43, Rue General Patton
1050 Brussels
Belgium

http://www.crammed.be

Crammed Discs : WOMEX Label Award winners 2009!

business contact

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activities

• Publisher
  • Music
• Records
  • Label

participating in

• WOMEX 2000
• WOMEX 2001
• WOMEX 2002
• WOMEX 2003
• WOMEX 2004
• WOMEX 2005
• WOMEX 2006
• WOMEX 2007
• WOMEX 2008
• WOMEX 2009
• WOMEX 2010
• WOMEX 2011
• WOMEX 2012

company description

Crammed is recognized as one of the most exciting, adventurous and boundary-breaking independent labels worldwide. Crammed has kept reinventing itself, and has been coming up with new forms of fusion, mixing elements of world music, rock and electronica ever since its inception in the early '80s, often anticipating the musical movements which bloomed during the next two-and-a half decades.

Based in Brussels, Belgium, yet resolutely cosmopolitan-minded, Crammed has worked with artists from all over the world. The 450+ records (around 250 albums and 200 singles) released by Crammed to date include '80s fusion milestones such as albums by Zazou Bikaye, Minimal Compact, Bel Canto, Tuxedomoon, Aksak Maboul, The Honeymoon Killers, and the influential Made To Measure composers' series (37 albums of challenging instrumental music); prominent world music artists such as Zap Mama, Taraf de Haïdouks, Sussan Deyhim, Hector Zazou; electronic music innovators Carl Craig, 4hero/Tek 9, Juryman, Snooze, DJ Morpheus & his Freezone series (which all came out on the SSR imprint).

In 1998, Crammed created Ziriguiboom, a sub-label dedicated to those new Brazilian sounds which fit so perfectly with the Crammed ethos, with their sophisticated fusion of roots, pop and electronic elements. Ziriguiboom quickly became one of the major sources of new Brazilian music, and played a crucial role in that field, having signed and developed iconic artists such as Suba, Zuco 103, Trio Mocotó, Celso Fonseca, Bossacucanova, DJ Dolores, Apollo Nove and of course Bebel Gilberto, whose «Tanto Tempo» album has sold one million units worldwide.

Today, the genre-bending attitude is finally started to prevail around the world, and Crammed feel that sub-labels and categories are becoming superfluous· Most of the label's various, exciting new projects are therefore all united under the single «Crammed» banner: they include incredible Congolese street rumba-funk warriors and this year's WOMEX Artist Award winners Staff Benda Bilili, borderless European pop hero Shantel, the Congotronics series (showcasing electro/ traditional African bands such as the spectacular Konono N°1 and the Kasai Allstars 'supergroup'), Balkan heroes both long-established and pioneering such as Taraf de Haïdouks, Koçani Orkestar and Balkan Beat Box, as well a string of highly individual artists navigating between electronica, rock, jazz and folk (Lonely Drifter Karen, Akron/Family, Cibelle, Megafaun, Flat Earth Society, Tuxedomoon, Allà). Upcoming releases include long-awaited new albums from Balkan Beat Box, Cibelle and Lonely Drifter Karen...

Crammed Discs and
associated labels
Marc HOLLANDER
A&R / Managing director
Hanna GORJACZKOWSKA
Managing director
Thierry STEUVE
International distribution manager
David BEAUGIER
distribution and promotion France
43, rue General Patton
Brussels 1050
Belgium