"I guess the proposition has always been, 'The gentle side of electronic music down under,'" Sean La'Brooy explains. We're sitting on a picnic rug in Heide Park, the expansive garden surrounds of a modern art museum north-east of Melbourne's CBD, enjoying a spread of deli goods with his musical partner Alex Albrecht. The Yarra River runs just next to us and the breeze rustles through the surrounding trees on an unusually pleasant winter's day. "It's tongue-in-cheek to a degree, but that's sort of the idea we've always been pushing for," he continues. "We often think of the idea of electronic music for lounge rooms as opposed to clubs."

The inspiration for the 16 releases on Analogue Attic, the label they've run together since 2014, comes from all kinds of places. An aquarium, a suburban street, a weekend in a national park, the sand and the ocean—they've all found their way into a catalogue that captures environments and experiences that are uniquely Australian. Since La'Brooy and Albrecht started Analogue Attic the vision has been clear. Together as Albrecht La'Brooy they have been dedicated to making and fostering music directly influenced by their surroundings, marrying the worlds of ambient and deep house.

The pair first met back in 2013 when Albrecht was an eager DJ and bedroom producer and La'Brooy was studying at Monash University under the respected jazz pianist Steve Sedergreen. Albrecht, keen to embark on a jazz piano education himself, called up Sedergreen who referred him to La'Brooy for tutoring. Before long the lessons were flowing both ways—Albrecht was honing his craft on the keys, while La'Brooy was learning about electronic music for the first time. "I'd started to develop an interest in the world of electronic music," La'Brooy says. "When I found out Albrecht was [interested], I was like, 'Fuck, we should be teaching each other.' We'd hang out for like four hours on a weekend and just talk about piano and electronic music. We did that for a few months and just very naturally started playing together without a clear point that it moved from being lessons to just jamming. And we've been jamming ever since."

Albrecht La'Brooy

The duo's different backgrounds and approaches proved harmonious as one fell deeper into the other's musical world. They began experimenting with field recordings as a way to inspire their sessions, something that would become a foundational pillar of their music and of Analogue Attic. "Originally we were toying with the idea of manipulating field recordings in order to bring a sense of place, and then using that as the inspiration and improvising around that. The whole idea was that if we could go out to a place like this [Heide Park], or to an airport or to a rainforest or a train station, and record the sounds of that place and put them on while we were playing, it would help us make music that was reflective of that place. And then we found that by leaving the field recordings in there, it actually sounded great and filled a space."

Before the label was established, the duo started hosting nights at The Wild in the Melbourne suburb Fitzroy, pairing live performance and art together in a collaborative environment. Artists presented things like photography, sculpture and video that would then influence the musicians' direction on the night. The first event held at the small upstairs room that became known as the Analogue Attic served as the duo's first public performance as Albrecht La'Brooy. They played alongside Rings Around Saturn and Tuc, two local names who became key members of the label.

After a couple of events they decided they wanted to put out a record, but didn't know where to start. "Where do you even start in trying to get a record released?" says La'Brooy. "Who was there in Australia that would do it? People overseas, why would they listen to us?" By the time they completed their first release they still weren't closer to finding the answers, so the search for a label never began—"we just decided to put it out ourselves."

Each step brought them closer towards the creation of Analogue Attic Records. "I remember looking at Juno and thinking, 'Why would they stock our record if it's not associated with a label? Every single record has a catalogue number.' I was like, 'Fuck, can we just make up our own catalogue number? Oh no, that means we need to make a label. Shit, then what do we need to do to make a label?' And it kept escalating and we realised we just had to do it all."

What began as a haphazard process quickly became a thoroughly considered one. The pair decided that if they were going to start a label they would need it to be grounded in a set of core values. As it stands in 2019, the label's core values document, which is sent out to each new Analogue Attic artist, includes a desire to incorporate a "story, concept or deeper meaning behind each release," such as a location or landscape; the use of field recordings where possible "to impart a sense of place"; never releasing a record just for the sake of it; and not releasing music that is "a response to anything else happening in the musical sphere." While the document clearly states that the artist's vision comes first and that the points outlined should not dictate the direction of the record, the underlying spirit of these values needs to be embedded in each release.

