Snowball Records
Schneeball Records is a record label founded in 1976 under the name April Records .
history
In 1976 four West German music groups and a singer-songwriter decided to put their fate and their productions in their own hands, depending on the requirements, work and appearance, but also generally as a clear demarcation from industry. Embryo , Missus Beastly , Sparifankal , Ton Steine Scherben and Julius Schittenhelm founded the record company April Records and organized the distribution among themselves. Music in the distribution of the musicians was the overriding principle.
There were no role models in Europe, at the beginning it was certainly the film publishing house of the authors who had already succeeded a few years earlier in marginally suppressing the market power of Anglo-American productions in order to develop a possibility of existence for makers from their own ranks .
The launch of April Records caused a sensation. Also in industry: after a threatened legal dispute with CBS, the name was changed to Snowball in 1977. This made the situation difficult. With “April ist Schneeball” samplers it was once again possible to remain recognizable in the music and media landscape. The name was chosen to represent the energy at the core and expansion and development at its edges. It should be able to be used by many as a model, it should be sustainable and soon many bands wanted to be there. An important cooperation partner for sales through the book trade is the Trikont label "Our Voice" which has grown out of Trikont Buchverlag. At the same time, the “ free and outside ” festival movement developed as an organizational form for commercial-free music festivals. New labels were founded, such as NO FUN, Zigzag, Eigelstein, Subup.
At the beginning of the 1980s, EfA (Energie für Alle) took over the distribution of the label. As a new joint project of the musicians from the various bands, two operas (Snowball Opera 1 and 2) were developed. This also shows the common will to work together beyond the band's own horizon.
The heyday of Snowball was over in the middle of 1980, the reasons were varied, clay stones shards dissolved, Rio Reiser started a solo career at Sony . At Embryo, too, after a trip to India, the long time together of the musicians and composers Christian Burchard , Roman Bunka and Uve Müllrich is over. The result was the double LP Embryo's Reise and Roadmovie and music documentary “Vagabundenkarawane” by Werner Penzel and Nico Humpert.
Embryo's dissidents split off. Founded the Exil label, also at Indigo. Othmar Schreckeneder, embryo producer from 1972, continued to publish records with embryo and their guest musicians from many cultures until the mid-1990s. He has also published radio plays for Bavarian Radio (Ernst Jandl, Grace Yoon) and artists such as Eugen de Ryck , Chris Karrer , Amon Düül II .
There are still occasional publications today, e.g. B. Charlie Mariano with Rama Mani 2006 or Peter Michael Hamel with Thomas Gundermann.
The first appearances on April / Snowball
- (0000): Sparifankal - Bayernrock
- (0001): Missus Beastly - Dr. Aftershave and the mixed pickles
- (0002): Clay stones shards - When the night is deepest ...
- (0003): Embryo - Live
- (0004): Julius Schittenhelm - Aristotle
- (0005): Embryo - Bad Heads and Bad Cats
- (0006): Boiled warmth theater / clay stones shards - Mannstoll
- (0007): Clay stones shards - no power for nobody
- (0008): Clay stone shards - Why am I so dirty?
- (0009): Real Ax Band - Don't stand still - Move your ass in time
- (0010): Embryo - Apo Calypso
- (0011): Missus Beastly - Space Guerrillia
- (2012): Munju - Highspeed Kindergarten
- (0013): APRIL is SNOWBALL (sampler)
- (2014): Moira - Crazy Count Down
- (2015): Checkpoint Charlie - Spring, the Cripple
- (2017): Munju - Moon You
- (0018): Sparifankal - Huraxdax Drudnhax
- (2019): Checkpoint Charlie - The Transparent One
- (0020): Embryo - Embryo's journey
- (0021): Julius Schittenhelm - garbage mutants
- (0023): Embryo - Live
- (2022): Munju - Bread & Games
- (2024): Checkpoint Charlie - Kravall in the pigsty
- (3025): Hammerfest - Here with us
- (3026): Hammerfest - spin test
- (0034): Captain Bulky Garbage : The sun is rising
- (1035): Hammerfest - Subtle elements