Chaikin Records Bio
Chaikin Records is the independent record company of Brian Chase (drummer for thrice Grammy-nominated rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as NYC’s experimental music community). The label began in 2018 from the urging of John Zorn and has since maintained a steady mission to serve and represent NYC’s avant-garde music community. Release CKR 001 is Chase’s Drums and Drones: Decade, a three album set and 144 page book chronicling the first ten years of his Drums and Drones project, a project focused on the harmonic resonance of drums and percussion; The Wire magazine described this release as “an indispensable statement on how drummers hear sound.” Since then, CkR’s catalog has come to be a platform for many prominent figures of sonic experimentalism including Zeena Parkins, Anthony Coleman, Susie Ibarra, Jessica Pavone, Nate Wooley and Victoria Keddie among many more. In 2020, Chase started the NYC LIMINAL SERIES, an ongoing series currently organized according to instrument; at the time of this writing, the NYCLS is up to its fourth volume. The label has also embraced non-traditional formats and expanded packages among its releases: CKR 003 is a series of 60 artworks by artist Keti Kartveli with a download code to music by Drums and Drones written on the back; CKR 014 is a deluxe box set by Zeena Parkins which includes graphic scores and more in addition to an LP; CKR 019 is a home sound installation by composer Michael J. Schumacher. The name “Chaikin” is Chase’s original last name before it was changed in the 1950’s by his paternal grandfather, a Ukrainian-born Jewish immigrant who grew up in Brooklyn; he later became a musician who toured throughout North America as a bandleader and solo artist playing the concertina.