Auricular Records

About

Auricular Records, a vessel of auditory experimentation, operated on the fringes of the American soundscape for half a century. From 1942 to 1992, the label carved out a niche for itself, where tapes were sacred vessels and the cassette format reigned supreme. Each release was a sculptural artifact, a process-driven exploration into the liminal spaces of sound. The label's identity was intertwined with its enigmatic roster. Nux Vomica emerged as a recurring specter, their releases — "Spindal Alpha," "Mercurial Rite," "Systematic Redux," "The Forty-Seventh Proposition," and "by ether's touch made fire" — each a fractal burst of avant-garde experimentation. Curium, another entity of note, contributed the post-music suite "Somnopolis," a sonic odyssey that sits at the confluence of the known and the unknown. Auricular's most exploratory venture was perhaps its Monthly Audio Magazine, a series that defied conventional distribution, offering listeners a curated portal into the evolving world of sound art. Each edition was an interdisciplinary tapestry, threading together voices from across the experimental spectrum. This was a label that didn't just use the cassette format — it exalted it. The physicality of the tape was a medium in itself, a canvas for the abstract and the improvisational. Through its nineteen releases, Auricular Records captured the ephemeral spirit of its time, documenting an auditory history that was as mercurial as it was monumental.