Label Love Affair: Palinoia

A self-described ‘record digging psychopath’, Detroit-born Eric Cloutier launched Palinoia in 2016 with the aim of pushing through new talent. Palinoia is Greek for “the obsessive repetition of an act until it is perfected or mastered”, stemming from Cloutier’s experience of receiving incredible tracks from unsigned artists with ‘mediocre mixdowns’ unsuitable for his high end sets.

A saturated scene with predictable record labels signing established artists and money making releases and remixes, Coultier founded Palinoia to move away from this ideal. ‘They’re not even attempting to engage the worldwide audiences in a new way with moves like that. There’s incredibly good music out there from complete unknowns, and most of the time it’s far superior to someone who’s just phoning it in because they get paid well to do an EP or an edit’, he explains.

Aside from this, there are labels today who focus on repressing rare records that famed selectors are playing across the globe. This approach Cloutier describes as ‘short-sighted’ and ‘cheap and lazy’, continuing to mask the aspect of digging and leaves the thriving pool of new budding producers behind.

Currently residing in Berlin, leaving his Detroit upbringing behind, Cloutier is fortunate enough to be a in a position where he can utilise his platform to help support up and coming artists. Palinoia launched with a three-track EP titled ‘Heuristic’ from the head honcho himself and has since released EP’s from Berlin mainstays Exercise One and Spanish artist ORBE. The next two releases are from Andu Simion, who Cloutier found through the Lisière Collectif and Gabriella Vergilov.

To stay away from uniformity, Palinoia will explore the expanding realms of electronic music and highlight Cloutier’s love for house music with PALINOIA003 and 004 showcasing very different soundscapes. Cloutier hopes to leave people wondering where the next release will take the label musically whilst using his digging ability to champion the scene’s next generation of artists.

We spoke to ORBE and Andu Simion about their Palinoia releases.