Tape label Spina!Rec was launched in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2013 by what was known since mid-2000s as the Spina art collective and Benzolnye Mertvecy band. Among them were the members of Mars-96 trio, Konstantin Samolovov, Sergey Kostyrko, and Ilia Belorukov, who realized a need to start their own small DIY label for releasing music on cassettes and other analog medium and posting rip of the cassetes online. To this moment, the label put together more than 30 releases, featuring predominantly local artists: both, well-known Russian acts like Alexey Borisov, Foresteppe, Padla Bear Outfit, and Kryptogen Rundfunk as well as some emerging musicians. It is worth mentioning the appearances of some European artists: Rutger Zuydervelt (Netherlands), Umpio (Finland), and Ich B!n Nintendo (Norway). Russian and foreign web magazines frequently review the releases. In Fall of 2015 London’s Resonance radio aired a show featuring exclusively music from Spina!Rec.

Besides issuing records, Ilia, Sergey, and Konstantin work together on booking shows: they organized more than 20 concerts in St. Petersburg including their own festival of experimental and improvised music SpinaFest in April of 2016. Among those who played at the shows are Albert Cirera & Ramon Prats (Spain), Strøm duo (Switzerland), Gaute Granli, Vilde & Inga, Oker (Norway), Arturas Bumšteinas (Lithuania) and a handful of other experimental artists.

(not) for everyone

Record label & production house

Home to Merzbow, Oren Ambarchi, Martin Ng, 
Chris Abrahams, Jessica Aszodi, Peter Knight, Zubin Kanga, Ben Carey, Jules Reidy & more

Twanda Goebel is following