Starkland is an independent record label

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in Boulder, Colorado

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

 that specializes in alternative classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

. It was founded in 1991

1991 in music

See also:* 1991 in music Record labels established in 1991-Summary:The year 1991 is the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. Nirvana's Nevermind, led by the surprise hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", becomes the most popular U.S. album of the year...

 by Thomas Steenland.

Starkland’s first two CDs offered all the principal 1960s music from the “organized sound” pioneer Tod Dockstader

Tod Dockstader

Tod Dockstader is an American composer of electronic music, and particularly musique concrète. He studied painting and film while at the University of Minnesota, before moving to Hollywood in 1955, to become an apprentice film editor...

. These releases led to major acclaim for the composer and increased recognition for his music, which stimulated Dockstader’s return to composing and further releases of his music in recent years.

Most of Starkland’s recordings are devoted to the music of single composers, including Charles Amirkhanian

Charles Amirkhanian

Charles Amirkhanian is an American composer. He is a percussionist, sound poet, and radio producer of Armenian extraction. He is mostly known for his electroacoustic and text-sound music...

, Phillip Bimstein

Phillip Bimstein

Phillip Bimstein is an American alternative classical music composer and politician.-History:After majoring in music theory and composition at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, in the 1980s Bimstein led the new wave band Phil 'n' the Blanks, whose three albums and six videos were featured on...

, Jay Cloidt

Jay Cloidt

Jay Cloidt is an American composer, performer, sound designer, and audio engineer.-History:Cloidt received his BA in piano performance from the University of Nebraska and his MFA in Electronic Music and the Recording Media from Mills College Center for Contemporary Music in 1981, studying with...

, Paul Dresher

Paul Dresher

Paul Joseph Dresher is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and Bernard Rands.He also...

, Robert Een, Roger Kleier, Guy Klucevsek

Guy Klucevsek

Guy Klucevsek is an American-born accordionist and composer.Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in jazz and free improvisation....

, and Pamela Z

Pamela Z

Pamela Z is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.-Music career:...

.

Starkland’s two most ambitious projects have focused on surround sound

Surround sound

Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...

. For the label's Immersion DVD (released in 2000), Steenland commissioned 13 leading-edge composers to create pieces for high-resolution surround sound. The recording is playable at standard resolution on standard DVD players, and at high resolution on DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio

DVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos....

 players. Sources such as Pro Sound News and Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

have recognized Immersion as the first such recording in history. The commissioned composers, all of whom created their first high-resolution surround-sound pieces, are: Paul Dolden

Paul Dolden

Paul Dolden is an electroacoustic music composer born January 23, 1956 in Ottawa, Canada, and currently living in Montréal, Canada.Paul Dolden is an electroacoustic music composer born January 23, 1956 in Ottawa, Canada, and currently living in Montréal, Canada.Paul Dolden is an electroacoustic...

, Paul Dresher

Paul Dresher

Paul Joseph Dresher is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and Bernard Rands.He also...

, Ellen Fullman

Ellen Fullman

Ellen Fullman is a composer, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area...

, Phil Kline

Phil Kline

Phil Kline is an American composer. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature, he formed the New York No Wave band The Del-Byzanteens in the early 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and painter James Nares, collaborated with photographer Nan Goldin on the...

, Lukas Ligeti

Lukas Ligeti

Lukas Ligeti is a composer and percussionist. His work incorporates elements of jazz, contemporary classical, and various world musics.- Background :...

, Ingram Marshall

Ingram Marshall

Ingram Marshall is an American composer and a former student of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Morton Subotnick. Son of Bernice Douglas and Harry Reinhard Marshall, Sr. He was a talented soprano in the Boy's Choir at the Mt. Vernon Community Church, and was influenced early by noted music instructor,...

, Merzbow

Merzbow

is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...

, Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk

Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...

, Bruce Odland, Pauline Oliveros

Pauline Oliveros

Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....

, Maggi Payne

Maggi Payne

Maggi Payne is a composer, flutist, video artist, recording engineer/editor, and historical remastering engineer who creates electroacoustic, instrumental, and vocal works, and works involving visuals ....

, Carl Stone

Carl Stone

Carl Stone is an American composer, primarily working in the field of live electronic music. His works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the Near East.Stone studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton...

, and Pamela Z

Pamela Z

Pamela Z is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.-Music career:...

. Immersion has been praised in such major publications as Stereophile

Stereophile

Stereophile is a monthly magazine that focuses on high end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news, such as online audio streaming. It was founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt....

 and Sound & Vision, and at times has been the #1 bestselling DVD-Audio at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/574074/.

Starkland's other surround sound project involved commissioning a major, 65-minute surround sound composition from Phil Kline

Phil Kline

Phil Kline is an American composer. After graduating from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature, he formed the New York No Wave band The Del-Byzanteens in the early 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and painter James Nares, collaborated with photographer Nan Goldin on the...

. Released in 2009, Around the World in a Daze is a ten-movement work, presented in four audio formats along with 80 slides from the composer, found on the first disc of the double-DVD release. The second disc offers an extended 34-minute interview with Kline about this music (conducted by John Schaefer) and a music-video MEDITATION (run as fast as you can) with music and video by Kline.

Musicians on Starkland’s recordings include: The Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

, Ethel (string quartet)

Ethel (string quartet)

ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...

, Turtle Island String Quartet, Todd Reynolds, Paul Dresher Ensemble, Modern Mandolin Quartet, and Basso Bongo. Starkland also distributes CDs from other labels, including Paul Dresher’s Slow Fire, Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator.-Life:As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are informed by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein...

’s Ravenshead and Erling Wold

Erling Wold

Erling Wold is a San Francisco based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, especially A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil and his early experiments as a microtonalist...

’s A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil.

Publications praising Starkland’s releases include The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Stereophile, Wired, Stereo Review, Village Voice, Fanfare, and England's The Wire. Starkland’s recordings have been featured on such major radio programs as National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition.”