Label Watch: Longform Editions

Few labels have functioned outside the box like Longform Editions.

Founded in 2018 by Andrew Khedoori and Mark Gowing, at the beginning of 2025, the Australian label announced that its February run of releases would be its last, making this latest edition of Label Watch slightly different from others.

The Sydney-based label has spent an existence giving artists across the world free reign to explore new corners in their respective sound worlds. With seven years’ worth of releases, carefully curated by Kehdoori and Gowing, each release (168 in total), consists of a single recording spanning anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.

The artwork for each of these releases is another special feature. Each, like a thread woven through the patchwork to form a visual authenticity that is a clear reference point to the label.

It’s this beyond the borders approach that has made Longform Editions one of the most forward-thinking, thought-provoking labels within the esoteric sound world. Starting with their first release, Richard Youngs’ Daybreak, the label has since been home to some of most vital experimental and mind-bending acts on the planet, including but not limited to Daniel Bachman, Chuck Johnson, Jolanda Moletta & Karen Vogt and Water Damage.

Having navigated through the COVID pandemic in the middle of its existence, considering how many releases have featured under the Longform Editions stable, in many ways it’s a miracle that they have existed this long. While rising living costs continue to be a key talking point across the world, Australian cities – in particular Sydney and Brisbane – have been among the highest in the world for well over a decade now. Coupled with arts funding at both federal and state government levels seemingly always at the bottom of that ever elusive ‘promise’ list, it’s a perfect storm that many DIY labels are faced with.

Whether these particular battles were mitigating factors for the label is perhaps another story. The more important one for now is the body of work Longform Editions has been responsible for. As their mission statement goes, it really is “A gallery for listening”.

Below, while we shine a light on label’s final four recordings which were released into the wilderness earlier this week, for those unfamiliar with the label, a trove of wonderful soundscapes awaits your listening pleasure.

Weirdo Rippers #16

Fennesz: The Last Days of May

If ever there was an artist for a victory lap, then Christian Fennesz fits the bill. Following his excellent 2024 LP, Mosaic (which also featured in our Top 50 Albums of 2024), the Austrian guitarist returns with The Last Days of May.

Produced in collaboration with the Art Gallery of New South Wales for Volume 2024, The Last Days of May just about encapsulates the Fennesz experience. Initially inspired by the legendary Rowland S Howard, Fennesz’s guitar lines are like a free-form pencil sketch, melding together environmental-inspired soundscapes with storm cloud drones.

The longest piece he’s written, while The Last Days of May continues the summery vibes that featured on Mosaic, however here the heat is a bit more relenting. Humid and sun damaged, once again Fennesz scorches the earth as only he knows how.

Tujiko Noriko: Echoes on the Hem

Osaka-born Paris-based Japanese musician, actor and director, Tujiko Noriko, is the purveyor of futuristic experimentalism, and on Echoes on the Hem, this 22-minute piece is abstract to the core.

Fragments of pop music in slow-motion, Echoes on the Hem is like a series of half-forgotten dreams etched to tape. In its dream-state, throughout these 22 minutes, the mind slowly becomes untethered from everyday realities. In the words of Noriko, “It felt like this piece had already been going on before and would keep going after.”

In many ways, Longform Editions has acted as a conduit for discovery. Opening a portal for their listeners to explore many of the artists under the label and their respective works – many of which extend for years. This is the case for Tujiko Noriko, and Echoes of the Hem is the latest of many.

Natalia Beylis: Coy-Koi

A constant reveller in the longform, whether it be in a solo capacity or in collaboration, this decade has seen Natalia Beylis explore sound art to great effect.

Based in rural Ireland, Beylis’ latest release, Coy-Koi, was inspired by a neighbour’s Koi fish movements in both a tank and the nearby river where it was set free. These soundscapes, possessing a similar aquascape aesthetic that dominates much of the works under the equally excellent label, Bathysphere Records, but with more of Beylis’ immediate rural landscapes coming into play, there’s a deep locality here.

Speaking of the release, Beylis explained her curiosity about how humans engage with everyday soundscapes, and coupled with a subtle, meditative vibe similar to Matthew Himes’ latest release under his Hiram project, Coy-Koi is a lovely edition into that same world.

Whait: Close Quarters

Whait is the collaboration between experimental guitarist, Wendy Eisenberg, and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, more eaze (Mari Maurice). Close Quarters follows Eisenberg’s 2024 game-changer, Viewfinder, while more eaze has recently been perforating eardrums as part of the battering ram that is Water Damage before readying 2025 releases with Thrill Jockey and 15 love.

With a stringed arsenal of banjo, guitar, violin and pedal steel, Close Quarters makes for atmospheric, folk-laden minimalism. From the world of Ben Chasny to Bill Orcutt and Tashi Dorji, Eisenberg and more eaze create something between the lines, resulting in something a little more soothing on the ears.

As the last release for Longform Editions, Eisenberg parts with one of the most profound statements in the realm of experimentalism. “In longer pieces the form is not so explicit about itself, most of the time; you have to trust that the form will keep forming.”

Other Label Watch features:

Katuktu Collective
Bathysphere Records
Ramble Records
Trouble In Mind Records
Strange Mono
Cruel Nature Records
Waxing Crescent Records

For the full Longform Editions catalogue, visit the label’s website.