12k is an independent label founded in New York in 1997 by the musician and designer Taylor Deupree, who wrote twelve principles for it after frustrating experiences with record companies as an artist. Conceived as a kind of anti-label, it did no press or promotion in its first year and distributed its releases through its own website.
Its early catalogue belonged to the microsound and glitch moment, epitomised by Shuttle358’s Optimal.LP of 1999, with its skips and blips. Over the following decade the label turned towards tape, hiss, guitar and acoustic instruments, a shift heard in Christopher Willits’s Folding, and the Tea, Deupree’s seven-inch Weather & Worn of 2009 and Marcus Fischer’s Monocoastal of 2010. The roster has included Stephan Mathieu, Simon Scott and Gareth Dickson, and principles such as simplicity and timelessness made 12k a reference point for quiet, minimal ambient and drone.