Booma Collective

Booma Collective is a record label founded in Montreal, Canada in 2009. It emerged from a collective of event organisers and is currently operated by Lorenzo Belli, Hugo Boccara, Oren Ratowsky, Paul Sara and Valentin Stip. In college, the Booma collective was founded with the intention to stage shows with experimental electronic music in intimate locations. When the members of the longstanding and deep friendship collective in 2012 began to slowly spread across the globe the series of events grew into a label. “We wanted to take a new step which would bring us simultaneously closer together if we were to set off for different cities,” concludes the collective. “We all had demos lying around and were after the desire to publish a new type of music which reflected our friendship, emotions and the vibe from our shows organised in Montreal.” The common passion and the feeling for music is the decisive indicator of what appears on Booma Collective. Between the abstract modular experiments by Oren Ratowsky, the wistful dub techno interpretations by Solpara or the shimmering ambient by Arabie ’79, a red thread so to speak runs through which the collective with the start of the “Furnace Series” in the year 2015 emphasised even stronger. Named after the laundry room in our student apartment, in which some of the Montreal Booma shows took place, the compilation series explores the common denominator of the friendships’ association. “I think every Booma release is the product of a very specific moment,” even though it is not specified who is speaking there. “In respect of echoing memories, all of our tracks and releases are very good.” The strong, internal solidarity is almost surprising as the Booma posse had settled themselves down in Berlin and France in the meantime. How does one decide for example whether a release is mere digital, on tape or appears on vinyl? “We talk incessantly. Aesthetic decisions are always reached in the group. That is fairly simple because we trust each other, we have worked together for a long time and our tastes are similar to one another.” The unpleasant sides of the label’s life are on the other hand delegated to outsiders. This protects the friendship which finally takes centre stage at the Boom Collective’s international affair.