Animist Records: Outernational Music & Culture

Animist Records was founded in 2016 by Thai musician Angkanang Pimwankum & Dutch composer Olivier Schreuder. Initially they started a record label to release records of their collective Apichat Pakwan, but over the years the label developed as a platform for more projects and other artists. Animist Records means to promote and revitalize animistic cultures, especially indigenous minorities and tribes in oppressed situations. Historic migration of these tribes means these cultures can often not be assigned to a specific country, as they have spread out over different countries. Sometimes voluntarily, but more often as refugees due to war and discrimination. Therefore we see these cultures as outernational – an anthropologic term that was first used in the context of the Rastafari who were deported from Ethiopia a.o. to Jamaica. Because of systematic discrimination and frustration of traditional ways of life of cultures like the Rastafari by the majority cultures of countries they reside, the animists sometimes feel to be more out and between nations than part of the nations.

The label

Our own passion and fascination for these cultures and their music is the inspiration for the label until this day. Most artists we work with have roots in these cultures. They are always well paid for their performances, and we reinvest profits of sales back into these cultures. Our goal is to create circular production lines, where Animist Records invests in animistic cultures so they can continue making art, of which the artefacts are sold again through the Animist Records platform.

Our activities include composing, performing, recording, producing and releasing music on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital formats. But we also recently started designing and producing our own line of textile based on the Animist records visual identity, part of which is produced by rural animistic tribal communities in Thailand.
Furthermore we organize events and full-scale tours for the artists we work with, DJ & VJ, make a monthly radioshow called Outernational Connections on Echobox Radio, produce Thai Food & Music events together with Num Num Catering, make fieldrecordings of animistic cultures, and run a music production studio where we work on our own releases.

The store

In our webshop we sell our own releases, but also new and used vinyl, CD's and cassette tapes from related labels and artists. Next to that you find our own sustainable clothing under 'merchandise', as well as unique hilltribe textile straight from the source (under 'textile').

Animist Records is also official Tonar & Grado dealer, selling a selection of turntable accessoires and headphones.

By shopping on our website you support all our cultural activities, so if you haven’t yet: please have a look around, get inspired and join us on our outernational journey to fantastic inspiring music & culture from around the globe!