FMP/Free Music Production

FMP originated from the New Artists Guild, which was an informal cooperative of musicians in the mid-1960s.[1] In 1968, The New Artists Guild sponsored the Total Music Meeting, a festival that presented different forms of music from those performed at the Berliner Jazztage.[1] The name FMP was adopted the following year and the group "began operating as a cooperative venture under the administrative guidance of a former double bass player, Jost Gebers [...] At some point the operation of FMP transferred from the cooperative to Gebers alone."[1]

The label's first release was Manfred Schoof's European Echoes.[2] Specialising in free jazz from the beginning,[1] FMP soon released recordings by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Detlef Schönenberg.[2]

The collective ended in 1976 and Gebers, who was running the company part-time, decided to found a sub-label, SAJ, with drummer Sven-Ake Johansson.[2] This concentrated on experimental and avant-garde music, releasing recordings by musicians such as Hugh Davies, Heiner Goebbels-Alfred Harth and Yoshi Wada.[2] In the late 1980s, SAJ was discontinued and CD releases were numbered from CD 1.[1]

A lot of FMP's releases have been recordings of concert performances, including those that it organised.[2] In 1988 FMP recorded Cecil Taylor in Berlin '88, an 11-CD, award-winning collection.[1] According to Grove, "Vinyl stock was deleted in 1992".[1]

In 2000 FMP-Publishing became the new owner of FMP, but a legal battle ensued between Gebers and the new group.[2] In 2007, he returned to being in charge of the label.[2] Some albums have been reissued by other labels, which include Intakt Records and Atavistic Records.[2] In its first 40 years, FMP released "over 200 LPs and around 140 CDs".[2]

• List of record labels