RATSKIN RECORDS MISSION STATEMENT

ratskin records - mission statement, 2022

 

 

Ratskin Records is a collective record label and archival imprint championing decolonial experimental music centered in the Bay Area. We focus on LGBTQ+, Black, Native, POC, and disabled artists who create work that is sonically and politically pushing boundaries toward liberation. We work together to create an alternative to an industry that has historically exploited and devalued artist labor and requires artists to exhaust themselves to fulfill their life’s passion. We see the work of decolonial artists as world-building activism that centers empathy and basic human needs. The crux of our work is centered in engaging the healing power of sound for communities in struggle.  

 

Our goal is to pay and provide material resources for artists whose work lies on the margins of mainstream consumption. Our work is multifaceted in that we take multiple avenues to address issues around accountability, accessibility, racism, transphobia, and other systems of oppression. Ratskin is curation centered in its practice and provides resources for artists to create self-determined spaces.

RATSKIN RECORDS : WHO WE ARE

SHARMI BASU : operations, admin, CURATION, care



Sharmi Basu (they/them/she/her) is an Oakland born and based South Asian woman of color creating experimental music as a means of decolonizing musical language. They attempt to catalyze a political, yet ethereal aesthetic by combining their anti-colonial and anti-imperialist politics with a commitment to spirituality within the arts. Beast Nest, Sharmi's primary performing project, utilizes multi-dimensional soundscapes to transmute trauma and suffering into moments of deep presence.

They are an MFA graduate from the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Electronic Music and Recording Media and have worked with Fred Frith, Roscoe Mitchell, John Bischoff, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Brown, Maggi Payne, and more. Their workshops on “Decolonizing Sound” have been featured at the International Society for Improvised Music, the Empowering Women of Color Conference, and have reached international audiences. They perform almost 100 times a year and has toured through the US and Canada as well as internationally in Europe. She specializes in new media controllers, improvisation in electronic music, and intersectionality within music and social justice. They also founded and hosted an all people-of-color improvisation and performance group called the MARA Performance Collective in Oakland, CA and was a founder of the Universe is Lit: A Bay Area Black and Brown Punk Fest.

They are on the board of directors for Safer DIY Spaces and Soundwave SF. She is also a certified mediator and much of her multimedia work centers on familial healing, transformative justice, accountability, and the investigation of interpersonal harm. 
 

WIZARD APPRENTICE: CONTENT STRATEGY, CURATION, CREATIVE DIRECTION, EMPATHY

Tierany Carter/Wizard Apprentice (pronouns: she and/or they) is a music producer, live performer, and video artist. As a highly sensitive introvert, her multimedia projects are strategies for managing an overwhelming world. Her music is a combination of lyrical precision, minimalistic composition, and technically-amateurish charm. She creates media that takes advantage of user-friendly technology, skipping time consuming learning curves to focus on inventing highly relatable language for subtle personal experiences. She’s not a gear-head, rather, a digital folk artist who vividly and simplistically expresses her inner world using resourcefulness and honesty. Her video work incorporates green screen graphics, digital puppetry, and compositing to produce imagery that’s cerebral, campy, and hypnotic. She combines song and video to create immersive performances that explore intimate emotional themes.

MICHAEL DADDONA : CURATON, BROKEN GLASS, PACKING TAPE, CO FOUNDER

Michael Daddona (he/him) is a curator, producer, visual and sound artist, as well as a founder of Ratskin Records collective. He is a Public Programs Manager at Pro Arts Gallery & Commons, as well as a teaching artist working with 3rd-6th grade students on artistic concepts, frameworks, and skill development. Michael performs in False/None, Malocculsion, Cyborg Eye, and Coral Remains, and is a member of the art group: ANTI ART COLLECTIVE.

ratskin records is aided and abedded by many others past present and future including but not limited to

ANDRE STAFFORD (CO FOUNDER)

ANA AYON

BABYSKULLCRUSHER

TYRONE DAVIES

JSUN MCCARTY

SHUZEA MONIQE

VICTOR VANKMEN

RYAN KING

AKIKO SAMPSON

BLADE 

and many many others

 

 

support ratskin records

Support Ratskin Records with a small or large donation today.

Enter the amount you wish to donate

$

The minimum tip is $0.00

In cart Not available Out of stock

click the paypal, venmo, or cashapp icon to make a donation