DIFFICULT ART AND MUSIC.
Boutique 'record' label, specialising in short-run, research-orientated, art-objects. Focussed on all manner of experimental, challenging composition.
Difficult Art and Music is a record label and small press dedicated to releasing public-facing artefacts from creative research projects. Working with academics, independent researchers, as well as grass-roots musicians, writers and artists, the label has curated a broad range of experimental practice. From the cerebral synthesis of J.Lynch (senior lecturer, popular music, Falmouth University), to the electro-acoustic compositions of Chelidon Frame (Asychronous Drone Orchestra, Italy), the label is home to a host of cutting-edge contemporary artists.
At the same time, DAAM focuses on experimental community art projects: the archival work of rave pioneers Polygone, the site-specific field-recordings of Scolpaig, supporting self-defined ‘outsider’ zine Neverwork, and curated compilations exploring everyday witchcraft and modern feminism. The label’s goal is not to compete with larger, better-resourced outlets, but to actively support cutting-edge, conceptually-weighted music and art that might otherwise not find a home.
Releases
-
![]()
Near Minerals - The Talking Castle OST
-
![]()
Federico Balducci & nobuka - Depth is Not a Place
-
![]()
Veiled Existence - All the Quiet Hurts
-
![]()
Column of Trout/Partager - Split/Lop
-
![]()
Post - s/t
-
![]()
F U and Your A-sides - Cronework
-
![]()
Will Parker - Red Lake, Black Mine
-
![]()
John Garner & Martin Donkin - Adrift
-
![]()
DAAM 3 year anniversary comp - VA
-
![]()
Mico Boule - Cellular Degradation
-
![]()
Kerchiefs - At Knees Start
-
![]()
Heavy Cloud - Here Is Where It Hurts
-
![]()
Scolpaig - s/t
Difficult Art and Music have spent the last four years curating, producing, and releasing cutting-edge experimental art from around the globe. Where many labels are defined by a focus on one particular genre or aesthetic, DAAM is different. Founded by Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully - PhD in experimental composition, and a music journalist who has written for the likes of The Quietus, Freq, Toneshift, Tusk, and MEANS - the label curates a broad range of conceptual, considered work by often underusing artists working to push the boundaries of their practice. From contemporary classical to avant-garde works, synthesis to generative composition, drone to sound-art, and even odd forays into post-punk, noise, slow-wave and outsider art, the label seeks out the bold and the innovative wherever it lives.
New video!
Watch the latest music video from Column of Trout - ‘Ears’, the lead single of our latest release, ‘Split / Lop’.
Latest Release:
Column of Trout / Partager
Split / Lop
Cassette Tape / DL
Split/Lop marks the first in a new series of DAAM releases, focussing on experimental song-writing: where the label has built a reputation around drone, sound-art, and experimental electronic music, this new series explores the weirder side of more 'traditional' forms of composition.
Split/Lop features Column of Trout - a solo alt / experimental art rock project helmed by Ben Wiggs (One Eyed Ancestor / Kerchiefs) that melds simple, melody-driven compositions with a quietly off-kilter aesthetic. More vocal-led than Wiggs' other projects, Column of Trout celebrates the purity found in raw, stripped-down song-writing and a decidedly un-polished approach to its production. Complimenting this, label-boss Distant Animals showcases his own more 'musical' project: Partager - blending elements of neo-folk, grunge, and lo-fi art-pop into a (in)cohesive mass of autoharps, harmoniums, synthesizers and drums.
Together, both acts have created a beguiling split album - actual songs, but somehow still eschewing the comfort of genre.