Kranky is an independent record label founded in Chicago in the spring of 1993 by Joel Leoschke and Bruce Adams, who met while working at the independent distributor Cargo. It was created to release one record, Labradford’s debut Prazision, and grew into one of the main American homes for slow, textural and drone-based music.
Its catalogue includes Stars of the Lid, Labradford, Roy Montgomery, Windy & Carl, Charalambides, Tim Hecker, Grouper and Christina Vantzou, and the label introduced Low, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Deerhunter to a wider audience; Hecker’s Virgins appeared on it in 2013. Adams later told the story of the label and its city in the book You’re with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music, published by the University of Texas Press, while Leoschke moved to Portland and continued to run the label from there.