HAARK/ VISCERAL CITRUITRY Troubles

More than 10 years ago,
I released a CDr compilation of the australian project HAARK (Extreme music/ Strange sounds) without his approval/ involvement.
I was too enthusiasitc, and that's it...

Since mr HAARK posted about it, again on his bandcamp page,
and I still see things appearing about it on discogs,
I will post his version of the story, and my version of the story.

His version of the story
From https://haark.bandcamp.com/album/brutal-ways-of-the-biomechanic-mutant

"Here's the story:

A few years ago now, I received a package. I opened it: inside was a brand new HAARK album. I was somewhat surprised, being the guy who I thought actually makes HAARK albums, to be holding a new HAARK album (complete with title, artwork, liner notes, the whole deal). I flipped it over - yes, these were definitely my songs (although some of them were mis-titled, while others were mis-spelled). This compilation album was called 'Brutal Ways of the Biomechanic Mutant', and I knew nothing about it until it appeared in my letterbox.

I emptied the package, and found a hand-written note, by a chap in France, saying basically "hey, I love your stuff, I hope you don't mind but I've made a compilation of the most 'accessible' HAARK tracks and have started sending it out to people, hope it's okay".

Being a peaceful, compassionate kinda guy, I didn't become enraged; indeed, it was actually pretty flattering that someone loved my stuff so much they'd make their own compilation and start distributing it. So instead I wrote to the lad, saying (in summary) "hey, gosh, wow, thanks for the interest, you've chosen tracks I wouldn't have chosen, and some of your titles are totally wrong, and some of the right ones are mis-spelled, and in one case you've like totally cut an awesome 17 minute noise-scape epic down to the first 2 minute metal section, but, well, okay, I guess it helps get my stuff out there, so, um, thanks".

He said, "coolies", and went about distributing his 'accessible' compilation. All good so far.

Then I was interviewed for a metal/punk/noise magazine. And in that interview, I mentioned the circumstances in which the 'Brutal Ways of the Biomechanic Mutant' had appeared in my letterbox, and how it had been created without my consent or knowledge, and how it had been full of mistakes, but, well, it was kinda cool still that it existed.

Turns out that the French chap who had made the compilation was friends (or co-workers? can't exactly remember) with the guy who had performed the interview, and he'd read a pre-published version of the interview, and was not happy at all. He wrote to me, asking why I was talking shit about him, slandering him, etc. I told him I wasn't - I was just telling the truth about his unauthorised fan-comp, and how it had been nothing to do with me. He flew into a rage (insofar as I could tell by his emails), threatening me with destroying all copies of 'Biomechanic Mutant', blacklisting me from various music sites, and saying generally bad things about me to all the zines and websites he had access to. I told him that I thought he was taking it all a bit poorly, and told him to do whatever he wanted.

So he did.

Now and then I see copies of 'Brutal Ways of the Biomechanic Mutant' for sale online. Please, don't buy them. I have never made a cent from this, and all the songs (in their proper form and context) are available for free elsewhere.

Thanks for listening
HAARK."

My version of the story:

It’s nice to see this story is still appearing more than 10 years later,
I run Visceral Circuitry records, and can say more about it.

It’s needed to point out the guy of Haark forgets a part of the facts: If you want to write down “The truth”, you have to be more precise.

First of all, I traded CDr demos with him, we exchanged his self-made releases against those of my project… So it’s not like if we didn’t know each others (a little bit) and this release appeared from nowhere… We were also both in touch with a french project that produced the same kind of sounds, it felt a bit like there was a small “link”…

I was very enthusiastic about his songs and liked the music so much that I wanted to distribute it in my “area”/ Country… The idea was to spread his music in there, not to make money… it was so unknown but yet still innovative, that it seemed impossible so few peoples were aware about it…

So I contacted him again through internet (Was it Myspace or email? I don’t remember).
His answers took a so long time to come out, it was more than weeks, it seemed like an eternity… I was so motivated and impatient to release this CDr, that I went for it anyway…

Since Haark didn’t bother to rip off an artwork of Led Zeppelin (Houses of the holy) on “You People Are Animals”, I thought he didn’t care so much about “copyright” (You have to put it back in the context of 2000-2010… Peoples were exchanging/ copying CDr demos very often, the concept of “official” and “bootleg” weren’t as clear as it is nowadays, at least for demos… It had no “value”, It was just something to pass along, to have more peoples hear the music…I gave a lot of CDrs for free in my orders, it costed almost nothing, it was just something to pass along…).
His CDr releases were so simple, that we seemed to share the same “DIY” state of mind, it was quite frequent back then… So I went for the release anyway, out of big enthusiasm…

Then, after he received the package with the initial CDr release, he was surprised and pointed out the mistakes… The track titles were corrected and I even released another version of the CDr… So everything seemed to be “Ok” and “better’…

I remember that he wasn’t unpleased with the release title and the cover artwork that was used, saying something like “This is something I could have used myself” (From memory)

Then a bit later, I interviewed him for a french webzine, in may 2010, and there was no mention of a problem… Everything seemed to be “Ok” and “better”.

Then later, I read another interview of Haark for a Norwegian zine, and I was surprised to read how he explained things about this release in detail… Even though I corrected the mistakes, and things seemed to be “alright”, he went public and explained the details…

Ok, I was wrong going ahead and releasing this CDr without his approve/ involvement… But once things are sorted out (Or perhaps only corrected?), you don’t need to explain “all the shit” that happened about it… At one point, a part of it becomes “private”, this is how it occurs in the “normal” world, at least this is what I believe.

Also at the end of his text, the guy of Haark says “I made no money on this release, so don’t buy it”…It sounds like a big label was ripping him off and made money on his back…

You have to remember this was only a simple Xeroxed release, made on my small label, sold at cheap price on a “no profit” manner…

I also sent bunch of free copies to fanzines/ webzines to have reviews, to spread the music of Haark further, and we received reviews… So no, I didn’t make money on this, perhaps I even lost some (A bit… I would have to count the amount of CDrs sent to webzines for free, but it’s somewhere in my files, and I’m not really interested…)…

All I wanted was to distribute and spread the music of Haark, I was probably too fast and enthusiastic, Ok, ok, ok… But this is weird to still read shit about it more than 10 years later, while this seemed to have been “sorted out”…

This is my version, and correction of his story, to make things closer to “the truth”…