APE RECORDS

Two years ago, two friends had a vision. Eyal Gruenberg and Tamir Muskat started a new kind of record label. A new sound, style of collaboration and vision for the future of music production. Ape isn’t your average record label, they exceed beyond producing and directing for other artists, serving as a limitless musical platform. From a production house, to a music label, to a branding company, Ape does it all.

After founding Balkan Beat Box along with other music producers, Muskat and Gruenberg set out to create an international, creative business. The co-founders recognized a loathsome pattern within artists, who would hit it big in the beginning of their career and then wither away into the vault. Ape had a solution, in which they release only singles, not albums, mostly in English, to attract a diverse audience. Each label’s entire production process takes place at Ape Studios in Tel Aviv, in collaboration with the artist to create audio and visual content.

The relationship with the artist should start off as a “one night stand”. There are no ties, as to avoid getting chained to record labels that change the originality of an artist. This helps to give the audience a deeper look into each song by embracing the little details of each sound, not having to force out an entire album just for the sake of it. Each track comes with a music video, a documentary of the process behind the scenes, and a live performance of the song. This helps to give the audience a deeper look into each song as each single comes with a music video, a documentary of the process behind the scenes, and a live performance of the song. Major sounds that Ape are currently working on are developing the new A-WA and Loco-Hot album, and helping produce some of Marina Maximilian’s work. In addition to working with outside productions, three best friends within Ape Records have had the pleasure of creating their own new sounds called The Real Ape Experience.

The agreement between Ape and the artist is to work on one song, and one song only. If the partnership works, then the artist will come back for more. This is a business without any altering of artistic talent where individuality is embraced. A community is born from this type of relationship– honesty is presented as amazing artists are encouraged to express themselves as the best version of themselves. There is no specific style that Ape aims to work with, recognizing that there are different phases through music and ages, leaving Ape with an obvious reason to love all artistic styles. Genres are for shelves on record stores, they are too defining. Muskat believes that “A song is words and a beat – it’s that simple. It’s been that way since people were living in caves. Call it hip-hop, call it what you want. Returning to the primal source and bringing back something new – that’s what Ape is about.” Be on the lookout for new releases by The Real Ape Experience and other Ape Records productions.

Written by Rachel Siegel