| FAX +49-69/450464 | |
| Founder: | Peter Kuhlmann |
| Status: | Inactive |
| Genre: | Ambient, Techno, Trance |
| Country: | Germany |
| Location: | Traben-Trarbach |
FAX +49-69/450464 (also known as simply Fax or Fax Label[1] [2]) was a German record label founded in Frankfurt[3] in 1992 by ambient musician Peter Kuhlmann[4] (who recorded as Pete Namlook, a phonetic inversion of his surname). It was originally devoted to Namlook's collaborations with other German electronic artists, primarily in hard trance and hardcore[5] styles, but soon expanded with the debut of the ambient Silence and Air projects;[1] [6] consequently, ambient and downtempo music became the predominant focus of the label.[6]
The main label had three principal subdivisions, indicated by the first two letters of a given record's catalog number.[4]
• PK was typically for Namlook's solo releases.
• PW (Peter's World) was for collaborations with international artists – including Turkish folk musician Burhan Öçal as Sultan, English DJ Mixmaster Morris as Dreamfish and Japanese ambient artist Tetsu Inoue as Shades of Orion, 2350 Broadway and 62 Eulengasse.
• PS (Peter's Sub-label) released records by other artists[1] [4] —without Namlook—of diverse nationalities and idioms, including US guitarist Robert Musso, bassist Bill Laswell, German techno producer David Moufang (aka Move D), and Canadian sound artist Chris Meloche.[4]
• PI (Peter's iTunes) released exclusives for iTunes, such as Music for Babies.
In addition to these divisions, there were three sub-labels: Yesterday & Tomorrow (YT), Ambient World (AW) and Rather Interesting (RI).
• The Yesterday & Tomorrow sub-label issued a series of albums juxtaposing ambient and the "ambient side" of classical chamber music[7] (which was unofficially discontinued in 1995).
• Ambient World was dedicated to the re-issuing of otherwise out-of-print Fax discs, particularly those from the 1990s.[8]
• Rather Interesting was a label maintained by German IDM musician Uwe Schmidt, with the vast majority of its catalog being his solo material, issued under a multitude of aliases.[1] [9]
Until the creation of the Ambient World sub-label and the subsequent release of its discography on the iTunes Store,[10] all FAX records were issued in extremely limited quantities, with typically 500–1000 pressings depending on the project.[1] [4] This resulted in FAX originals fetching high prices on eBay and other online auction Web sites.[1]
Label founder Pete Namlook died of a heart attack on 8 November 2012,[11] although no official statement regarding the label's future was ever made.[12] [13] [14]