About
Projekt is America’s premier independent label specializing in passionately intense introspective music in the ambient, electronic, ethereal & darkwave genres.
“Founded in 1983 by Sam Rosenthal, Projekt concentrated on releasing dream-pop, neoclassical, ambient, gothic rock and shoegaze bands, and Rosenthal’s own group, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, was an early exponent of darkwave’s hallmark mournful cabaret.” —Craig Hayes, Popmatters, 2013
Sam Rosenthal’s 2018 podcast interview on The Future of What, with Portia Sabin of Kill Rock Stars, where they discuss the changing music industry and the 35-year history of Projekt Records! |
Projekt label overview 2022
39-year-old Portland-based Projekt Records is home to Steve Roach, Erik Wøllo, Michael Stearns, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Aurelio Voltaire and many other artists. Projekt’s two-genre approach covers both the electronic/ambient and goth/darkwave realms. With over 75 Steve Roach titles, the label released his 2018 + 2019 Grammy-nominated albums as well as his catalog classics. Yoga Journal called Steve’s groundbreaking 1984 floating ambient Structures from Silence one of the “…top ten all-time releases for Yoga.” Other Roach milestones include Quiet Music, Dreamtime Return and the 4-CD Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces. Projekt’s noteworthy and boundary-pushing darkwave acts established the label in the 90’s as the American counterpart to England’s famed 4AD. Voltaire’s 1998 debut The Devil’s Bris remains a classic of the genre; a video from the follow-up Almost Human gets over 17,500 daily plays on YouTube. With over 67 million tracks streamed in 2022, the label grows with a biweekly schedule of new and classic titles adding to the 650+ releases albums. Surviving throughout the decades where so many others perished, Projekt continues to nurture the careers of its select roster of artists.
Projekt label overview 2019
Based in Portland, Oregon, 36-year-old Projekt Records is home to Steve Roach, Voltaire, Erik Wollo, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Lycia, Forrest Fang, and many others. The label’s two-genre approach covers both the electronic/ambient and goth/darkwave realms.
Steve Roach received two consecutive Grammy nominations (2018 + 2019) for his electronic/ambient albums Spiral Revelations and Molecules of Motion. With over 150 releases, Projekt showcases his new albums as well as his classic catalog titles. Included on the label is 1984’s groundbreaking floating ambient Structures from Silence, which Fact Magazine called “the 10th best album of the 80s.” Other Roach milestones on Projekt include Quiet Music, Dreamtime Return, and the 4-CD Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces.
Electronic artists on the label include Norway’s Erik Wollo with nine Projekt releases including Gateway and the recent Infinite Moments, and San Francisco’s Forrest Fang with eleven titles including a new release in December 2019.
In the 90s Projekt’s darkwave acts established the label as the American counterpart to England’s famed 4AD. Label founder Sam Rosenthal’s Black Tape For A Blue Girl releases a new album in fall 2018. Their 1996 classic Remnants of a deeper purity continues to be popular with fans. New York City’s Voltaire released five albums on Projekt in the 2000s and returned in 2018 for his eleventh album, Heart-Shaped Wound.
Classic darkwave artist LYCIA returned to the label recently with a new album to complement the reissue of their first two albums and their three other albums from this decade.
Surviving throughout the decades where so many other labels perished, Projekt continues to nurture the careers of the label’s biggest artists.
2013 label overview
Projekt is America’s premier independent label specializing in passionately intense introspective music across a variety of darkwave genres (ambient, ethereal, goth, dark cabaret, rock, darkwave, minimal electronic & more). Begun in 1983 and releasing its 288th album in 2013, Projekt is proudly distributed in America & Canada by e1 DISTRIBUTION. In Europe, AUDIOGLOBE is our main distributor. Projekt is home to a diverse roster including label founder Sam Rosenthal’s own Black Tape For A Blue Girl as well as Steve Roach, Voltaire, Unto Ashes, Weep (Doc Hammer, co-writer of the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros.), and Love Spirals Downwards. For over 25 years Projekt has focused on discovering new talent, always adding to the label’s collection of beautifully spellbinding masterpieces. New signees for 2013 include France’s KatzKab.
The successful Projektfest (held in ’96, ’97, ’98, ’02, ’07, 10, & 11) serves as an opportunity for fans and bands to meet in one spot and celebrate the music they love.
Projekt established the Projekt: darkwave mailorder in the early 90s, and began this website in approximately 1995 (converted into a fully-functional webstore in 2000). Projekt.com is now our main avenue of communication with our fans. We’re glad you’ve discovered our site and hope you join us and become part of the Projekt family. Sam keeps in touch with fans through the projekt email list (you can join on the right side of this page, just below the SEARCH), as well as multiple-times-a-day posts on his facebook page. Look around and discover more about the music on Projekt Records.
For many of you, one of the little ads above (placed in the classified section in the back of Spin and Sassy in the ’90s) was your first exposure to the world of Projekt. While the snail mail addresses are no longer valid, the images bring back a memory or two….
Sam of Projekt Records gets credit for naming two of our genres, at wikipedia: Dark Cabaret & Darkwave.
Jesse from Numina shared this image with me. His collection of old Projekt mail-order catalogs… Writing, “Back in the day, when I first discovered Projekt, it was like a secret note when these catalogs showed up in the mail. What a special feeling! And a special time for music, and you made it happen for so many. Thank you! (My first Projekt CD was Soul Whirling Somewhere Eating the Sea, BTW.)”
Interview:
Sam’s podcast interview on The Future of What, with Portia Sabin of Kill Rock Stars, where they discuss the changing music industry and the 35-year history of Projekt Records!
Overflow | March 2010 Article about Sam & Projekt Records, from the Gowanus based Overflow Magazine
Come to Poppa! | March 2008 interview with Sam from Rosa Selvaggia. In English or Italian!
Being Sam Rosenthal | January 2008 interview with Sam from Side-Line.com
Sam Rosenthal @ Ink19.com | A December 2000 interview about Projekt.
A cat-shaped hole in my heart | A page for the projekt cat-cd with info on how to prevent your cat from catching the deadly feline leukemia disease.
Projekt Out-of-print | A list of early Projekt releases that are now out-of-print
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Projekt, Projekt Records, Projekt: Archive, Projekt: Darkwave and Darkwave are all business marks. Projekt, Projekt.com and all associated logos and domain names are trademarks, logos, service marks, and/or domain names of Projekt (“Projekt Marks”). Other trademarks, service marks, logos, and/or domain names used on the Site (including, without limitation, the individual names of Artists, Record Labels, or other providers and the domain names associated therewith), may be the trademarks, service marks, logos, and/or domain names of their respective owners (“Third Party Marks”).
This site is produced and maintained by Sam Rosenthal
