Label profile: Love Letters From Oslo

Label profile: Love Letters From Oslo

27 January, 2010 | 5.54AM

• Written by: Zack Rico
• Filed under: Music News: federico molinari, love letters from oslo, nekes, oslo

It began life in 2008 as a vinyl-only sub label of Mannheim’s much-hyped Oslo imprint.

Now Federico Molinari and Nekes’ (pictured) limited vinyl imprint Love Letters From Oslo has joined Beatport, to archive all of its past and future releases digitally.

Love Letters has over the past two years, become a respected underground house label in Germany. The label’s commitment to quality has seen it release only 12 records since its inception, mainly styled as classic house DJ tools.

With some excitement surrounding the digital rebirth, we phoned the label’s Federico Molinari to find out more about the imprint, and asked him to guide us through some of his favourite tracks on Love Letters.

Why was Love Letters From Oslo vinyl-only to begin with?

We began with only vinyl because we launched Love Letters as the smaller, special brother of Oslo. Originally, we wanted to keep it special and only release limited pressings, but we quickly realised that that was a bit unrealistic, so instead we decided to avoid digital as a way of keeping it fairly limited.

So why go digital now?

To be honest, we wouldn’t have but the market and the world has changed so radically in the last year, that we didn’t want to reach the point one day that we would have to close the label because we didn’t sell digital.

We didn’t want to risk the existence of the label, as the most important thing is that we get the music to the people. The format is not that important. We are still continuing to do vinyl though, as that’s important to us.

Another thing we realised was that all of our releases were available in illegal shops, or you could download them for free from blogs as people had ripped the vinyl. So we thought, what’s the point of us not selling Love Letters digitally, when other are making money out of our releases?

You mentioned that the world has changed radically. What did you mean by that?

I’m talking about the market drop. Every single label I know suffered last year. There are many factors that affected this.

The continuing digital laptop revolution has caused a significant decline in vinyl over the last few years. The global economic crisis has meant people are buying less and less vinyl. People are panicking, they don’t know what’s going to happen, so they’re saving money, or they have less money as they lost their job.

So it’s a combination of new media, technology, and the global financial crisis. Shops like Beatport have developed really fast too, and offer a lot for digital buyers.

How do you feel about this change?

If you look at human history, it is inevitable. Digital cameras replaced film cameras, and now no one buys film. Synthesizers replaced pianos. Digital is replacing vinyl. I expected it to happen, but perhaps not quite as fast as this.

The one thing that makes me slightly sad, is the new generation of electronic music fans are very lazy. They want to be able to get everything from home, with one click of the mouse. They have no idea what it means to visit a record store, or to dig for music. There is less effort being made.

Love Letters has a lot more classic sounding things. We release a lot of music that reminds me of early house music, from like ‘93

What sound does Love Letters From Oslo concentrate on?

Our main focus is contemporary house. House is a really open genre, and even in house, you can find techno, progressive, and tribal. We have a lot of things that are not really house, that are more than house. So I guess we’re in between house and techno.

What’s the difference between Love Letters and Oslo then?

You can’t really identify Oslo with a certain sound, or era. Oslo doesn’t really have a set style.

Love Letters has a lot more classic sounding things. We release a lot of music that reminds me of early house music, from like ‘93. Tracks like ‘Delirious’ from Massimo Di Lena are in this style.

But then we also release very modern things, like the track ‘Crystal’ by Saac.

One thing you could say about Love Letters, is that it seems very considerate. You only release about a half dozen records a year.

I think it’s very important to not release too much, and to not do too many unnecessary things. A lot of labels make this mistake, especially in the digital era where labels don’t have any real costs if they’re digital only.

A lot of digital labels just release loads of stuff, and hope one of the records is a hit. But that can be very dangerous for your brand, and it’s bad for everyone.

We only release records that we are really convinced about. That means we only do about seven or eight records per year. That way, we can guarantee the quality of the releases, and we know they’re all bombs.

Federico Molinari’s Love Letters

We asked Love Letters’ label head Federico Molinari to highlight some of his favourite tracks from the label.

Vera, Federico Molinari ‘It Ain’t Music’

This track is the whole reason we started the label. We knew it didn’t fit into Oslo as it was a bit too special, so we launched Love Letters.

Laverne Radix ‘Dick Control’

When I heard this track, I knew 100% that it was a Love Letters track. It’s pretty original. It’s old school rooted, but also modern at same time.

Johnny D ‘Pako Mana’

This was a track from Johnny that I always wanted to release, but I could never find a place for it. Then when we launched Love Letters, we had the platform. I really love this track. It’s very special.

Christian Burkhardt ‘Tres’

Really for me, this track is modern house. It’s quite unusual, and it perfectly fitted Love Letters.

Damian Schwartz ‘La Voz’

Damian Schwartz is a great producer, and this again, has roots in classic house. But you can clearly hear the Damian Schwartz sound in there.

DJ Wild ‘Goiabada’

‘Goiabada’ is the only disco track that we’ve released on Love Letters so far. When I heard the track, I just knew I had to release it, it’s fantastic late night funk.

Nekes ‘Apartment 4.4’

This is a track from my label partner Nekes. I’d describe it as a very fine DJ tool, and it’s very comfortable to play and mix with.

Massimo Di Lena ‘Delirious’

‘Delirious’ is the ultimate party bomb! It’s a really old school track, but at the same time it’s not too obvious. It was a big hit for us.

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