It was around this time that Albrecht and La'Brooy forged a relationship with Corey Kikos and Maryos Syawish, otherwise known as Sleep D. La'Brooy was working in the same building as Kikos and Syawish's studio. The pair had already released some records on their Butter Sessions label, and they shared their knowledge and contacts, as well as sending Albrecht La'Brooy's music out to some key artists. "They were instrumental in the beginnings of the label and its development," says Albrecht. It's emblematic of Melbourne's tight-knit electronic community, a scene rich with crossovers between different artists and crews, with much of the city's underground operating as a large extended family. Collaboration is common, and the relationship between Analogue Attic and Butter Sessions became a fruitful one.

Albrecht La'Brooy's first release, Good Morning Passengers, served as a blueprint for what was to come. The record documents a journey on the Belgrave railway line, from Richmond in central Melbourne through the affluent suburb of Canterbury and Chinese enclave Box Hill, eventually ending at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges, an area with thick rainforest. Each of its four tracks represents a stop along the way, moving seamlessly between immersive ambient and lush deep house. "Platform 9" captures the mechanical hum, bleep and buzz of the city. "Mailing Road" sees an alfresco cafe conversation underpinned by floating jazz keys and double bass. "Louis'" is an irresistible house groove led by alternately bold and delicate piano, tight percussion and rich bass, while closing track "The Sherbrooke" introduces the trickling sounds of the forest, sampling the distinctive Eastern Whipbird that would be familiar to anyone who's hiked through the dense greenery scattered along Australia's east coast. The result is a seamless and uniquely Melbourne trip.

A defining moment for the label came in the summer of 2015-16 with Sleep D's Live At The Fairfield Amphitheatre. The old brick amphitheatre on the bank of the Yarra was the stage for the Butter Sessions duo's first public foray into lighter, loftier and more beatless music and resulted in a 40-minute album of live performance that remains a favourite for many Analogue Attic fans. "Something that's important in music is great performances, things that haven't been tampered with that were moments in time, that existed for an audience and were raw," La'Brooy says. "The other thing that doesn't happen much is events like that, for sitting down and listening. Electronic music stems from parties, it's tribal, that percussive meditation. We love the idea of making electronic more like a listening experience. It was also a beginning of putting on events in interesting locations, getting out of clubs, wanting to own different spaces. So that was a really significant time for us."

A broader influence on the pair has always been the album format. "Sean and I have always agreed that albums are the most important thing for us, in terms of music, and it's the thing that we always aspire to," Albrecht explains. "Right from the first release. It was only four tracks, but we still thought of it in exactly the same way you'd think of an album. I see them all as albums." This deep appreciation for the LP stems from a lifelong love of the format, particularly those extra special records that only get better with age. "Probably the biggest for me," La'Brooy continues, "and it's kind of a cliché—but Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue. I remember when I was probably ten years old and that was played regularly in my house. From that age right through to now that hasn't lost any relevance at all, it still sounds so incredible. You listen to all the other music that Miles has put out, or that any of those individual artists playing on that album have put out, and none of it sounds like that album or that point in time. All of those tracks sound like they belong to Kind Of Blue. What they played was a cohesive body of work, and that's what we're constantly thinking about. "

"Another clichéd album I was listening to again recently is Burial's Untrue," adds Albrecht. "That was a real turning point for me when I heard that. I listened to it from start to finish and thought, 'This sounds just like London in the winter in the '90s.' He was able to encapsulate those sounds and feelings and moods." That sense of tracks belonging to a greater whole is at the core of the Analogue Attic ethos and drives the pair to create their own audio experiences that transport the listener to a particular place or situation.

"Using field recordings was a way to communicate Melbourne and Australia," Albrecht says. "We feel that some of the biggest and most influential producers and records from around the world have always been tied to a place, whether it's the house or techno musicians from Detroit, or the scene in Berlin, or UK garage in London. We asked ourselves, 'How do we fit into that and what does it take to bring a voice to the sound of Melbourne, or the sounds of these places we're visiting?' We didn't want to sound like a place that we weren't from, despite all of our influences probably being from other places around the world."

