Beacon Sound

~ Upholding the power of culture over the culture of power since 2011 ~

Beacon Sound is a Portland-based record label that primarily releases new music of an unpredictable nature, emphasizing physicality and deep collaboration while stirring in the occasional reissue. Heterodox by disposition, punk in spirit, allergic to borders, the label remains resolutely project-based and artist-centered in its process, creating resilient space for on-the-ground culture while forever grappling with the recuperative tentacles of capitalism.

Started by two friends in the summer of 2011 as a shoebox-sized, shoestring-funded record shop at the storied intersection of 15th and Prescott in NE Portland, Beacon Sound began releasing music on its own imprint in 2013. An album-length cassette of techno by Apartment Fox (founder Andrew Neerman’s brother Alex; the two are also members of recently-reformed post-punk group The Intima) was quickly followed by additional cassette releases courtesy of Buenos Aires electro-pop group Isla De Los Estados and Berlin-based Lucrecia Dalt. The fledgling label’s fourth release, and its first on vinyl, was a commissioned collaboration between Gabriel Saloman (one-half of seminal noise duo Yellow Swans) and Peter Broderick.

In 2014 the shop moved to a larger space on N Mississippi Ave, where shows and other events could be comfortably hosted and design firm FISK would go on to open their first gallery. The label continued releasing music by artists such as Benoit Pioulard, Amulets, and Balmorhea co-founder Michael A. Muller, while supporting rising Portlanders like Dolphin Midwives, Crystal Quartez, and Derek Hunter Wilson.

In 2016, Terry Riley’s Descending Moonshine Dervishes and Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets were reissued on LP, followed by Hans Otte’s masterpiece The Book Of Sounds and, licensed from 4AD, Euphoria, the classic 1993 album by UK duo Insides. Descending Moonshine Dervishes was repressed in 2024. (>> Pitchfork review)

Collaborations with other labels have always been a priority and Beacon Sound has found like-minded partners in Jacktone, First Terrace, Fonal, and Accidental, among others. As of this writing, six joint releases have been undertaken with the Beirut-based Ruptured, centered exclusively around contemporary Lebanese artists like Anthony Sahyoun, Kinematik, and Fadi Tabbal (both solo and with Julia Sabra as Snakeskin).

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March 2020 the shop had just moved to a new location and shut immediately, never to re-open, allowing the label to break free and embark on one of its most productive periods yet. Albums by Methods Body, Cruel Diagonals, Sontag Shogun x Lau Nau, Rishin Singh, and Dominic Voz have garnered praise from Bandcamp Daily, Pitchfork, The Quietus, Foxy Digitalis, A Closer Listen, Dazed, Headphone Commute, The Wire Magazine, and many others.

In July 2023 the label set down its anchor again as part of the Megalith Collective with Lost Avenue Books and Super-Electric Records. We’re located at 2730-32 NE MLK Blvd (pictured below) and are open 12-6 Tuesday-Sunday. In 2024 we welcomed Apa Kabar into our space as its own distinct yet overlapping entity.