V.A. - 20 Years - Two Decades of Polychrome Sounds, 2003-2023

The composer Laurent Rochelle founded the label Les Disques Linoleum in 2003, a birth that materialized with a first album, Conversations à voix basse, a solo by Rochelle who dialogues with himself on bass clarinet, soprano sax, piano, melodica, musical saw... From the start, the guiding line of the Linoleum Records is clear: the music is unclassifiable and beautiful, the sound meticulous, the object semi-artisanal with an unusual design.

From then on, the label opened up to others, to musicians who had no place to go, as long as they had something original to say... and talent. If it brews mainly musicians and groups from Occitania, it also welcomes musicians from elsewhere. Thus: Anja Kowalki, Fanny Roz, Tanuki, Marc Sarrazy, Denis Frajerman, Dieter Arnold, Frédéric Schadoroff, Jean-Denis Rivaleau, Benoît Cazamayou, Catherine Le Forestier, John Greaves, Kirilola, Mike Ladd, the GLE... and the flagship groups of the label: Okidoki, Sarrazy-Rochelle, Saxicola Rubi, Prima Kanta, the Lilliput Orkestra…

These composers and improvisers propose new music of today, that is to say music that has digested yesterday to shape itself here in a different way, at the crossroads of genres, geographies, temporalities: precious minimalism, dreamy avant-garde, noir-jazz, energetic post-folk, melancholic impressionism, chamber music but also bathroom music, choreographic music, real and imaginary film music…

What do these musicians have in common? They develop new and improbable music, strong personal universes but always turned towards the other, key of the emotion.

Over the years, the catalog has grown with plastic-free compact discs and then limited edition vinyls, whose design is inevitably entrusted to a visual artist, draughtsman or graphic designer. Today, nearly thirty albums have already been released.

In 2022, Les Disques Linoleum inaugurated the "Linoleum Analog Series" collection, which is dedicated to the vinyl edition of previously unreleased recordings of European jazzmen originally recorded on magnetic tape in the 1960s and 1970s. First volume released: Scream for Peace by Joachim Kühn Trio (1969).

Les Disques Linoleum: an island of musicality among the world's clashes.