Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (Constellation)
It’s been more than a decade since Godspeed You! Black Emperor has released an album. But now, with Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, the masters of celestial crescendo have returned to the fold as though they never missed a beat.
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– Location: Montréal, QC
– Year founded: 1997
– Employees: 6
– Genres served: Many, all hyphenated
– Current # of recording artists: 27
– Lifetime total of recording artists: 36
– Best-selling album: Yanqui UXO by Godspeed You! Black Emperor (by a long mile)
– Website: cstrecords.com
In the late 1990s, Montréal was a dismal scene for emerging artists, providing mostly pay-to-play venues that made it difficult for underground acts to perform. Recognizing the need for sustainable, artist-friendly music infrastructure, friends and music lovers Don Wilkie and Ian Ilavsky started Musique Fragile — a monthly concert series run out of an inner-city loft — and launched Constellation, issuing handmade records by local bands.
The label’s third release was Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s F#A#∞, which granted both the band and label an instant cult following. Constellation would quickly (but begrudgingly) become synonymous with the post-rock movement, and it has since been home to artists such as Vic Chesnutt, Do Make Say Think, and Thee Silver Mt. Zion. Here Ilavsky shares the label’s impetus and mission.