Aadhi Raat Records·Kathmandu, Nepal·UTC+5:45
After midnight, Kathmandu.
A record label with one rule. Everything we release was recorded between 00:00 and first light in Kathmandu, Nepal. Nothing else gets out.
One rule
The night is a different room. The traffic on the ring road thins out, the dogs give up, and the valley at fourteen hundred metres goes quiet enough that you can hear the room tone. We think music made in that room sounds different. So it is the only music we put out.
-
i
Tape rolls after 00:00.
The take begins after midnight, Nepal Standard Time. Not your midnight. Ours.
-
ii
It stops before first light.
Civil dawn over the valley closes the window. Tonight that is — NPT. The window is never the same length twice.
-
iii
The files are the proof.
We cut from the original session files. Their timestamps are the only credentials we check. No daylight overdubs, no afternoon remasters.
The window, tonight
- Opens
- 00:00 NPT
- Closes at first light
- --:-- NPT
- Length
- --
- Opens in
- --:--:--
Midnight here is — where you are. First light is calculated for 27.7172° N, 85.3240° E on tonight's date, so the window drifts with the season: long in December, short in June.
When it turns midnight in Kathmandu, it is
- Tokyo--:--
- Sydney--:--
- New Delhi--:--
- Berlin--:--
- London--:--
- New York--:--
- Los Angeles--:--
+5:45
Forty-five minutes off everyone.
Nepal Standard Time runs on the meridian of Gaurishankar, 86°15′ east. That puts Kathmandu fifteen minutes ahead of New Delhi and three quarters of an hour away from every round number on the map. Midnight here lands on nobody else's hour.
That is the point. The window is ours alone.
The night, as a drone
A tone tuned to a sleeping city: a low hum, a little wind through the valley, a temple bell now and then. Nothing here is a recording. It is synthesised in your browser the moment you press play, and it stays silent until you do.
Sound never starts on its own. The switch in the top corner also turns it off.
To release with us
-
1
Record after midnight, NPT.
The whole take, start to finish, inside the window. If you are not in Kathmandu, set a second clock. Ours.
-
2
Keep the originals.
Session files with their timestamps untouched. A bounce made at noon tells us nothing.
-
3
Send them while the door is open.
The door opens at 00:00 Nepal Standard Time and closes at first light. Outside those hours, this page just counts.
The door is closed.
--:--:--
until it opens