discs (for instance, I just now noticed the complete Haydn quartets by the Festetics Quartet on Arcana!).

Just speculation, but some significant boxes could be assembled from the Hat catalog. Maybe not so relevant to those of us who already own a lot of the individual releases, though. [Added: the Festetics complete Haydn is currently download only; another possibility is to go the download route with the Hat catalog.]

Edited by T.D.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The talk above reminded me that i have at times been put off shelling out for Hats due to the fact that i've encountered playback/ripping issues in the past with some of the ones that come in cardboard sleeves... scratches aside, these issues may not be actually caused by the sleeves, rather by something else in the manufacturing... anyway, i'm in a similar situation with Hat as i was with BS/SN, with so many here and there that i want and so many out of print or hard to come by... the thought of box sets is pretty exciting to be honest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...