Smalltown Supersound, the Norwegian label run by Oslo-based Joakim Haugland, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and will mark the occasion with The Movement Of The Free Spirit, a new mix album of the Smalltown Supersound catalog by Prins Thomas, out November 30. 

The Movement Of The Free Spirit is a three-disc mix comprised of 80 tracks and three hours and 40 minutes of music featuring artists including Sonic Youth, DJ Harvey, Studio, Yoshimi (Boredoms), Kim Gordon, Oneohtrix Point Never, Todd Rundgren, Stereolab, High Llamas, Neneh Cherry, Ricardo Villalobos, Four Tet, Bjørn Torske, Dungen, The Orb, Kelly Lee Owens, Lindstrøm, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Biosphere, Peter Brötzmann, and many more (full track list is below). The mix will be released as a CD box set, digitally (mixed and unmixed) and disc one will be available as a double LP.

 The title, The Movement Of The Free Spirit, is borrowed from a Bruce Russell (of The Dead C) 10” that Smalltown Supersound released in 2000. Russell had borrowed it from the book by legendary Situationist activist and author Raoul Vaneigem.

The Movement Of The Free Spirit liner notes 

Trying To Be Like SST. Since 1993. 

“I started Smalltown Supersound in 1993 while in high school in Flekkefjord, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants in the south of Norway. There was obviously no supersound in our small town. It was just an ironic name I came up with to release some tapes with lo-fi/noise/bedroom recordings by my brother and his friends. The name was inspired by my hometown and the catalog number STS was a homage to SST, a label I deeply admired at the time (and still do). Little did I know that I would have to live with that name for the rest of my life.

“I started the label before I knew what a record label was. So I gradually learned it by doing. And it was part of me growing up. It might sound like a cliché, but in many ways, the label is the soundtrack of my life. Thomas has now made it into a mixtape.

“We all hate to see photos of ourselves when we were younger, the bad haircuts and the strange clothes. It is the same thing when you run a label. You constantly look back on things you regret. This mix makes me see the label from the outside in a way I don’t think I have before. And to my surprise, the haircuts and the clothes weren’t as bad and strange as I remembered.

“I have to admit that I when I listened to it the first time, I was moved. First of all, because of the deep and true love Thomas has put into this mix. Second, because some of these tracks I haven’t heard in 20-25 years. It really felt like revisiting the past. And in a very good way.

“Thomas has followed the label since the early beginnings. Back in the days, I was always thinking: “He’s a house/disco DJ—why does he want my noise records?” I realize now I wasn’t smart enough to understand his scope. I didn’t understand it until his mix album Cosmic Galactic Prism, which is one of my favorite mix albums of all time. So for me, it was very obvious that Thomas should make the Smalltown Supersound mix. I just couldn’t imagine that he would go this beautifully far with it.

“Since day one I have tried to have a red thread run through the releases and the label’s DNA. Most of the time I am probably the only one who sees it. And many times I don’t even see it myself. Now Thomas has found the spiritual unity.

“While I have always struggled to describe what the label is, only now— with this mix—I can finally say: this is what it is.” — Joakim Haugland Oslo, August 2018

Tracklisting

Part 1 

01. Echo Troopers “Fred Astaire Session” (Intro) 

Deathprod “Orgone Donor”

Yoshimi & Mats Gustafsson “Soundless Cries With Their Arms In The Air” 

Yuichiro Fujimoto “Little Sun”

02. Bendik Giske “Hole”

Supersilent “13.1”

Biosphere “Aura In The Kitchen”

Supersilent “13.1”

Elektro Nova/Electro Nova “T03”

Bruce Russell “The Movement Of The Free Spirit” (The 1st Movement) 

03. Carmen Villain “Safe” 

Alexander Rishaug “Time And Place” 

04. Monopot “Scena Napoletana”

05. Continental Fruit “Dear Heart”

06. Biosphere “Wyll And Purpose” 

Lindstrøm “Call Me Anytime” (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix) 

Deathprod “Orgone Donor”

Arp “V2 Slight Return”

Monopot “Dronningen”

07. Monopot “Dronningen” 

Jaga Jazzist “Plym”

Todd Rundgren “Anything” (Vocal Outtake) 

