Label Feature #2: Séance Centre

Founded in 2017 by Brandon Hocura, Séance Centre is an innovative Canadian record label, publisher and distributor, championing new artists as well as timeless recordings previously lost to history.

Earlier in the summer we caught up with Hocura to discover what inspired him to launch Séance Centre, his favorite releases in the label’s catalog and what’s in the pipeline in 2019 and beyond.

Before launching Séance Centre in 2017 you ran the much-loved label Invisible City Editions. How does your vision for Séance Centre differ from your previous label?

With Séance Centre I wanted to move away from strictly reissuing dance-floor oriented music. The focus now is on deep-listening electronic music, and that does still include the occasional dance 12”. We are also releasing music from contemporary artists which is something I’ve been interested in doing for a long time. We also like to keep people surprised by releasing books, cassettes and hand-made esoteric objects. I basically run the label in a way that would interest me as a music lover and collector.

Séance Centre has reissued some incredible music by artists who were previously lost to history. What is your approach to sourcing new material?

My main objective with the label is to share music that I love in hopes of helping it reach a larger audience. I’m a bit of an obsessive collector of records, cassettes and books, so there’s always a long list of things I’m interested in pursuing. I’m constantly tracking down artists, asking about unreleased material and master reels. Sometimes this opens up huge archives of unreleased music which is really exciting, but also daunting. Other times I’m unable to find artists, or they aren’t interested in having their work reissued. The music that ends up as a release is always a combination of timing, mutual enthusiasm with the artists, a personal connection to the music and a strong narrative element.

Vinyl releases on the label have some very distinctive packaging which appeals to record collectors and stands out from a crowded market. Was this aesthetic planned from the beginning?

Absolutely. I work very closely with my designer Alan Briand. He’s based in Paris, and although we’ve never actually met in person, we’ve spent hours in conversation discussing ideas for the label’s artwork. From the beginning we conceived of a distinct serial look for the label that would allow for flexibility of design release-to-release, but with a recognizable quality that easily identifies all SC releases.

For example, we riff on the Japanese obi, but we invert it, placing it on the right side of the record. On our LPs it is a spot gloss band, and on the 12”s it is a folded ‘throw-away’ paper obi. Our 12”s open on the top, rather than the right side, making them easy to pull out of a DJ bag. We also feel that information on record spines is an awkward tradition inherited from book design, which isn’t practical since the lettering is vertical and so small that it’s nearly impossible to read. The quick way most of us identify records on our shelves is by colour, so we decided to design all our LPs with a bright green spine to help you find them in your collection. Both Alan and I love unconventional designs, and try and take examples from other media (books, posters, movies) when coming up with ideas. Our logo is based on a manhole cover designed by Le Corbusier for his failed modernist urban planning experiment in Chandigarh, India. How many labels can say they were inspired by a manhole cover?

Which three recent Séance Centre vinyl releases stand out to you?

Like a parent, I love all our children equally. But I also can’t help but enjoy the most recent the most. In that case I would say Short Term Memory (12SC), Philip Sanderson (11SC) are ones that I play the most recently. I also really love the way the MJ Lallo 12” (04SC) came together, pairing two Balearic dance-floor songs on the A-side, with a long deep-listening ambient excursion on the B-side.

What does the remainder of 2019 hold in store for yourself and the label?

Next up we have a 2LP Gwakasonné compilation, a really incredible group from Guadeloupe that fused traditional Gwo Ka drumming with electronics and spiritual jazz. Then we’re doing a new release by local heroes Joseph Shabason and Ben Gunning. To me their record sounds like a futuristic ECM/Windham Hill record and I’ve been a fan of theirs for a while, so it’s great to be able to do this release with them. We’ve got lots of other things in the pipeline, cassettes, compilations, 12”s, and maybe even a chapbook for good measure. We’re keeping busy that’s for sure!

For more information about the label and releases visit seance-centre.com.