In May it will be 10 years since the beginning of Odradek Records, the dream of two pianists who wanted to change the music industry. We mark the opening of our new decade by adopting a new logo. Kafka describes Odradek in Cares of the Family Man as a “spool, and in fact, it does appear to be wound with thread; which, to be sure, is really only ragged, old, knotted together or simply tangled pieces of string of mixed color and description.”

The label’s Odradek is a spool that is a microphone. The thread is a mic cable. The A in the word ODRADEK even makes the tripod. This ties Kafka’s highly symbolic Odradek in our core activity to tell our story even better than Kafka’s original doodle had in our previous logo.

For us, Kafka’s Odradek symbolizes the inherent value of things such as music: the sort of value that it is impossible to put a price on, the kind of inherited artifact that is essential to maintain to pass on to future generations; not because it is useful to some end outside itself, but because it is perfect and complete in itself.