08. Todd Rundgren “Anything” (Vocal Outtake) 

09. Todd Rundgren, Emil Nikolaisen & Hans-Peter Lindstrøm “Wrap Your Arms Around Me” (Stereolab vs High Llamas Remix) 

10. 120 Days “Sleepless Nights” 

11. Carmen Villain “The Moon Will Always Be There”

Continental Fruit “The Moon Was My Only Witness”

Mats Gustafsson & Sonic Youth “Part 3” (Contrabass Sax) 

12. Erik Wøllo “Ody At Sea”

Alexander Rishaug “Satellites”

Prins Thomas “B” (Sun Araw Saddle Soap Remix) 

13. Prins Thomas “B” (Sun Araw Saddle Soap Remix) 

Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas “Arthur’s Return” (Long Unreleased) 

Serena Maneesh “Introspection” 

Serena Maneesh “Leipziger Love Life” (Ancient Mix) 

Mats Gustafsson & Sonic Youth “Part 4” (Voice) 

14. Wildest Dreams “Off The Lip”

Part 2 

01. Lindstrøm & Christabelle “Lovesick” (Four Tet Remix) 

02. Dungen “Franks Kaktus” 

03. Idjut Boys “One For Kenny” (Bjørn Torske remix) 

Idjut Boys “One For Kenny” (Idjut Version) 

04. Dungen “Alberto Balsam”

05. Prins Thomas “H” (The Orb Remix) 

Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas “Arthur”

Kjetil D. Brandsdal “Komboloi”

Lindstrøm “No Release” (Owen Pallett Remix) 

06. Lindstrøm “No Release” (Owen Pallett Remix) 

Diskjokke “Cold Out” 

Yoshinori Hayashi “Bit Of Garden”

07. Yoshinori Hayashi “Bit Of Garden” 

Diskjokke “Cold Out”

Meanderthals “Andromeda” (Basic Idjut Version) 

Arp “The Past” (Version By Studio) 

Meanderthals “Andromeda”

08. Prins Thomas “C” (I:Cube Remix) 

09. Lindstrøm “Another Station” 

10. Bjørn Torske “Se Torsken” (Mungolian Jetset Remix) 

Dan Lissvik “Airwalk”

Dan Lissvik “G” 

11. Neneh Cherry “Slow Release”

Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas “K16”

12. Bjørn Torske “Totem Expose” 

13. Kim Hiorthøy “Door Opens Both Ways”

14. Toy “Don’t Be”

15. Lindstrøm “Raakost” (Unknown Mortal Orchestra Version) 

Part 3 

01. Lindstrøm “The Contemporary Fix” (Bjørn Torske Remix) 

02. Matt Karmil “Morals”

Biosphere “With Their Paddles In A Puddle”

Andre Bratten “Minor Misconception” 

Carmen Villain “Planetarium” (Gigi Masin Remix) 

03. Andre Bratten “Minor Misconception” 

Carmen Villain “Planetarium” (Gigi Masin Remix) 

Brian Reitzell “Ozu Choral”

04. Carmen Villain “Planetarium” (Gigi Masin Remix) 

Mungolian Jetset “Mush in the Bush”

Bjørn Torske “Langt Fra Afrika”

05. Kelly Lee Owens “CBM”

Carmen Villain “Obedience” (Bjørn Torske Remix) 

Elektro Nova/Electro Nova “Phase One”

Elektro Nova/Electro Nova “Phase Two Part 3”

Brian Reitzell “Honeycomb”

06. Prins Thomas “C” (Ricardo Villalobos King Crab Remix) 

Bendik Giske “Adjust”

Elektro Nova/Electro Nova “T03” 

Prins Thomas “C” (Ricardo Villalobos Knödel Prince Dub) 

Mungolian Jetset “Shelton’s On A Bender” 

07. Neneh Cherry “Everything Is Everything” (Villalobos & Loderbauer: Vilod High Blood Pressure Mix) 

08. Bjørn Torske “Furu”

09. Andre Bratten “Pax Americana” 

10. Lars Horntveth “Kaleidoscopic”

11. Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet “II” (Performed by Joe McPhee & Ken Vandermark) 

The Movement Of The Free Spirit mix by Prins Thomas is out November 30.