Nublu Records

Nublu Records is an independent American record label founded in 2005 by Swedish-Turkish musician, composer, cultural activist, and entrepreneur Ilhan Ersahin. The label developed directly from the musical community surrounding Nublu, Ersahin's Lower East Side club in Manhattan, which opened in 2002. Rather than operating primarily as a conventional genre label, Nublu Records functions as an artistic platform for musicians connected by improvisation, late-night performance, international exchange, and a shared interest in combining jazz with electronic, dub, funk, rock, and regional musical traditions. The label's identity is inseparable from the neighborhood and venue that preceded it. Nublu club became a gathering place for musicians involved in experimental jazz, downtown improvisation, Brazilian music, Turkish music, nu-jazz, and electronic pop. Informal jams and recurring performances gradually produced a network of bands and collaborations. The label was established as a natural extension of that scene, allowing projects that had first developed in the club to document and circulate their work. Its roster has therefore included both formally organized bands and fluid collaborations led by Ersahin or by musicians associated with the venue. One of the earliest central projects was Wax Poetic, a jazz- and trip-hop-oriented collective that predated Nublu and had included singers such as Norah Jones and Bebel Gilberto at different stages. Under Nublu Records, Ersahin used Wax Poetic as an umbrella for releases associated with Copenhagen, Brazil, and Istanbul. Other core projects included Love Trio, I Led Three Lives, Istanbul Sessions, and Wonderland. These recordings connected New York improvisers with Turkish musicians, Brazilian artists, and international jazz collaborators. Improvisation is a major part of the label's artistic history. Composer and bandleader Lawrence “Butch” Morris used Nublu as an experimental base for his Conduction method, in which a conductor shapes spontaneous group performance through gestures, coded signs, and changes in texture, tempo, and dynamics. The Nublu Orchestra drew musicians from the club's wider community, including Ersahin, Eddie Henderson, Graham Haynes, Didi Gutman, Jesse Murphy, Sabina Sciubba, Mauro Refosco, Kenny Wollesen, and others. This environment reinforced the label's reputation as a home for collaborative and difficult-to-categorize music. Nublu's international scope is particularly visible in its Turkish and Brazilian connections. Istanbul Sessions began as a one-off Istanbul performance in 2009 and developed into a touring quartet whose music combines modal jazz, acoustic improvisation, and urban jazz-funk. Wonderland joined Ersahin with Turkish clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici and singers from Turkey, blending trip-hop and dub-influenced jazz with Turkish melodic traditions. Brazilian projects included Forro in the Dark, 3 Na Massa, and recordings by Otto. Their work brought Northeastern Brazilian rhythms, manguebeat, percussion, electronic production, and international collaborations into the label's catalog. The catalog also extends into electronic and alternative music. Kudu combined electronic pop, funk, dub, and a darker downtown sensibility; Danish musician Mikkel Hess released electronic pop and remix material; and Italian instrumental group Calibro 35 contributed cinematic, funk-oriented music influenced by spaghetti-western soundtracks. Nublu also issued compilations and remix projects, including Nublu Sound Compilations, Nublu Dance, and material associated with Turkish DJ Barış K. Nublu Records is best understood as a scene-based independent label rather than a mass-market recording corporation. Its business and cultural model centers on artist-led projects, physical and digital recordings, live performance networks, international collaborations, and the continuing exchange between club culture and recorded music. Public reference material does not establish a separate corporate parent, public listing, or a current executive structure beyond founder Ilhan Ersahin.

