| Founded: | 2004 |
Ghost Box is an independent, UK-based electronic music record label, launched in 2004 by graphic designer Julian House and producer Jim Jupp. Its roster includes artists such as Jupp's Belbury Poly, House's The Focus Group, and the Advisory Circle, as well as releases by Broadcast and John Foxx among others.
The label's distinctive aesthetic draws on outdated and esoteric British cultural sources from the postwar period, including early electronic and library music, public information films, educational resources, occult stories, and BBC science-fiction programs. Ghost Box consequently became associated with the 2000s music trend known as hauntology.
Ghost Box was established in London in 2004 by producer Jim Jupp and music industry graphic designer Julian House. The label was formally launched on January 10, 2005, and was originally created as an outlet for their own musical experiments, with the idea that each release’s packaging would display a similar design sensibility and allude to a shared imaginary landscape; a very British parallel world of public information films and TV soundtracks, cosmic horror stories, vintage library music and antique synthesisers, folk song, educational programmes, English psychedelia, occult stories and folklore.[1]
Jupp and House have described the label as existing in an imagined or misremembered past. Influenced by school textbooks and the rigid design grid of Penguin and Pelican paperback books, Ghost Box records and CDs were always intended to look and sound like artefacts from a parallel world, familiar, elegant, but somehow "wrong". It’s a world outside of time where cultural references from a roughly 20-year period (1958-1978) are happening all at once.[2]
Their work has been described as an attempt to evoke "a nostalgia for a future that never came to pass, with a vision of a strange, alternate Britain, constituted from the reorder refuse of the postwar period."[3]
Ghost Box’s key artists are House's own The Focus Group and Jupp’s Belbury Poly as well as The Advisory Circle, the recording name for the work of producer and longest serving Ghost Box collaborator Cate Brooks. Jupp and Brooks have collaborated together as The Belbury Circle. Ghost Box have also released albums by Pye Corner Audio, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Hintermass (formed by Brooks with former Broadcast and Seeland member Tim Felton), The Soundcarriers and Roj (also formerly of Broadcast), as well as the comeback album by Plone, who are acknowledged by the label as progenitors of the Ghost Box style. Ghost Box has recently began to expand their roster to showcase artists from other countries, such as ToiToiToi from Berlin, Germany and Beautify Junkyards from Lisbon, Portugal.
There have also been releases by guest artists sometimes in collaborating with members of the regular roster over an ongoing series of Ghost Box singles. First the Study Series (nos. 1-10) and more recently the ongoing Other Voices series. Guests have included include Broadcast, John Foxx, Paul Weller, Moon Wiring Club, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Sean O'Hagan, Steve Moore and The Listening Center.
Music journalists Simon Reynolds and Mark Fisher borrowed Jacques Derrida's philosophical term hauntology to describe Ghost Box's uniquely surreal visual and musical output.[4] [5] [6] Boing Boing's Mark Pilkington noted Ghost Box founders "fused pop concrète, soundtrack and library music with sharp design and a swarm of esoteric pop-cultural references to create a parallel reality built upon memories of a very British past."[7] In reviewing Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, PopMatters called Ghost Box "[o]ne of the most rousing (oc)cult phenomena of the past decade" having "created a career conjuring past futurisms and collectively buried fears to create music that quite literally feels like it’s in a different league, even another dimension, than other modern musicians."[8]
