Greyfade

greyfade is an experimental record label and publisher based in New York.

The label specializes in process-based music, acoustic and electronic minimalism, and digitally-mediated forms of composition and improvisation. It was founded in 2019 by Joseph Branciforte.

Releases
According to greyfade's website, the label "takes as its basic premise the idea of a music release as a complete conceptual universe, integrating sound, compositional architecture, visual design, and text into a single object worthy of sustained engagement."

Its inaugural release was LP1 by vocalist Theo Bleckmann and Joseph Branciforte. The label has released the work of acoustic composers such as Christopher Otto, electronic artists such as Greg Davis, and acoustic adaptations of electronic works by artists such as Taylor Deupree.

greyfade's releases are almost all produced and engineered by Branciforte, with "audio profiles that are rich, detailed, and, especially on his own releases, fascinatingly spatial."

FOLIO
In 2024, greyfade introduced a new physical music release format called FOLIO, a hardcover book with integrated album streaming and download.

The folio is a format proposed by Joseph Branciforte, the proprietor of greyfade, that aspires to combine the best of the physical and digital worlds. It consists of a high resolution digital download and a hardcover book, which contains texts analysing the music and chronilicing its realization. In a way it recalls record albums of a century ago, which were collections of 78 rpm discs contained within books adapted from those designed to hold photographs. Both derive their names from the bound volume, not the music itself, which is conveyed using the most commercially viable sound transportation format of their respective times. ... The opportunity to fill a book permits the music’s makers to explain their processes at much greater length than the average Blue Note LP." The Wire

Streaming
greyfade's catalog is not available on commercial streaming services, with the label stating that "it is our belief that these services do not currently offer an optimal environment for engaged listening, nor an equitable or sustainable economic model for artists."

Artists
• Christopher Otto

• Greg Davis

• JACK Quartet

• Joseph Branciforte

• Kenneth Kirschner

• Phillip Golub

• Taylor Deupree

• Theo Bleckmann