Altered Zones to cease publishing

Sad day – the blog aggregation site Altered Zones has decided to call it a day, and go up to the inbox in the sky. Set up with Pitchfork cash in mid 2010, the site, edited by Ric Leitung and Emilie Friedlander, brought together the talents of 14 bloggers, including some of our favourites like Don’t Die Wondering, Transparent, XXjfgs and International Tapes, to contribute a post or so a week.

It became a wonderful resource of marginal sounds, DIY culture and absurd bandnames, and all at Dummy wish Ric and Emilie the very best of luck with their new adventure, Ad Hoc, to launch properly next year. Pasted below is their sign-off.

Dear friends,

Today, the road comes to an end. We are saying goodbye.

Altered Zones was launched in July 2010 with the mission of highlighting small-scale DIY music from all over the world, and we couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve done together during this past year and a half. We’ve helped new artists on the fringes of experimental music find likeminded fans, we’ve thrown a series of amazing events, and most importantly, we’ve built a community of devoted listeners seeking new and relatable voices outside the sphere of popular independent music.

This site began as a tight-knit collective of 14 music blogs with a common goal, but as many of our original contributors moved on from their blogs to start labels, run venues, create zines, and make music of their own, that original group has become increasingly splintered. We love what we’ve built, and the idea of it remaining as a sort of time capsule of this particular era of music feels right.

We don’t view Altered Zones closing as an end in itself, but rather the end of one chapter and the opening of another. AZ editors Ric Leichtung and Emilie Friedlander will contribute to Pitchfork, and will launch a new project together called Ad Hoc in 2012. In the meantime, Altered Zones will be signing off tomorrow and Friday with our favorite quotes, songs you might’ve missed, and albums of 2011.

Thanks to everyone who counted themselves as a loyal reader of this site— you are who we built this for. Thanks to everyone who contributed— it could not have existed without you! And thanks to Pitchfork for creating and supporting this site since its inception, and for making it all possible in the first place. Happy 2012. We’ll see you all again very soon…

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Altered Zones