| width=8% style="background:lightgray;" | Musician | width=10% style="background:lightgray;" | Title | width=8% style="background:lightgray;" | Release Date | width=4% style="background:lightgray;" | Format | width=4% style="background:lightgray;" | Catalogue Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belbury Poly | Farmer's Angle | 10 January 2005 28 October 2022 (re-issue) | Mini CD-EP CD/7" EP (re-issue) | GBX001 | |||||
| Sketches and Spells | 10 January 2005 4 February 2011 (LP re-issue) 11 November 2022 (2022 re-issue) | CD LP (2011 re-issue) CD/LP (2022 re-issue) | GBX002 | ||||||
| Belbury Poly | The Willows | 10 January 2005 4 February 2011 (LP re-issue) | CD LP (2011 re-issue) | GBX003 | |||||
| Ouroborindra | 4 April 2005 | CD | GBX004 | ||||||
| The Focus Group | Hey Let Loose Your Love | 4 April 2005 | CD | GBX005 | |||||
| Mind How You Go | 17 October 2005 | Mini CD-EP | GBX006 | ||||||
| Belbury Poly | The Owl's Map | 10 September 2006 14 July 2017 (LP re-issue) | CD LP (2017 re-issue) | GBX007 | |||||
| The Focus Group | We Are All Pan's People | 27 March 2007 | CD | GBX008 | |||||
| The Séance at Hobs Lane | 31 May 2007 12 June 2015 (LP re-issue) | CD LP (2015 re-issue) | GBX009 | ||||||
| The Advisory Circle | Other Channels | 10 March 2008 12 June 2015 (LP re-issue) | CD LP (2015 re-issue) | GBX010 | |||||
| Belbury Poly | From an Ancient Star | 30 January 2009 | CD | GBX011 | |||||
| Roj (musician) | Roj | The Transactional Dharma of Roj | 28 September 2009 | CD | GBX012 | ||||
| The Advisory Circle | Mind How You Go (Revised Edition) | 5 March 2010 | CD/LP | GBX013 | |||||
| Belbury Poly | Farmer's Angle (Revised Edition) | 10 September 2010 | CD/10" | GBX014 | |||||
| The Advisory Circle | As The Crow Flies | 8 July 2011 | CD/LP | GBX015 | |||||
| Belbury Poly | The Belbury Tales | 24 February 2012 | CD/LP | GBX016 | |||||
| Sleep Games | 19 October 2012 | CD/LP | GBX017 | ||||||
| The Focus Group | The Elektrik Karousel | 10 May 2013 | CD/LP | GBX018 | |||||
| John Foxx and The Belbury Circle | Empty Avenues | 6 September 2013 | CD/10" | GBX019 | |||||
| The Soundcarriers | Entropicalia | 20 May 2014 | CD/LP | GBX020 | |||||
| The Advisory Circle | From Out Here | 5 December 2014 | CD/LP | GBX021 | |||||
| Various artists | In a Moment... Ghost Box | 9 October 2015 | CD/LP | GBX022 | |||||
| Hintermass | The Apple Tree | 18 March 2016 | CD/LP | GBX023 | |||||
| The Belbury Poly | New Ways Out | 9 June 2016 | CD/LP | GBX024 | |||||
| Stasis | 26 August 2016 | CD/LP | GBX025 | ||||||
| The Pattern Forms | Peel Away the Ivy | 6 November 2016 | CD/LP | GBX026 | |||||
| ToiToiToi | Im Hag | 16 June 2017 | CD/LP | GBX027 | |||||
| The Focus Group | Stop-Motion Happening with The Focus Groop | 1 October 2017 | CD/LP | GBX028 | |||||
| The Belbury Circle | Outward Journeys | 12 November 2017 | CD/LP/Cassette | GBX029 | |||||
| Beautify Junkyards | The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards | 9 March 2018 | CD/LP | GBX030 | |||||
| The Advisory Circle | Ways of Seeing | 10 June 2018 | CD/LP | GBX031 | |||||
| Pye Corner Audio | Hollow Earth | 15 February 2019 | CD/LP | GBX032 | |||||
| Justin Hopper & Sharron Kraus with The Belbury Poly | Chanctonbury Rings | 21 June 2019 | CD/LP | GBX033 | |||||
| Plone | Puzzlewood | 17 April 2020 | CD/LP | GBX034 | |||||
