Ghost Box is an independent, UK-based electronic music record label, launched in 2004 by graphic designer Julian House and producer Jim Jupp. Its roster includes artists such as Jupp's Belbury Poly, House's The Focus Group, and the Advisory Circle, as well as releases by Broadcast and John Foxx among others.

The label's distinctive aesthetic draws on outdated and esoteric British cultural sources from the postwar period, including early electronic and library music, public information films, educational resources, occult stories, and BBC science-fiction programs. Ghost Box consequently became associated with the 2000s music trend known as hauntology.

Background Ghost Box was established in London in 2004 by producer Jim Jupp and music industry graphic designer Julian House. The label was formally launched on January 10, 2005, and was originally created as an outlet for their own musical experiments, with the idea that each release's packaging would display a similar design sensibility and allude to a shared imaginary landscape; a very British parallel world of public information films and TV soundtracks, cosmic horror stories, vintage library music and antique synthesisers, folk song, educational programmes, English psychedelia, occult stories and folklore.

Jupp and House have described the label as existing in an imagined or misremembered past. Influenced by school textbooks and the rigid design grid of Penguin and Pelican paperback books, Ghost Box records and CDs were always intended to look and sound like artefacts from a parallel world, familiar, elegant, but somehow "wrong". It's a world outside of time where cultural references from a roughly 20-year period (1958-1978) are happening all at once.Interview: Belbury Poly, FACT magazine

Their work has been described as an attempt to evoke "a nostalgia for a future that never came to pass, with a vision of a strange, alternate Britain, constituted from the reorder refuse of the postwar period."

Roster Ghost Box's key artists are House's own The Focus Group and Jupp's Belbury Poly as well as The Advisory Circle, the recording name for the work of producer and longest serving Ghost Box collaborator Cate Brooks. Jupp and Brooks have collaborated together as The Belbury Circle. Ghost Box have also released albums by Pye Corner Audio, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Hintermass (formed by Brooks with former Broadcast and Seeland member Tim Felton), The Soundcarriers and Roj (also formerly of Broadcast), as well as the comeback album by Plone, who are acknowledged by the label as progenitors of the Ghost Box aesthetic. Ghost Box has recently began to expand their roster to showcase artists from other countries, such as ToiToiToi from Berlin, Germany and Beautify Junkyards from Lisbon, Portugal.

There have also been releases by guest artists sometimes in collaborating with members of the regular roster over an ongoing series of Ghost Box singles. First the Study Series (nos. 1-10) and more recently the ongoing Other Voices series. Guests have included include Broadcast, John Foxx, Paul Weller, Moon Wiring Club, Cavern of Anti-Matter, Sean O'Hagan, Steve Moore and The Listening Center.

Reception Music journalists Simon Reynolds and Mark Fisher borrowed Jacques Derrida's philosophical term hauntology to describe Ghost Box's uniquely surreal visual and musical output.Society of the spectral , The Wire no. 276, November 2006Interview with Jim Jupp 2017, Diabolique Magazine Boing Boing's Mark Pilkington noted Ghost Box founders "fused pop concrète, soundtrack and library music with sharp design and a swarm of esoteric pop-cultural references to create a parallel reality built upon memories of a very British past."

In reviewing Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, PopMatters called Ghost Box "[o]ne of the most rousing (oc)cult phenomena of the past decade" having "created a career conjuring past futurisms and collectively buried fears to create music that quite literally feels like it's in a different league, even another dimension, than other modern musicians."

