Aardvark Records is about adventures in music.
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We must point out that Aardvark is a distribution, publishing, PR and synchronisation company. We are not producers. If an offer of signing is made it is the artist’s’ responsibility at their own expense to have their material recorded, mastered and delivered to Aardvark.
Chairman Andrew Reeve (ex-EMI) founded Aardvark Records in 2001. His initial vision was to champion bands based in Cornwall.
In those days, to say that Cornwall wasn’t on the music industry’s radar would be kind. While the UK was indifferent, his belief and ceaseless efforts began to bear fruit in Europe…
Undeterred by the range of reactions within the industry, ranging from polite indifference to outright sneering, Aardvark persevered.
The upshot being that this new business model worked. The public not only got it. They loved it.
Aardvark Records has been an early adopter of social media and social networking. Aardvark was one of the first record labels to use podcasting and one of the first labels to support internet radio. Other firsts include: providing music videos to YouTube, Daily Motion, iAm: TV, ROO TV and a host of other online music video entertainment websites; providing full tracks on MySpace, ReverbNation, Sonico, Orkut, and Last.fm and now of course Youtube; setting up a blog to share our thoughts about music industry developments and news; and using widgets for people to share our music and our videos with their mates.
Aardvark’s business model laid the groundwork for taking our releases to a global audience and in time Aardvark racked up a series of firsts.
With excellent relationships with press and media outside of the UK, it made sense for us to concentrate on these markets.
Fortunately for us, North America, Australia and Latin America would always play a key part in our business model.
While we’ll always champion the UK independent UK music industry, our presence and reputation are firmly established outside the UK’s shores.
Aardvark is a Fair Trade record label and music publisher. This goes beyond ensuring our artists retain copyright and artistic control and receive a far higher than industry average royalty split. That also means we do our best to ensure that expenses are handled responsibly and are kept to a reasonable level.
Andy was joined in 2003 by Alex di Savoia and was soon promoted to CEO and handed a directorship. Alex made a huge contribution to the development of the company successfully establishing it as a world player. He left for pastures new in 2013.
David Koonen joined in 2014 to manage the dance label and has given it a boost ever since with great releases by both established as well as newly signed artists.
Aardvark is a very focused company with an eclectic approach to the music they sign. Currently it is Dance and in the sub-label “Lightfall Records” – New Age and Meditation music.
Innovation is what keeps Aardvark Records going, it keeps things fresh and exciting for us. Aardvark Records is about adventures in music.
The criteria we have in place is:
- Original sounding material but with a commercial edge. (think how the Beatles / Stones / Queen changed everything).
- Originally penned tracks; no covers.
- Excellent production values.
Andy Reeve has been in and out of the music bizz for most of his life.
After five years in the Royal Air Force he moved to London in 1967 to audition for RADA but was soon distracted by accidently finding himself DJaying around the London clubs. (He did run an early example of a mobile disco in the RAF).
“Some of his other tasks were: Sales – Music Advertising (Music Week); Major Record Company – Sales (Pye Records); Production Manager – Media (Precision Tapes); Recording Studio Management + Basic Sound Engineering (Sutton Sound); Artist Management; and Publishing.
In the ‘90s he established an artist management and music production studio in Cornwall (Vroe Music Ltd). Since 2001- He has been CEO of Aardvark Records and Publishing.”
He has a very eclectic taste in music which is reflected in Aardvarks expanding catalogue. He was recently quoted as saying – “I have a genuine hatred of repetitive boring pop songs lacking in melody. But I have noted some early signs of some of the explosive creativity that occurred in the ‘60s; ever the optimist “.
In the early 90’s, David Koonen started producing music with trackers on the Atari ST. Moving on, he started mixing hardcore and breakbeat and spending a lot of time in the record shops. The buzz in record shops told what was hot, was not and broadened his experience of electronic music. His ‘musical ear’ developed. He unpicked countless tracks, listening to the productions and the arrangements – allowing him to discover what was possible in mixing. It also made him think about the technical things he wanted to do in producing music.
2007 saw David studying with producer Lez-Gelm with the “Cubase and mixing” course. Following that David and Lez-Gelm created a few trance tracks together including “Unknown Destination” and “On The Moon”.
In the years that followed he started working together with artists Hannu Rekilä from Finland and Martin Bianco from Amsterdam. This resulted in the EP “Tomorrow”, released at Aardvark Records.
In 2012 he got signed at Temple of Boom Recordings where David and Lez-Gelm released Minimal and Tech House tracks like “Elektrik Morse”, “Tribes” and “Didgerie Vibes” (which ended up in many mixes and was released on the album “100 Minimal & Techno Songs” by Bavaria Records).
In 2014, David joined Andrew Reeve as A&R manager of sublabel Aardvark Dance.
In 2015 David teamed up with Julian Marsh and they formed the group “Koomar Beat”.
Many songs were released including some with vocals by Kurt Maloo (of the band Double).
In 2017 David started as a tech house dj for Chris Colby’s radiostation “MixRadio100” which he has been ever since.