When I tried to catch up on the latest release I read that em:t closed again. That’s all I read, I didn’t get any further details and I haven’t searched for more on the web yet.
In the early 90s I collected all releases under the t:me recordings label, but in 1996 they went bankrupt. The old em:t releases are still some of the most precious items in my collection, and this is not just because they have become very highly priced collector’s items.
In 2003 somebody relaunched em:t and released new albums including gel-sol, acid, gaudi:testa etc. They never managed to reach the standard they defined with the first releases, and with their latest international peoples gang release, the story ended again. I saw that the price for this album immediately increased to 18 GBP, but I saw that Amazon still has some less expensive copies out there. I doubt that the new releases since 2003 will ever become as desirable as the early releases until 1996. In my opinion they had been ahead of their time in 1994-96, both in terms of music and design concept. The new releases since 2003, however, were a bit behind of their time in my opinion. But I might be wrong…
It still is sad that such a wonderful series of extraordinary electronic ambient recordings and very interesting artists wasn’t able to stay around, and I’m afraid they won’t come back again this time. Thankfully there are other great record and net labels out there.