| Belbury Poly | The Gone Away | 28 August 2020 | CD/LP | GBX035 | |||||
| Beautify Junkyards | Cosmorama | 13 January 2021 | CD/LP | GBX036 | |||||
| Various Artists | Intermission (Ghostbox Contemporary Connections) | 12 August 2021 | CD/LP | GBX037 | |||||
| ToiToiToi | Vaganten | 19 August 2021 | CD/LP | GBX038 | |||||
| Pye Corner Audio | Entangled Routes | 26 November 2021 | CD/LP | GBX039 | |||||
| Pneumatic Tubes | A Letter From TreeTops | 25 February 2022 | CD/LP | GBX040 | |||||
| Large Plants | The Carrier | 22 April 2022 | CD/LP | GBX041 | |||||
| The Advisory Circle | Full Circle | 30 September 2022 | CD/LP | GBX042 | |||||
| Belbury Poly | The Path | 4 August 2023 | CD/LP | GBX043 | |||||
| Large Plants | The Thorn | 17 November 2023 | CD/LP | GBX044 | |||||
| Pye Corner Audio | The Endless Echo | 5 April 2024 | CD/LP | GBX045 |
| width=8% style="background:lightgray;" | Musician | width=29% style="background:lightgray;" | Title | width=4% style="background:lightgray;" | Format | width=5% style="background:lightgray;" | Catalogue Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Study Series 01: Youth and Recreation (2010) | Single | GBX701 | |||||
| The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the 60s | Study Series 02: Cycles and Seasons (2010) | Single | GBX702 | ||||
| Belbury Poly and Mordant Music | Study Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010) | Single | GBX703 | ||||
| Broadcast and The Focus Group | Study Series 04: Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010) | Single | GBX704 | ||||
| Study Series 05: The Open Song Book (2011) | Single | GBX705 | |||||
| Study Series 06: Animation and Interpretation (2011) | Single | GBX706 | |||||
| Pye Corner Audio with The Advisory Circle | Study Series 07: Autumnal Activities (2011) | Single | GBX707 | ||||
| Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle | Study Series 08: Inversions (2012) | Single | GBX708 | ||||
| Listening Center with Pye Corner Audio | Study Series 09: Projections (2013) | Single | GBX709 | ||||
| Belbury Poly and Spacedog | Study Series 10: Message and Method (2013) | Single | GBX710 | ||||
| Other Voices 01: Calibair/ Mulcair (2014) | Single | GBX711 | |||||
| Listening Center | Other Voices 02: Quotidian Forgotten/ Our Material (2014) | Single | GBX712 | ||||
| Other Voices 03: Fluchtwege/ The Sacrifice (2015) | Single | GBX713 | |||||
| Other Voices 04: The Moon Occults Saturn At Dawn/ Val Sans Retour (2015) | Single | GBX714 | |||||
| Pye Corner Audio with Belbury Poly | Other Voices 05: Machines are Obsolete/ Pathways (2015) | Single | GBX715 | ||||
| Other Voices 06: Pulsing River Velvet Phase/ Phototones (2015) | Single | GBX716 | |||||
| Other Voices 07: Odin's Jungle/ Golden Green (2015) | Single | GBX717 | |||||
| Other Voices 08: Constant Flux/ Pirâmide (2016) | Single | GBX718 | |||||
| Other Voices 09: The Music Room/ Moonling (2017) | Single | GBX719 | |||||
| Sharron Kraus with Belbury Poly | Other Voices 10: Something Out of Nothing/Something Out of Nothing (Belbury Poly Mix) (2019) | Single | GBX720 | ||||
| In Another Room (2020) | EP | GBX721 | |||||
| Beautify Junkyards & Belbury Poly | Painting Box/Ritual in Transfigured Time (2021) | Single | GBX722 | ||||
| Large Plants | La Isla Bonita/Please Don’t Be There for Me (2021) | Single | GBX723 |
| width=8% style="background:lightgray;" | Title | width=29% style="background:lightgray;" | Work | width=5% style="background:lightgray;" | Catalogue Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various artists | Ritual and Education (2008) | GBXSAMP01 | |||
| Various artists | Intermission (2020) | MSFGBXD008 |