[a few words about] Afe


a few words...

In case anyone's wondering, Afe stands for "Another Friendly Edition". Our catalogue focuses mostly on experimental, weird - or simply cool - music made with extensive use of electronic instruments.

Besides releasing music,
Afe also offers an audio mastering service and a pins/buttons manufacturing service to bands, labels, individuals, etc. You can learn more about these services visiting the audio mastering and pins/buttons departments.

The aim of Afe is to break down the barriers existing in electronic music and its efforts are addressed to all the fearless / open-minded listeners who will be able to get over the terrible shock of seeing such extremely different productions standing side by side.

Most of the Afe releases are published as limited edition CD-Rs with high quality packages. We also publish a few regular CDs each now and then, most of the times as collaborations with Eibon Records or other friendly labels.

Among our latest releases we'd like to mention: "Kapnos", a CD album by the Meerkat "all-stars" ensemble (Adriano Zanni/Punck, Matteo Uggeri/Hue, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero/Fhievel, Davide Valecchi/aal, Andrea "Ics" Ferraris, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti & Laura Lovreglio (Logoplasm) and Andrea Marutti/Amon); the debut album by Italian doomsters/experimentalists Scum From The Sun, which comes in a special metal box; an Amon vs. Mortar full-lenght disc based on the tracks originally published by Oktagön in January 2000 on the "From the Graves" vinyl album. The disc will also include two extra tracks that didn't appear on the Oktagön release; a new full-lenght experimental work by acclaimed american sound artist John Hudak that include a one hour long composition based on field-recordings of doves; the newest chapter of the collaboration between italian maestro Maurizio Bianchi and israeli veteran producer and multi-instrumentalist musician Maor Appelbaum; the return on Afe of Brian Lavelle with "Ustrina" a new experimental unreleased work that follows his recent releases on Diophantine Discs, Taâlem and EE Tapes; a noisy collaboration between italian underground guitarist / songwriter Daniele Brusaschetto and norwegian experimentalist Benny Braaten, better known as Origami Galaktika; the latest full-lenght work by italian dark-ambient act Subinterior (also of Konau and Canaan fame), which follows his acclaimed "The Chrysalis Secret", also released by Afe in 2006; the fourth album by extraordinaire acoustic architect Tiziano Milani, a very particular work partly recorded in a reverberating room; "Nevmenosis", a collection of both released and unreleased ambient / experimental tracks by russian musician and composer Evgeny Voronovsky a.k.a. Cisfinitum; the first "official" release by italian guitarist / electronic musician Ascanio Borga, which comes after many self-released titles to showcase the many sides of his talent; a new work by german young experimentalist Mirko Uhlig, which was once active as Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf and who recently had releases on Nextera, Mystery Sea and Field Muzick; an industrial / noise new album by Tomasz Twardawa a.k.a. Genetic Transmission, a living legend of the underground industrial scene in Poland; a collaboration between the well-known italian industrialists Ur (...we also released their debut "Triadic Memories" in 2006...) and american musician / sound designer Craig Hilton; the newest minimal ambient / experimental / glitch work by Horchata, which is quite different from his previous "Coleoid", also released by Afe in 2007; a new album by brilliant New Zealand sound sculptress Abby Helasdottir best known as Gydja, quite a magickal listening experience; a sombre but effective album of ambient / drone music by scottish musician / guitarist Alistair Crosbie, which has been active at least for fifteen years in the local scene; the reissue of "Pipe Smoking On a Balloon", the latest full-lenght work by italian lowercase experimentalist Luca Bergero / Fhievel; an ultranoisy MiniCD-R Card by italian cult "band" Olyvetty; a droning 3" MiniCD-R by Andrea Marutti and Tommaso Cosco.

In 2005 we celebrated our tenth anniversary with a big party and a *huge* on-line compilation aptly entitled "Breaking Down the Barriers 1995-2005, Ten Years of Afe". "...a gift for... (°I°)" - another free downloadable compilation - was also released in collaboration with many other italian labels as a gift for (°I°) a.k.a. Etero Genio a.k.a. known as Mario Biserni, one of the best italian underground music journalists.

