This unfortunate news may be of interest to some of y'all who are on the look out for recordings that are often hard to find in the US and elsewhere. Bests, Herb
X-Sender: anomaly-1@zipcon.net X-Priority: 2 (High) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 23:28:40 -0700 To: Recipient List Suppressed:; From: Anomalous Records mail order <orders@anomalousrecords.com> Subject: ANOMALOUS IS CLOSING
At the end of August 2003, Anomalous Records will CLOSE.
No more mail order. No more wholesale.
No 'going-out-of-business' sale - if you want it, buy it now before we run out.
Please get any orders in before August 25th, as we will likely spend the last week of August packing everything up to put in storage.
Obviously, everything is limited to the stock on hand, once it is gone, it's gone.
Why are we closing? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Probably most importantly is that Anomalous Records is kept alive by me, Eric Lanzillotta, putting in a lot of unpaid overtime. Anomalous Records is the result of a lot of passion and drive. I have a lot of passion for the sounds we sell, and a lot of drive to do things the best I can. I pushed myself very hard because I believe very much in what I do with Anomalous Records. I am very proud of what I have accomplished, and it is a great part of my life. In fact, it has been most of my life for the last 12 and a half years. Therein lies the problem. In pushing myself forward to make this work, I have pushed myself too far. In fact, I probably past my limits several years ago. Recently I have begun to notice the negative side effects of pushing myself so hard for so long. Basically the stress of doing this has taken its toll. I have realized that I need to stop now while I can, and not just completely burn myself out. Aside from this, Anomalous is not all of my life. As a few of you will know, I have a son who will be turning 13 in a few months. If there is one thing that I regret about Anomalous, it is not having more time to spend with him.
For those have of you who have been around long enough, you will know that through a lot of periods of Anomalous' history, the business has been run entirely by me. I have had occasional helpers over the years who I could not have gotten by without (Danielle, Daniel, Damion, Sara, Jessica, Davey, Drew, Jeph, AJ, Rachael, Isaac, Jefferson, Matt, Monica, and another Daniel). Most important of these is Rachael Jackson, who has been helping me for over 4 years now and has become the public face of Anomalous Records for most people. To her especially, I am indebted for all the time and effort and without whom Anomalous might have collapsed a while ago. We did put forward the idea of Rachael continue to run Anomalous without me, but it became apparent that she could not handle running the business (let alone how the numbers were looking). Getting someone outside to take over what was so personal is also unappealing.
I owe many people thanks for help in making this dream work for so long. To make a list would be impossibly long, and I would fear leaving out someone important in taking on such a long task. But I would like to single out a few people that I have especially high gratitude for:
KENT RANDOLPH
NORIYASU NOGAI
ROBERT MARZANO
The support and faith these people have had in me over years has been instrumental.
Likewise, the creative force of JEPH JERMAN has been an important inspiration through the entire history of Anomalous Records.
Most of all, without TANITH LANZILLOTTA, I probably could have not kept going through it all. I thank him for all his patience for dad having to work late.
But as I allude to above, there are hundreds more people that helped make this what it was. Everyone that bought anything and all the wonderfully talented and underappreciated artists that have made up the catalog over the years. Anomalous has mainly been about a bringing together of people and sounds, and I hope I've helped you on this journey.
Last, PLEASE do help us sell off the remaining stock by buying. I would very much like to keep the label side of Anomalous Records alive, but that depends on selling off a lot of the stock we have on hand. I am going to make one last push to sell things over the next two weeks, then I must call it quits. We have a lot of wonderful things in the works such as releases by: AMM Mnemonists / Biota Andrew Deutsch Ellen Fullman RLW Robert Millis' recordings from SE Asia and more.... Please help me save at least this part of my dream, and thank again for all your support over the years!
This is actually a shortened version of everything going through my head lately. Maybe at some future point, I will put something more extended on the web site. Yes, the web site will stay up on the internet, but the catalog will disappear. Also, the PO Box will remain a valid address.
Eric Lanzillotta
-- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb@eskimo.com