Discography Albums

Musician Title Release Date Format Catalogue Number Belbury Poly Farmer's Angle 10 January 200528 October 2022 (re-issue) Mini CD-EPCD/7" EP (re-issue) GBX001 The Focus Group Sketches and Spells 10 January 20054 February 2011 (LP re-issue)11 November 2022 (2022 re-issue) CDLP (2011 re-issue)CD/LP (2022 re-issue) GBX002 Belbury Poly The Willows 10 January 20054 February 2011 (LP re-issue) CDLP (2011 re-issue) GBX003 Eric Zann Ouroborindra 4 April 2005 CD GBX004 The Focus Group Hey Let Loose Your Love 4 April 2005 CD GBX005 The Advisory Circle Mind How You Go 17 October 2005 Mini CD-EP GBX006 Belbury Poly The Owl's Map 10 September 200614 July 2017 (LP re-issue) CDLP (2017 re-issue) GBX007 The Focus Group We Are All Pan's People 27 March 2007 CD GBX008 Mount Vernon Arts Lab The Séance at Hobs Lane 31 May 200712 June 2015 (LP re-issue) CDLP (2015 re-issue) GBX009 The Advisory Circle Other Channels 10 March 200812 June 2015 (LP re-issue) CDLP (2015 re-issue) GBX010 Belbury Poly From an Ancient Star 30 January 2009 CD GBX011Roj The Transactional Dharma of Roj 28 September 2009 CD GBX012 The Advisory Circle Mind How You Go (Revised Edition) 5 March 2010 CD/LP GBX013 Belbury Poly Farmer's Angle (Revised Edition) 10 September 2010 CD/10" GBX014 The Advisory Circle As the Crow Flies 8 July 2011 CD/LP GBX015 Belbury Poly The Belbury Tales 24 February 2012 CD/LP GBX016 Pye Corner Audio Sleep Games 19 October 2012 CD/LP GBX017 The Focus Group The Elektrik Karousel 10 May 2013 CD/LP GBX018 John Foxx and The Belbury Circle Empty Avenues 6 September 2013 CD/10" GBX019 The Soundcarriers Entropicalia 20 May 2014 CD/LP GBX020 The Advisory Circle From Out Here 5 December 2014 CD/LP GBX021 Various artists In a Moment... Ghost Box 9 October 2015 CD/LP GBX022 Hintermass The Apple Tree 18 March 2016 CD/LP GBX023 The Belbury Poly New Ways Out 9 June 2016 CD/LP GBX024 Pye Corner Audio Stasis 26 August 2016 CD/LP GBX025 The Pattern Forms Peel Away the Ivy 6 November 2016 CD/LP GBX026 ToiToiToi Im Hag 16 June 2017 CD/LP GBX027 The Focus Group Stop-Motion Happening with The Focus Groop 1 October 2017 CD/LP GBX028 The Belbury Circle Outward Journeys 12 November 2017 CD/LP/Cassette GBX029 Beautify Junkyards The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards 9 March 2018 CD/LP GBX030 The Advisory Circle Ways of Seeing 10 June 2018 CD/LP GBX031 Pye Corner Audio Hollow Earth 15 February 2019 CD/LP GBX032 Justin Hopper & Sharron Kraus with The Belbury Poly Chanctonbury Rings 21 June 2019 CD/LP GBX033 Plone Puzzlewood 17 April 2020 CD/LP GBX034 Belbury Poly The Gone Away 28 August 2020 CD/LP GBX035 Beautify Junkyards Cosmorama 13 January 2021 CD/LP GBX036 Various Artists Intermission (Ghostbox Contemporary Connections) 12 August 2021 CD/LP GBX037 ToiToiToi Vaganten 19 August 2021 CD/LP GBX038 Pye Corner Audio Entangled Routes 26 November 2021 CD/LP GBX039 Pneumatic Tubes A Letter From TreeTops 25 February 2022 CD/LP GBX040 Large Plants The Carrier 22 April 2022 CD/LP GBX041 The Advisory Circle Full Circle 30 September 2022 CD/LP GBX042 Belbury Poly The Path 4 August 2023 CD/LP GBX043 Large Plants The Thorn 17 November 2023 CD/LP GBX044 Pye Corner Audio The Endless Echo 5 April 2024 CD/LP GBX045 Beautify Junkyards Nova 20 September 2024 CD/LP GBX046

Singles & EPs Musician Title Format Catalogue Number Belbury Poly and Moon Wiring Club Study Series 01: Youth and Recreation (2010) Single GBX701 The Advisory Circle with Hong Kong in the 60s Study Series 02: Cycles and Seasons (2010) Single GBX702 Belbury Poly and Mordant Music Study Series 03: Welcome to Godalming (2010) Single GBX703 Broadcast and The Focus Group Study Series 04: Familiar Shapes and Noises (2010) Single GBX704 Hintermass Study Series 05: The Open Song Book (2011) Single GBX705 Jonny Trunk Study Series 06: Animation and Interpretation (2011) Single GBX706 Pye Corner Audio with The Advisory Circle Study Series 07: Autumnal Activities (2011) Single GBX707 Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle Study Series 08: Inversions (2012) Single GBX708 Listening Center with Pye Corner Audio Study Series 09: Projections (2013) Single GBX709 Belbury Poly and Spacedog Study Series 10: Message and Method (2013) Single GBX710 Brooks and O'Hagan Other Voices 01: Calibair/ Mulcair (2014) Single GBX711 Listening Center Other Voices 02: Quotidian Forgotten/ Our Material (2014) Single GBX712 The Pattern Forms Other Voices 03: Fluchtwege/ The Sacrifice (2015) Single GBX713 Steve Moore Other Voices 04: The Moon Occults Saturn At Dawn/ Val Sans Retour (2015) Single GBX714 Pye Corner Audio with Belbury Poly Other Voices 05: Machines are Obsolete/ Pathways (2015) Single GBX715 Cavern of Anti-Matter Other Voices 06: Pulsing River Velvet Phase/ Phototones (2015) Single GBX716 ToiToiToi Other Voices 07: Odin's Jungle/ Golden Green (2015) Single GBX717 Beautify Junkyards Other Voices 08: Constant Flux/ Pirâmide (2016) Single GBX718 Belbury Poly & Moon Wiring Club Other Voices 09: The Music Room/ Moonling (2017) Single GBX719 Sharron Kraus with Belbury Poly Other Voices 10: Something Out of Nothing/Something Out of Nothing (Belbury Poly Mix) (2019) Single GBX720 Paul Weller In Another Room (2020) EP GBX721 Beautify Junkyards & Belbury Poly Painting Box/Ritual in Transfigured Time (2021) Single GBX722 Large Plants La Isla Bonita/Please Don't Be There for Me (2021) Single GBX723

Download only label sampler album Title Work Catalogue Number Various artists Ritual and Education (2008) GBXSAMP01 Various artists Intermission (2020) MSFGBXD008

References

External links Official Ghost Box Website