Fireside Chat – Pete Swanson: Freedom To Spend Label Special

Pete Swanson is an American producer, DJ and record collector whose tastes are rooted in his youthful days within the punk, hardcore and noise scenes; those tastes have since grown outwards, from harsh electronic noise to techno, dub and jazz, among myriad others. Alongside Jed Bindeman, Swanson runs Freedom To Spend, a sister label of Rvng Ltd that launched in 2009 with the aim of exploring “under-recognized sonic statements” from past eras — they largely focus on ’70s and ’80s synthesizer music, refigured for a contemporary audience. The label has released several records by artists such as Marc Barreca, Pep Llopis, Richard Horowitz and, most recently, an Ursula K. Le Guin and Todd Barton collaborative album titled _Music and Poetry of the Kesh_.