With every new capsule released by Amniote Editions, the Copenhagen-based experimental record label founded by Mama Snake (otherwise known as Sara Svanholm) and Tanya Akinola proves its mettle as one of Europe's most energising and radical music platforms. In conjunction with the release of their five-year anniversary compilation HoxV-1: ECDYSIS, TANK spoke to the duo about posthumanism, Latin and the logistics of running a label as a duo.
TANK You’ve been running Amniote Editions for five years now, and you are celebrating with both new music, limited merch and a jewellery launch. Why was it important to go beyond just releasing music?
Mama Snake We enjoy finding different creative outlets to match the music and the visuals. partly because the more classic formats for music releases are becoming less popular and less environmentally friendly (vinyl production pollutes a great deal). We thought it would be fun to look into other physical items connected to the music. When doing something quite limited they also become collector's items and I love meeting people around the world wearing the cap from Intellagama’s recent EP Reciprocate, the scarf we did for the DCX capsule or the recent ECDYSIS hoodie and jewellery from Magma. You know the people supporting us through buying the items are true fans of the work which is always heartwarming.
Tanya Akinola Totally. It’s also so much fun to bring friends from other creative disciplines into the mix and see how they interpret the music through their medium. Amniote has always been a mixed-medium project and a portal for us and our collaborators to express ourselves without limitations or concerns about traditional ways of doing things. It keeps it exciting for us to experiment and gives fans of the music something tangible to hold onto and an alternative way to connect with the music and each other.
TANK Tell me about what distinguishes a “capsule” from a regular release?
MS I guess it’s just a way of doing more than “just” an EP and building something more extensive with physical items.
TA It’s also a way of “world building”. It’s fun to create a world around a release and put an Amniotic spin on it.
TANK What was the inspiration behind the HoxV-1: ECDYSIS visuals?
MS Ecdysis is Latin for “molting” or “skin shedding” so with the design team Alexis Mark we brainstormed how that could be interpreted. They came up with this twisted take on how the Western world advertises face masks with these almost AI-style, picture-perfect, ultra shiny and dewy faces holding masks. Then 3D artist Yilmaz Şen took it to another level with creepy animations. For Spekki Webu’s debut album, artist Matti Vilho built the ECDYSIS theme into Spekki Webu morphing into his reptilian alias Heliobolus, as that was the conceptual storyline of the album. It’s all about change and transformation and moving into new eras just like the label is. We like the unpredictable nature of our weirdo Amniote Editions so in all likelihood the next capsule will be completely different while still fitting into the universe.
TANK What have been the greatest challenges involved in running a label? How do you navigate your artistic desires versus commercial imperatives?
MS As with all other ventures there are ups and downs and challenges, but doing this project with Tanya definitely makes navigating the obstacles way easier and more fun. There is a lot of admin and behind-the-scenes boring work with doing any creative work that I don’t think a lot of people realize until they do it themselves. Being less aimed toward mainstream culture makes it easier not to have to navigate the fast-changing dynamics of the electronic music scene. I think I would struggle a lot with keeping up with the business side of things. The reward of putting out great music and doing interesting artwork and items always outweighs the hard work and hurdles we encounter.
TA As Sara said, navigating the obstacles is much easier having each other to rely on! It can be really difficult balancing the label with other work and life commitments but we have a really good flow between us and can lean on each other in those moments. The label’s intent was never to be commercially viable in a mainstream traditional way - we just want to put out art we love from friends and artists that inspire us and luckily staying true to that has kept us going this far.
TANK What’s next for Amniote Editions?
MS We have another special capsule planned for next year that is connected to one of our previous capsules and then we will see where the wind takes us.
TANK What’s your favourite remix on the compilation?
MS It's hard to pick a favorite obviously! I think it’s amazing how sonically diverse the compilation is. It’s a really cross-continental release with artists from all around the globe remixing each other which to us is very representative of the Amniote platform. I’ve played all the tracks in sets last year, the ones that have been rinsed the most probably being the Intellagama remix of Sisilisko, Nature Boy’s take on Mac Declos and the Jörmungandr remix of Monophonik & Riva.
TA So hard to choose, I love them all! I’ve really been enjoying Sisilisko’s remix of Snog (Coluber) lately as I’ve been on an ambient tip and I love that side of our catalogue. Have also been playing Amuwa’s remix of Jörmungandr and Jörmungandr’s remix of Monophonik & Riva during this Australian summer as they are local icons and their music sounds great being played outside amongst nature.
HoxV-1: ECDYSIS is out now. Photo by Noah Umur Kanber.