Em:t Records (Emit Records) was a British record label, based in Nottingham, which specialized in ambient electronic music. They were active from 1994 to 1998.

All of the 94-98 em:t releases were processed using the Roland Sound Space RSS 3D sound imaging system, giving the music an extra "spacious" quality.

em:t was born as a division of the t:me Recordings label in 1994. t:me released mostly vinyl records falling under the broad category of house music, and sought to create a new sublabel for more forward-thinking ambient material. Over the next four years, they released a series of eighteen albums and compilations, packaged as a collector's series. Though em:t never enjoyed widespread commercial success, their releases were highly regarded and influential in ambient circles, and the label attracted a cult following - encouraged, no doubt, by the collectible nature of the releases.

em:t releases had strict rules governing their design aesthetic. Individual album titles were always the sequential four-digit catalogue number of the disc; the album's cover was always a full-colour picture of a wild animal; all albums were released on CD only; all CDs were packaged in digipacks; all CDs themselves bore the same Chinese character in black on the non-playing face of the disc.

The label garnered praise from music journalists at the time. Coda magazine wrote that "The Em:t series will surely go down in history for being as important in the 90s as the albums of Brian Eno were in the 70s", and specialist music magazine The Wire noted that the em:t catalogue represented "The vanguard of post-dance technological music". Em:t produced promo postcards for the label on which these quotes, and others, were duly displayed. A Q&A in DJ Magazine in 1995 also stated the label's unofficial credo: "Never presume your audience is any less clever than you are".

The most highly praised albums of the series came from British composers Paul Frankland recording as Woob, and Mat Jarvis recording as Gas.

свернуть