"When it comes to music there's this big focus on what happens everywhere else around the world," La'Brooy says. "Being so isolated, I think Australians really over-idolise things that come from New York, Berlin, London. Going to record stores in Melbourne and seeing sections like 'Chicago house,' 'Berlin techno,' and before you listen to any of those records you know what you're going to get because those places have managed to create a sound that is specific to them."

Analogue Attic seeks out an Australian sound and identity, and it's something that its founders are passionate about. "That constant curiosity with whatever happens so far away from us, in a way it drags us down a little bit because it stops us from trying to just be ourselves," says La'Brooy. "There was almost a frustration in us to really find that Australian sound and push it. After I travel, when I come home the first things I think of are the scientifically bluer skies and gum trees and red cliff faces and the harsh limestone cliffs, the beautiful beaches and intense sunshine and rainforest and ferns and all the stuff that makes Australia what it is. Australia is the most beautiful country. That's what I love the most—the landscape."

That natural beauty is also captured in the label's distinctive cover art, which plays a strong supporting role in the sense of place conveyed by each record. Grainy film photography adorns the front of each sleeve, almost all of it snapped by Albrecht and La'Brooy. It draws a strong link to the musical content, and in the case of Albrecht La'Brooy releases it's generally taken at the time of recording in an effort to capture a moment. For other artists it requires lengthy conversations, ensuring the imagery is true to the music. "The best way to tie something to a place is through actual imagery of that place," says Albrecht. "When you're listening to the music and you have this image of the record in mind, I think it totally changes the listening experience, and we're very conscious of that."

"It's also really important to have a good-looking record that people will pick up in record stores and put into the listening booth," says La'Brooy.

The label has had success on that front, thanks in large part to the strength of the local music community and its thriving record store culture. "We're in an incredibly fortunate position in Melbourne," Albrecht says. "If we, say, press 300 or 500 copies for example, we'd be pretty sure we can move at least 100 or 150 in Melbourne alone, which is just unheard of. We're so lucky for that, and we wouldn't be where we are now otherwise." When considering a release, though, the potential for financial success always comes a distant second to the music and the concept.

As of 2019 the Analogue Attic catalogue has grown to 16 records from a pool of nine acts from the west to east coast of Australia. Whether it's "mad scientist" Citizen Maze, who makes music with a gaming laptop, a motorised Beringher mixer and Fruity Loops; jazz instrumentalist Matthew Hayes, whose blissful Indigo album served as the catalogue's first fully ambient record; the elusive Udmo, whose two entries cover a trip to the aquarium and a broken beat rumination on industry and space; or emerging Sydney talents Tom & Liam, who are incorporating cello, guitar and live percussion into their next release, the label has assembled a catalogue that sounds unified and distinctly Australian.

"We enjoy the process of fostering an artist, moving towards something bigger with their vision, rather than any kind of instant gratification," says La'Brooy. "The plan, simply, is to keep pushing that music. There's less of an emphasis on making it playable, very naturally we're moving in a direction that's going to be a little more ambient. We're not trying to force anything, we're never in a hurry to put out as many records as we can or feeling pressured into doing one thing or another. We're just trying to be true to those values."

Label of the month mix

Albrecht La'Brooy showcase the breezier side of their label, scattering a number of unreleased and live recordings along the way.

Tracklist /
Albrecht La'Brooy - Mailing Road (AAR001)
Albrecht La'Brooy - Return to the Sherbrooke (remastered and unreleased from one of our earliest recording sessions circa 2014)
TUC - Live at Montsalvat
Albrecht La'Brooy & Sleep D - Live and Improvised at Native Home, House of Plants (A snippet from our 3 hour improvised show with Sleep D)
Jack Burton - Live from Rippon Lea Estate (Recorded earlier this year for the launch of AAR015)
Matthew Hayes - Penny Royal (AAR009)
Albrecht La'Brooy - Sydney Radio
Thomas Gray & Liam Ebbs - Untitled (Unreleased)
Rings Around Saturn - Gypsy Village (AAR002)
udmo - Isolation Theory (AAR005)
Alex Albrecht pres. Melquíades - Federation Bells (AAR016)
Rings Around Saturn - Portion 22 (Albrecht La'Brooy Bathtime Arrangement) (AAR002)