In 2008 my wife, son and I spent three weeks living amongst a little Tibetan community in the Himalayan village of Tabo, in the Spiti Valley region of India. While there I was approached by a local guesthouse owner, Sonam Tsering, who was active in preserving the traditional and modern music of the Spiti region.

A few years previously, Sonam had ventured down through the high mountain passes with some musical instruments and with two of his friends, Phuntsok Baba and Yashe Phuntsok. They went to a town large enough to have some recording equipment and laid down some tracks — modern Spiti music celebrating some of the cultural and spiritual values of their community.

However, they didn’t have the money to get very many copies of their CD made, and by the time I arrived, Sonam only had one copy left. He was depressed about it because he didn’t know how he would be able to make more copies, and he was worried that the Spiti style of music was threatened with extinction.

Enter Littoral Records!

I made a copy of Sonam’s last CD on my MacBook and took notes while Sonam translated the lyrics and gave me enough background information for some liner notes.

Back in Sydney I created an album cover, an ISBN number and set the album up for sale on Bandcamp at http://thespitisound.bandcamp.com

Bandcamp is a great way to release music that might be of interest to a worldwide audience, but which is never likely to be a Top 20 blockbuster. Bandcamp costs nothing to set up, you get all the proceeds of each sale, and you get to set your own pricing. It takes very little time to set a page up, and Bandcamp scores well on Google searches.

I’ve spent no time marketing the Spiti Sound album but today I’m very happy to announce that Bandcamp has sold the first copy of the album online. Sonam, Phuntsok and Yashe will be receiving 100% of the proceeds and the money will go towards bringing musicians and artists together from all over the Spiti region to share, collaborate and record more Spiti music.

Easily the best thing about running a small indie record label is getting to hear demos from fresh new artists. There’s nothing better than receiving a new demo when I pop down to collect the mail from the post office box, because it’s always a chance to be one of the first people to discover an artist who’s going to be huge one day, to experience something you wouldn’t ordinarily listen to, to catch up with a good friend you haven’t heard from in a while, or sometimes, all of the above.

So big shout-out to Ted Jedlicki, hailing from the usually frozen wastes of Minnesota, who did an internship at Littoral Records back when we released James Cooper’s first album, and who’s sent me a demo from his band, Dynamite Flight.

The demo’s title is the best album title I’ve heard so far in 2008, a little wordy but fantastic:
“WE’RE GONNA ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF AND MAKE YOU WALK HOME BAREFOOT” which might be something everybody says in Minneapolis, but I’d never heard it before. With energy and enthusiasm like that, how can Dynamite Flight fail to succeed?

Learn more about Ted, Dynamite Flight, and listen to some of their stuff at http://www.myspace.com/dynamiteflight

We’re delighted to announce the second artist to join the Littoral family is Australian singer/songwriter James Cooper, whose debut album, Second Season will be released on Littoral just as soon as we can get the discs pressed, retailers stocked and press… err.. pressed to review it.

James is an Aussie ex-pat living and working as an art director and musician in London. He makes a good living most days producing the art for other people’s album covers, including some of the biggest names in the business. But making his own music is his real passion, and this debut album shines with a professionalism and maturity that suggests he should keep indulging this passion. He’s been compared to Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Bright Eyes, and sometimes he’s a bit Paul Kelly. He’s often along the same lines as Tim Freedman (The Whitlams) which is hardly surprising, since James and Tim are friends. James supported The Whitlams most recently for sold-out London shows, and co-wrote a song on The Whitlams’ most recent album. Already released in the UK, US and Japan to very positive reviews, Second Season includes a wide range of styles that will leave you wondering if maybe you’re listening to a cover compilation album, but no, they’re all by the one guy. If this is a first album, James is truly going places, and hopefully he won’t forget the little micro-label that helped him downunder. Look for release dates to be announced here shortly, and in the meantime, find out more about James at www.james-cooper.com and his myspace page.