Sustain-Release is the private press of UK artist Richard Skelton. He started the label in 2005 as a commemorative tribute to his late wife Louise, with the intention of publishing her artwork alongside his own musical offerings. Since its inception he has released a series of raw and beautiful recordings presented in lovingly assembled, limited-edition pressings.
Operating under a variety of guises, including A Broken Consort, Carousell and Clouwbeck, Skelton creates powerful, elemental music out of densely layered acoustic guitar, bowed strings, piano, mandolin and accordion, often laced with delicate, shimmering percussion. The result is something unique - a music that is both life-affirming and yet etched with memory and loss, evoking equal parts Arvo Part and Ry Cooder, Nick Drake and Henryk Gorecki.
Skelton's work through Sustain-Release has been critically acclaimed in both the UK and international press. He has received praise from publications as diverse as The Wire, Blow-Up, Mojo, Uncut and Record Collector, and websites including Foxy Digitalis, Dusted, Pitchfork, Sentire Ascoltare and Mapsadaisical.
Sustain-Release editions each comprise a beautiful, silk-screened disc enclosed within elegant, handmade packaging. Each edition is crafted by the artist from a selection of fine papers, and features detailing made specifically for the recipient, including an individualised dedication and signature coverband.
The artist also makes special boxed editions containing caches of natural ephemera, oblique lists of dates and places, articles of provenance, observations and poem fragments. In many cases, these found objects have been used in the music-making process itself, and provide a substantive link between the music and the landscape which inspired it.
A typical box might contain seeds, fallen leaves, pieces of bark, twigs, small stones, feathers and bone fragments. Recent pieces have included stone urns, glass jars and miniature phials of soil or water. Most are commissioned pieces, and several have even included specifically commissioned music which is unavailable elsewhere, making them truly unique, one-of-a-kind artworks.