Bureau B (sometimes quoted as Bureau-B) is an
independent record label,
music publisher and
booking agency from
Hamburg, Germany, founded in
2005 by Gunther Buskies (B for Buskies) as a sister label to
Tapete Records. The label releases varieties of electronic, free-spirited music, with the spectrum ranging from pop to avant-garde. The label has amassed an extensive catalogue of reissues and new productions, including classics from the genre of electronic music in the 1970s and early 1980s popularly classified as
Krautrock (Cluster, Roedelius, Moebius, Plank, Schnitzler), alongside new recordings by such formative artists as
Faust,
Kreidler,
Roedelius,
Tietchens,
Moebius.
To provide an overview of the various musical styles in which Bureau B specializes, the label launched a compilation entitled KOLLEKTION in 2014. Each release in this series is curated by a musician. So far, artists like
Tim Gane,
Lloyd Cole,
Holger Hiller,
Richard Fearless and
Thomas Fehlmann have participated. The latest release in this series is KOLLEKTION 05, released in July 2015.
All in all, there have been over 200 releases on Bureau B so far (as of November 2015). The label is internationally distributed, with the overseas sales being considerably higher than the sales in Germany.
All the records are printed on high-quality 180g vinyl.[17][18][19]
The re-issues contain new liner-notes, e.g. Schnitzler and Sky Records re-issues by
Asmus Tietchens,[20][21] Andreas Dorau re-issues by Carsten Friedrichs.[18][19][22] Some of the re-releases contain bonus.
The vinyls additionally include a download code for the album as a digital file or the whole album as a CD.[19]