Haha.. well.. magical words "biggest names in the avantgarde art world"...
I think it has been notorious fact that many times big part of art music exists mostly due funding and life-support level institutional attention, while a lot of underground music has vivid and actual culture where it happens. Right? I remember talking with guy in Fylkingen (Stockholm) looking at meter after meter storage of their new art music CD's and asking anyone buying these? He said "NO". And explained releases are being made since there is funding for it and if they wouldn't put out that stuff, there wouldn't be funding.
One has to remember that Freak Animal is "always there", and to actually sell 1000, one needs to press that many copies and keep mailing them out anytime someone asks. Not everything sells a lot, but some stuff does.
Most label bosses simply sigh in relief when first pressing is gone, and would never repress old title unless there is clear demand for repress. Many of Grunt albums have sold around 1000, even Nicole 12 albums sold 1000 each. I recall some Clinic Of Torture has 3 or more pressings. Even something like
Strom.ec debut album, I guess LP+CD together over 800, and album been sold out for more than decade. All of these could be repressed and without doubt, pressings would sell out eventually. Slow or fast, doesn't matter if you are not in hurry.
Item doesn't have to be "trendy" and it doesn't even have to get that much of attention, but helps when it is good and somewhat unique. If you got 100 other releases quite alike it, one can estimate it won't be selling much. I don't necessarily aim for maximum sales, fine with doing small editions too, but sometimes it is sort of "statement" that particular album moves 4 digits amount in times when even media pets and music biz clowns cry about being unable even release physical album.
Recent playlist, kind of related to one mentioned name! I got into discussion about Klaus Schulze and ended up listening lots of his albums. Out of town right now, so have to listen online. "Mirage", "Timewind", "Body Love",.. few bits and pieces on top of that. This happened after posting ehm... cooking video at social media including my own "Schulze inspired" soundtrack on it. One person also SI forum user commented about need for pornography with this type of soundtrack and discussion continued to "Body Love" as well as that I am pretty sure Gold Medal publisher (Old Dutch xxx video label for all things vile) used Schulze soundtracks in many of their film loop VHS reissues. One most memorable for me is of course EROTIC PERVERSION : Whip & Pierce film loop, that was so influential in my youth, that I later started magazine with same name, plus Clinic Of Torture made album referring to this loop - and just blatantly ripped entire soundtrack as one long song on the album. I got one time compliments for great atmospheric kraut/synth song on the album being best stuff on it and was like... yep.. But that's not really COT, just stolen song for conceptual reasons.
Those EP films were made by same guy who directed Bondage Classics films for HOM Inc. In interview man explained that he got order to make film loop series for European market, that would be way harder than could be sold in USA. Bondage and (simulated) violence, with full nudity, penetration and such, plots of kidnapping and basement abuse.. He could not even develop the films in US, so he filmed the video and sent raw undeveloped footage to Holland and never heard about them again. Only decades later he found that everything has been edited & published already back then and became quite infamous classics. They are not like the real-deal UG s/m stuff, but like HOM films, little story, some sort of plot, very neat grainy film, woman in distress, with expressive face and body movements. Almost like art-film rather than the documentation of s/m session. Many of the old Gold Medal versions of HOM inc loops had also experimental-krautrock type of soundtrack used. Not in all, though. I found that better than later American versions where they started to use death metal and such. I recall there was even some death industrial.. maybe BDN? Probably without permission, but actual pressed DVD comps of old rough silent loops with "updated" soundtracks.