Nublu Records emerged from a Lower East Side performance culture created by Ilhan Ersahin. After founding the Nublu club in Manhattan in 2002, Ersahin became the focal point of a loose community of musicians who performed recurring sets, late-night improvisations, and cross-cultural collaborations there. The venue's sound drew on the neighborhood's history of beatnik jazz and downtown experimentation while incorporating Brazilian rhythms, Turkish musical ideas, dub, funk, electronic production, and club-oriented grooves. As projects associated with the club became more numerous, Ersahin established Nublu Records in 2005 to document and distribute the music. Wax Poetic was an important predecessor and early label project. The collective had developed before the label and had included prominent singers during its earlier history. For Nublu, Ersahin organized a sequence of Wax Poetic releases connected to Copenhagen, Brazil, and Istanbul, using the project to explore different musical communities and geographic influences. Love Trio also grew out of Ersahin's earlier collaborations at Sweet Basil Jazz Club and the later Nublu scene. Its recordings brought together musicians including Eddie Henderson, Marla Turner, Kenny Wollesen, Jesse Murphy, DJ Logic, and U-Roy, with the later material moving toward dub and Jamaican-influenced vocal performance. The club became an important laboratory for Lawrence “Butch” Morris, whose Conduction system used a conductor's gestures to organize controlled improvisation. Morris worked with the Nublu community for roughly a decade until his death in 2013. The resulting Nublu Orchestra drew on a broad network of label musicians and associates, including horn players, rhythm-section musicians, singers, electronic performers, and experimental instrumentalists. Ersahin's own trio I Led Three Lives represented another strand of the catalog, applying abrasive, psychedelic, and industrial textures to improvised jazz. Nublu's Turkish dimension became especially visible through Wonderland and Istanbul Sessions. Wonderland paired Ersahin's jazz, trip-hop, and dub vocabulary with the Turkish melodic sensibility of clarinetist Hüsnü Şenlendirici and several Turkish vocalists. Istanbul Sessions began as a performance assembled for an Istanbul art opening in 2009. The project later became a touring quartet with local Turkish players and developed a sound built from modal horn lines, acoustic improvisation, meditative passages, and urgent jazz-funk rhythms. A release featuring Erik Truffaz and the later album Night Rider documented different aspects of the project. Brazilian music formed a second major international branch. Forro in the Dark began with a one-off birthday performance at Nublu in 2002 and developed into a high-energy group centered on Northeastern Brazilian forró, percussion, winds, and New York avant-garde influences. Its Nublu EP Dia de Roda reflected the band's collective songwriting and party-oriented performance identity. São Paulo project 3 Na Massa brought together producer Rica Amabis and members of Nação Zumbi's rhythm section for electronic, ambient, and dub-influenced music. Brazilian singer and producer Otto also joined the catalog with Certa Manha Acordei de Sonhos Intranquilos, a record combining regional Brazilian references with international urban production and guest vocalists. The label's nu-jazz and electronic repertoire expanded through projects such as Our Theory, a collaboration involving Ersahin, Erik Truffaz, and musicians from the Nublu network. Brooklyn group Kudu added dark electronic pop with funk and dub elements. Danish artist Mikkel Hess contributed electronic pop and a later remix album, while Italian group Calibro 35 extended the catalog into cinematic instrumental funk influenced by 1960s film music. Nublu also issued label compilations, dance-oriented remix material, and Turkish-focused edits associated with DJ Barış K. Across its history, Nublu Records has remained closely tied to the Nublu club and to Ersahin's artistic network. Its catalog reflects a curatorial approach based on collaboration and cultural exchange rather than a single commercial genre. Available reference material identifies Ersahin as founder but does not document a separate parent company, public ownership, financial results, or a full current management team.

• 2013

  Nublu Orchestra connection continues after Butch Morris

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Lawrence “Butch” Morris, a central experimental presence at Nublu for about a decade, died in 2013; Nublu-associated musicians continued performing and collaborating across the label's network.

• 2012

  Hessismore remix album

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  A full-length remix edition of Mikkel Hess's Creation Keeps the Devil Away was issued through the Nublu-associated catalog.

• 2011

  Istanbul Sessions releases Night Rider

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Night Rider presented a harder and more urban interpretation of the group's modal, improvised jazz sound.

• 2009

  Istanbul Sessions begins

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Ersahin assembled Istanbul Sessions for an Istanbul art opening; the one-off collaboration subsequently developed into a touring quartet.

• 2008

  3 Na Massa releases The Brotherhood of Seduction

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The Brazilian project released a concept album blending ambient electronics, dub, and Brazilian rhythm with multiple guest vocalists.

• 2007

  Wax Poetic expands its international trilogy

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Wax Poetic released Brazil and Istanbul, reflecting Ersahin's musical connections with those regions.

• 2006

  Wax Poetic: Copenhagen

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Wax Poetic began its Nublu-associated geographic trilogy with Copenhagen.

• 2005

  Nublu Records is founded

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Ersahin established the label as a recording and distribution extension of the Nublu club's growing network of bands and collaborators.

• 2005

  Our Theory is released

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  The nu-jazz project involving Ersahin and Erik Truffaz issued Our Theory, combining ambient, funky, and free-jazz-oriented ideas.

• 2002

  Nublu club opens

  [1]Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org

  Ilhan Ersahin founded the Nublu club on Manhattan's Lower East Side, creating the venue and community from which the later record label developed.

An independent, internationally oriented label for adventurous music situated between jazz, improvisation, electronic music, dub, funk, Brazilian traditions, Turkish music, and downtown New York club culture.

• Jazz, trip-hop, and collaborative album project

  Wax Poetic

  Wax Poetic was a jazz- and trip-hop-oriented collective associated with Ilhan Ersahin before the creation of Nublu Records. Its Nublu-era releases used the project as a framework for exploring musical connections with Copenhagen, Brazil, and Istanbul. The group is also notable for its history of working with singers including Norah Jones and Bebel Gilberto at different points in its development.

