Eastern Cape's first ever record label launched

Zipo-Zenkosi Ncokazi

THE Eastern Cape launched its first ever record label yesterday to encourage aspiring musicians to keep their talent in the province.

The official announcement of the label was made by Arts and Culture MEC Xoliswa Tom at the Eastern Cape Audio and Visual Centre (ECAVC), also known as the Miriam Makeba centre for performing arts, in East London.

Tom said the label, which has a staff complement of four so far, would be known as ECAVC Records "home of artists".

ECAVC was established through a partnership between the department and the University of Fort Hare to spearhead arts development in the province. Sy Ntuli, the director of the label, said: "The main objective of the centre is to develop Eastern Cape artists in the fields of music and film."

Last year it was reported that the department had set aside R1.5-million for the establishment of the label. Tom said this would ensure music recorded in the state-of-the-art studios was released, distributed, marketed and promoted nationally and internationally. She said to achieve this, a licensing deal with Sheer Sound had been signed.

"The label will play a major role in creating jobs for our artists. Since we started recording, we have created jobs for local producers, session musicians, sound engineers and artists' managers."

Four artists and four groups have been signed.