We are a label for artists, by artists.

Inner Ocean Records is a platform for artists to share music and visual art that evokes both calm and reverie. Founded in 2012 by Cory Giordano, in the land-locked city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the label embraces multiple genres, reasserting itself in an ebb and flow with the changing landscape of music. For artists and fans, Inner Ocean aims to be transparent and dedicated to positive change in our shared communities.

 

Beauty with a little bit of chaos in the mix.

We’ve built the backbone of this label around a laid-back sound and feeling. That’s taken shape with a lot of different sounds; Ambient, Lo-fi Hip Hop, RnB, Modern Funk, Future Soul and even Indie Pop. Since our inception, we've prioritized the natural evolution and organic growth in our music. This is because we truly value the process and where it can all lead. Beautiful things often come from unexpected places.

 

We are a DIY label.

Inner Ocean is run by a close-knit team that handles nearly everything in-house. Being able to own multiple elements of the music and how it comes to life is exciting for us. It means we can create our own rules, experiment with new things, and work with artists more closely to put something out into the world we love.

 

 We duplicate, press, and share.

One of the things we love most about music is being able to hold it in our hands and put it in the hands of others. So we release much of our music on physical formats like Tape Cassettes and Vinyl Records. These musical artifacts create a lasting legacy for the artist, marking a special moment in time with important cultural value.

 

Ambient, our first love. 

In the beginning, Inner Ocean was largely focused on ambient music. To honor that foundation, we created a side label called Drift. Since 2018, Drift has given us free-reign to fully embrace Ambient and Meditation projects without changing the direction of Inner Ocean.

 

What’s with the name Inner Ocean?

For those who don’t know, Calgary is a city surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of prairies, mountains, and forest. Our home base is perched amidst an ocean of land. We feel the vastness of the landscape can evoke a deeply personal experience, one that acts as an endless source of inspiration and creativity.

Inner Ocean Records lives, works, and creates in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta, which is the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and the Métis Nation (Region 3).

 

Principles Upon Which We Are Founded