The American Composers Forum’s in-house record label, innova Recordings, has signed eight new artists as the first cohort to take part in the label’s new model aimed at making the end-to-end recording process more inclusive and accessible.

Sixty-two percent of the cohort identifies as an underrepresented gender and 70 percent as BIPOC.

A Dec. 2021 national call invited artists to submit projects at any stage. Applicants were offered the opportunity for guidance on both the application process and their projects. A panel selected the eight projects from a pool of 156 applications.

Included in the cohort are two vocal recording projects. “Alien,” lead by poet, vocalist, composer, and improviser Shara Lunon, explores otherness through an interactive audiovisual narrative of an extraterrestrial’s journey to Earth; and, “Passover,” lead by composer-performer collective thingNY. “Passover” is a performance-ritual for speaking-and-singing instrumentalists, written by Rick Burkhardt specifically for group’s unique blend of chamber music, theatre, and improvisation.

In a press statement, ACF’s Director of Recordings Chris Campbell said, “We are delighted to be working with these incredible new artists. I’m pleased that every step of the process remains open to thought partners, curators, and sound makers of all kinds. The selected artists have a wide range of experiences and approaches to sound, and we are ready to share our network of affiliates and to leverage our expertise as an established label. We’re looking forward to impactful partnerships and the development of these great projects.”