CATAPULTE │ 10 Years

In 2007, after spending a year recording and experimenting with hip hop and electro influenced samples, in their flat downtown Amsterdam, Luke Warmcop, Graham Mushnik and Antonin Voyant started Catapulte Records.

Landing in London with their first release in hand (Mushnik’s A Distant Wildlife), the 3 partners in crime started performing live in pubs, with savage-energy outfits: Guess What, Helium & Eggs and Patrickbruel.
The basement of their house, baptised ‘’Seahorse Undergound’’, became a highly frequented space for rehearsal, gigs and merry parties. The Catapulte Stable was made stronger with the arrival of artist Andrea Piro, who added the 4th wheel to the team’s chariot: Pissinboy.
A multitude of weird-pop and post-punk London bands – including Private Trousers, The Rebel, Trash Kit, No Cars, Wet Dog.. – joined the ‘’Catapulte nights’’. Within 3 years, more than a hundred gigs were organised in the capital city.

Enriched by many influences from around the world, the Catapulte crew formed L’Orchestre du Montplaisant in 2010 and the house bands started to tour more and more in clubs, squats, and festivals across Europe.
Back in London, new encounters and musical discoveries made their way: Malphino’s cumbia and The Rectifiers’s rocksteady added their feel-good touch to the fast-growing catalogue. Soon, house gigs turned into ‘’Bollitos’’, lunchtime feasts of food, music and dance. From 2012 on, Catapulte's annual festival brought everyone together in the french countryside - musicians, friends and Dj's from England, Germany, France and around.

While house bands kept releasing albums and touring extensively, collaborations with dance, theatre and art companies intensifed. The ‘New Hamburg’ project, in 2014, led to the creation of a new band: Derya Yildirim & Grup Simsek.

Since their first basement recordings, the catapulte team still hasn't abandoned analogue technology; using cassettes, reel to reel tapes and vintage instruments, while developing a wider sound in studios.
Throughout the years, they’ve been sneaking in Larsen Studio and have reinforced their partnership with ethno-gourmet music collective Folkwelt, both based in Chambery (French alps). Les Pythons de la Fournaise, The Slow Slushy Boys, Kumbaya, Angelo Spencer & Les Hauts Sommets, Graham & His Group Martini all participate in this 2-way friendly enterprise.

Today, Catapulte's catalog comprises of about 25 releases, mostly on Vinyl. Catapulte believes in the strength of being a small non-profit structure, keeping a DIY and community spirit, while opening up to the Outernational!