2020's Most Tony Nominated Individual Launches Archie & Fox Records

Founded by acclaimed composer Daniel Kluger and playwright Ken Urban, the label also debuted its first album and experimental music video, SUNDAY. The label's website also features a platform for discussions about music making in theater.
NEW YORK - June 29, 2021 - PRLog -- Archie & Fox Records, a NYC-based record label specializing in releases of music from plays and other collaborations was launched this month by co-founders Daniel Kluger, Drama Desk Award winner and four-time Tony nominee, and Ken Urban, award-winning playwright, band leader and MIT Professor. The label specializes in music classified as "electronic, orchestral, synthetic, queer, theatrical, feline, and other."

Realizing there was a gap in labels and opportunities for high quality releases featuring music from plays, Daniel and Ken were inspired to create their own label to support releases that wouldn't find homes elsewhere. The label's goal is to promote adventurous music making for the theater, said Kluger.

The record label will also run Play Records NYC, an online platform to provoke discussion about music making in theater, and create community for music and sound artists in the theater.

The platform's first piece is about award winning composer JJJJJerome Ellis' music for the cancelled production of Claudia Rankine's HELP. Future articles will include investigations of music-making practices in the theater, and feature collaborations with other NYC theater artists.

The label's first release, Sunday I, a single from Archie & Fox's debut five-track album SUNDAY, by Daniel Kluger, served as the electronic score for a queer-led short film of the same name that premiered alongside the soundtrack. The film, shot by an all-female and non-binary film crew at the height of the pandemic in fall 2020, navigates the edges between anxiety and exultation in an empty amphitheater in the Lower East Side of New York. The film was choreographed and performed by Ani Taj (The Dance Cartel), with cinematography by Maddy Talias.

The music was originally created for the play SUNDAY, by Jack Thorne, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, produced by Atlantic Theater Company.

Archie & Fox Records' next release, Judgment Day, out on July 2, features a suite for a large brass ensemble, evoking Webern and Berg with a contemporary cinematic hybrid sound.  The suite is composed by Kluger and performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble.

The music was originally created for the play JUDGMENT DAY, by Ödön von Horváth, adapted by Christopher Shinn, directed by Richard Jones, and produced by the Park Avenue Armory.

Other upcoming releases from the label include the electronic pop band, Occurrence's upcoming album, I Have So Much Love to Give, out on August 20. The album will be preceded with four singles: "I Have So Much Love to Give," "The Happy Years," "Boy Joy," and "My Eternal Autumn." Occurrence was initially started by Archie & Fox founder Ken, as an outlet for the experimental instrumental music he was making for his plays. Since 2016, he has been joined by singers Cat Hollyer and Johnny Hager. Their music has been called "a formidable electro-space post-punk beast" by Atwood Magazine and music journalist Michael Tedder described their sound as "if Noel Coward had lived long enough to make laptop pop."

Ken added, "Daniel and I worked closely on the new Occurrence music over the last two years and it's gratifying to release our new album on this label. Daniel pushed us to explore a new vocabulary of acoustic and cinematic textures in our music."

Archie & Fox Records offers both digital and physical releases, and merchandise, available on the label's Bandcamp.

For more information, including links to listen to and pre-save upcoming releases, visit https://www.archieandfoxrecords.com/

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Archie & Fox Links

Archie & Fox Records Website: https://www.archieandfoxrecords.com

Play Records NYC Website: https://www.playrecordsnyc.org

Bandcamp: https://archieandfoxrecords.bandcamp.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archieandfoxrecords/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/archieandfoxrec

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/archieandfoxrecords

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archieandfoxrecords
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