Among our 2005-2007 releases we can't help to mention the following: a new The Impossible Flower album which showcases his ability at creating great IDM / Drill'n'Bass tunes; the fifth album by legendary japanese combo Sam & Valley who had releases on Rephlex and Angelika Koehlermann; the return of Non Ethos with an unreleased beautiful work; two new full-lenght Ambient / Dark Ambient album by Ninth Desert (ex Exotoendo and Lecanora) and Horchata; a double MiniCD-R 3" experimental split release by The Infant Cycle and UPhold; a new Ambient-Electronica / IDM / Drill'n'Bass opus by italian underground experimentalist a034 and a new Mark Hamn work that mixes guitars, electroacoustic, glitch and assorted electronics in a wonderful way (both in collaboration with legendary Bar La Muerte label); a five discs box-set by our best friend aal covering different aspects of his Art; two electroacoustic masterpieces by italian best kept secrets Cría Cuervos and Logoplasm; the third stunning full-lenght work by Bestia Centauri (in collaboration with Eibon Records); the re-issue of Edward Ruchalski's "Dark Night" and his latest new album; a new Tribal / Ritual ambient disc by Steve Brand; new experimental works by Cordell Klier, Andrew Duke, Pholde and Mathieu Ruhlmann; a very special Dark Ambient / Experimental compilation with mostly exclusive tracks by aal, Amon, Bad Sector, Bestia Centauri, Canaan, Etere-o, Moan, Non Ethos, Ornament, Subinterior, Subterranean Source and True Colour Of Blood; an acoustic guitar based CD-R album by Aidan Baker; the debut of the Tribal / Noise / Rock combo Two Dead Bodies (released as our first collaboration with Bar La Muerte); the very first album by Sidra, the newest project of Paolo Bandera (Sigillum S) and Tiberio Longoni (ex Peter Sellers & The Hollywood Party); the official debut album by italian industrialists Ur; the latest Dronæment‘s album inspired by indian traditional music; a very special collaborative CD created by two well-known and estabilshed artists who are active in the experimental scene since the late 70s/80s: Maurizio Bianchi and Telepherique; a double Amon CD (in collaboration with Eibon Records) that covers the early years of this project and contains a remastered version of the "Amon" debut CD and a remastered version of the limited edition CD-R "Mer" along with bonus material; the reissue of one of the oldest Maeror Tri's tape (in collaboration with Blade Records) that came in a very special wood package; a space/alien inspired De Fabriek album that came in a very special package, etc.

Past releases also include music by: Bad Sector, De Fabriek (both sold out since long...), Amon, Never Known, Telepherique (including one of their collaborations with Ultra Milkmaids from France), Komplet (the glitch/noise/breakbeat project of Paolo Bandera, member of Sigillum S), Raffaele Serra (italian electronic pioneer best known for his Five Thousand Spirits CDs made with Alio Die), Dronæment (great drone-based project from Germany), Brian Lavelle (hyperactive sound-sculptor from Scotland, creator of the Radios series along with Richard Youngs), Frog Pocket (the mind behind Mothmouth Records and purveyor of some of the weirdest splatterbeat-pop-folk tunes around...), Moan (an interesting Industrial Ambient project from Poland), Bestia Centauri (an avantgarde composer inspired by the Lovecraftian universe), Mindmap (a band from Slovakia, whose original style is a mixture of ambient textures, delicate guitars, suffered vocals and intelligent rhythms configurations), Gerstein (the glorious italian act with a 20 years career spent riding on the dark side of music) and True Colour Of Blood (a master of guitar-based Ambient / Dark Ambient music).

Other artists who had releases on Afe are Nimh, Autistre, Elephant Zyclus, Kluster Cold, Wolkspurz & Ramirez, Jacob Ludvigsen, Nat Evans, Leeza, Kabal, Non Ethos and many, many more.

Forthcoming releases include new experimental works by Pietro Riparbelli / K11, Mathieu Ruhlmann and more surprises that will be unveiled very soon...


a few more words...

Andrea Marutti artist portrait / short feature by Tokafi [02/2008]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Digimag - in English [12/2007]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Digimag - in Italian [12/2007]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Connexion Bizarre [11/2007]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Audiodrome [04/2007]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Chain D.L.K. [01/2007]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Igloo Magazine [06/2006]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Lupo Ululì [12/2005]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Post? [10/2005]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Sands-Zine [10/2005]
Andrea Marutti interviewed by Audionet [03/2003]

Afe Records on MySpace
Afe Pins on MySpace
Andrea Marutti
Andrea Marutti on MySpace
Andrea Marutti on Flickr
Andrea Marutti on Tumblr
Andrea Marutti on Discogs
Amon / Never Known website
Hall of Mirrors on MySpace
Sil Muir on MySpace
Molnija Aura on MySpace


demo policy

If you're an electronic music maker you may wish to have your music published by Afe. Please note that despite the high quality both of the music and the packages Afe is not a big business, most of our releases are limited edition CD-Rs. We are always busy working on forthcoming releases and, believe it or not, as you read these lines we have releases planned until the next 12 or so months.

That's the reason why we have decided to not accept demos. If you read these lines and you still want to send us a demo you should know that we may not be able to properly listen to it for weeks or even months. Please don't expect a quick reply from us. We're not unfriendly but we're very stressed, so please help us to get through this pain: don't send us a demo. Please also keep in mind that even if we may enjoy your music, we may not be able to release it. In case you're some stubborn guy who really want to send us a demo just like it was a matter of "life or death", please send your music only on CD-R. Any other format won't be considered at all, sorry. If you have any questions or need more information, please feel free to get in touch and we'll do our best to reply in a reasonable time.


how do you say "afe"?

We've been asked about the correct spelling of "Afe" a thousand times... We decided to create a very small .mp3 file (about 0.2 mb) so that everyone can download it and listen. Here it is: A-F-E


website credits

Well, well, well... The whole world love the Afe website, needless to say that we are happiest about it! Here's the credits.


contacts

Afe is based in Milan, Italy, and is run by Andrea Marutti. If you want to drop us a few lines, our address is:



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