• Improvised jazz and dub · 2003

  Love Trio

  Love Trio grew from Ersahin's pre-Nublu collaborations at Sweet Basil Jazz Club and became one of the label's early core projects. Its first Nublu release brought together Ersahin, Eddie Henderson, Marla Turner, Kenny Wollesen, Jesse Murphy, and DJ Logic. In Dub expanded the concept with Jamaican DJ and toaster U-Roy, alongside vocalists Marla Turner and Sabina Sciubba.

• Experimental improvised jazz · 2008

  I Led Three Lives

  I Led Three Lives was an Ersahin-led trio with drummer Jochen Rueckert and bassist Juini Booth. Its album Peace Now used hard-edged improvisation with psychedelic, industrial, and metal-adjacent textures, illustrating Nublu's interest in jazz that crosses into darker and less conventional sonic territory.

• Turkish jazz and improvised music · 2009

  Istanbul Sessions

  Istanbul Sessions began as a one-off project for an Istanbul art event and developed into a touring quartet featuring Ersahin with Turkish musicians Alp Ersonmez, Turgut Alp Bekoglu, and Izzet Kizil. Its recordings combine modal saxophone, acoustic improvisation, meditative passages, and forceful jazz-funk rhythms. Releases include a collaboration featuring Erik Truffaz and the album Night Rider.

• Turkish trip-hop and jazz · 2002

  Wonderland

  Wonderland is an Ersahin project centered on Turkish melodic and rhythmic ideas, including the distinctive clarinet playing of Hüsnü Şenlendirici. Its sound combines trip-hop, dub, jazz, and older Turkish harmonic traditions, with contributions from Turkish vocalists. The project represents one of the label's clearest bridges between New York club experimentation and Turkish musical culture.

• Brazilian forró and global dance music · 2002

  Forro in the Dark

  Forro in the Dark is a New York-based group formed by expatriate Brazilian musicians after a performance at Nublu. The band combines Northeastern Brazilian forró rhythms with avant-garde downtown music, percussion, guitar, flute, and baritone saxophone. Its Nublu EP Dia de Roda documents the group's communal songwriting and energetic, party-centered performance style.

• Brazilian electronic and dub-influenced music · 2008

  3 Na Massa

  Founded in São Paulo by producer Rica Amabis and Nação Zumbi-associated musicians Pupillo and Dengue, 3 Na Massa created atmospheric electronic music with dub production and Brazilian rhythmic elements. The Brotherhood of Seduction is structured around stories of 13 women and features a range of Brazilian female vocalists, including Céu, Nina Miranda, Thalma de Freitas, Karine Carvalho, and Alice Braga.

• Brazilian singer-songwriter recording

  Otto

  Brazilian singer, composer, and producer Otto released Certa Manha Acordei de Sonhos Intranquilos through Nublu Records. The album draws on Northeastern Brazilian traditions and the manguebeat movement while incorporating international urban grooves, ska-like passages, and guest appearances by Céu and Julieta Venegas. Ersahin co-wrote the song Six Minutos.

• Electronic pop, funk, and dub · 2006

  Kudu

  Brooklyn trio Kudu combined Sylvia Gordon's vocals with Deantoni Parks's drumming and Nick Kasper's synthesizers. The group's Nublu release Death of the Party expressed a darker electronic-pop aesthetic, with funk and dub underneath an eerie atmosphere influenced by the experimental and no-wave traditions associated with downtown New York.

• Electronic pop and remix music · 2011

  Hessismore

  Mikkel Hess's Hessismore project contributed relaxed and plaintive electronic pop to the Nublu orbit. Creation Keeps the Devil Away received attention for its title track, and a subsequent full-length remix version reworked the material for a more dance-oriented context.

• Instrumental cinematic funk · 2012

  Calibro 35

  Italian instrumental group Calibro 35 brought a cinematic, funk-oriented sound influenced by 1960s spaghetti-western scores. Its Nublu album Any Resemblance to Real Persons or Actual Facts is Purely Coincidental also incorporates global colors, including sitar and Afro-funk references, extending the label's international and soundtrack-inspired range.

• Compilation and remix releases

  Nublu compilations and dance releases

  Nublu Records has issued compilation and remix material that presents the wider label community rather than a single artist. The catalog includes Nublu Sound Compilations 1 and 2, Nublu Dance, and edited or remixed material associated with Turkish DJ Barış K, including Istanbul 70 – Volume 1.

1. 1Nublu Recordsen.wikipedia.org