Hypnos is an ambient label based out of Portland, Oregon, USA, founded in 1996 by Mike Griffin. Artists who have released albums on Hypnos include Vidna Obmana, Jeff Pearce, Jeff Greinke, A Produce, and Robert Rich.
In 2001 the Binary sub-label was created to feature more dynamic electronic music, closer to techno and Berlin School ambient.
Also in 2001, Hypnos began a partnership to distribute releases from The Foundry, an ambient and experimental label from Berkeley, California. All releases under this partnership have the Foundry/Hypnos logo on them, but maintain the Foundry catalog numbers. The first combined release was fou.11.
asphalteden, Jul 11, 2006
One of the leading light labels of today's new ambient scene. Though their output has slowed somewhat in the last few years, Hypnos has more than justified its reputation by releasing some of the finest pure ambient releases of the last decade.
The label's output (aside from certain early releases) could hardly be called difficult or purely experimental; most CDs fall along the ambient spectrum that could be appreciated by both fans of deeper Hearts of Space or Fax style music and more rigorous experimental ambient work. That said, much of Hypnos' catalog can be considered equivalent to the best among the lighter style of ambient music.
In my personal opinion, Hypnos was never more vital than in its 1998-2001 period. Recent releases of the last two years have largely tread along the safe lines of purely vaporous synthetic ambient atmospheres and have suffered from a lack of depth as a result. It remains to be seen if the label will stretch out again with more varied and dynamic releases, or if it will remain within its current comfort zone of innocuous tone-float ambient.
