The brain behind the companies belong to long term recording artist Casper Pound, who started the label in February 1991, after a huge success with "Homebound Hippy" and "a Funkydredd" on Tam Tam Records. He felt that the music he was making was not quite ready for other UK labels, so rather than change his musical tastes he ploughed the money made on his first record back into setting up his own label.

On a tight budget he pressed up 10,000 copies of "Rainbows In The Sky" under the name The Hypnotist and soon orders for over 7,000 copies were flooding in. Success after success meant that Casper could experiment with even more diverse bands and inject their talents into minds of the public. as well as signing the unequalled talents of Atom Heart and Irresistible Force, Rising High's ninth release by Project One gave Breakbeat Techno a prestigious place in the club scene. Since these early days, Rising High have come a long way.

Recent releases by Black Dog, The Irresistible Force, Rising High and many of the trance style artists such as Syzergy and KIBU have always paved the way for other labels to copy their style. Rising High are certainly the leaders in the British Techno market, and there looks as though nothing can be done to stop this majestic advancement.

Back in 1992 Casper began to feel a need for another label, similar to Rising High but more experimental. This was when "Sapho" was formed. It gave artists more freedom to choose a label to suit their styles. Sapho is run by Casper and Pypee, who both worked together in choosing suitable releases for the label. So fare there have been 24 projects on the label, ranging from ruff Jungle to pure angelical Ambience. If ever there was a diverse label, Sapho has to take the biscuit.

As if these two labels were not enough, Casper also set up "Harthouse UK" in 1992. He met up with an old friend from Frankfurt who had just started the "Harthouse" label in Germany, and before long a UK deal was signed with Rising High Records. Casper was free to choose the best of the German releases and bring them over to the British market. This time he had hit the big one, the first release by "Hardfloor" called "Hard Trance Experience" found its way into every DJ's record collection. Even though this is still the best seller to date, Harthouse UK is still making its mark on the British Techno industry.

The establishment of a new label Ascension Records. Far more song based material now means that Rising High have a whole Techno empire at their finger tips. They are not just content with corresponding to any particular rules or boundaries, as Casper stated himself, "Rising High is part of the scene, we set trends, we do not follow them." Is this their secret? Is it not best to stick your neck out and venture into the realms of the unknown?

This is what Rising High prevailed when all others have failed. The future for Techno music seems to be right here in England, and not before time too! Whilst in the studio we managed to meet up with some of the artists on the label, Syzergy, Rising High Collective and KIBU. We sat down to find out a bit about the people who actually make the music.

Justin and Dominic have always made electronic music, and Justin tells us how he started playing the guitar from the age of ten, but because he was limited in what he could do he was always looking at the keyboard player. After 15 years he feels he has found the right music.

When The Syzergy formed they started off with limited equipment but in time moved onto a digital Yamaha DX21, it was just a matter of building up the sound.

Their aim in making music was to take people on a journey, whether this was on the dance floor, or in your armchair, it has to pass the expression threshold. They do this by combining together digital and analogue sounds. The introduction of a new keyboard called "Morpheous" will leave their powers of expression limitless, it allows you to programme in your own sounds, this means that nobody will ever have the same one!

Before, Syzergy, Justin and Dominic were involved with a project called Mind Control, this was on Rumour Records about 18 months ago. Originally Syzergy was on Infonate Records, which was then obviously continued with Rising High. They have also just completed a track called "Zinbik" on Inertia Records.

Dominic had known Casper from meeting him at Knowledge, which was how he managed to become to signed to the label. He started talking one night about the possibility of releasing a record, and this was the result. After the success of Mind Control, backed up by a tape of the Syzergy project, they were signed to Rising High who gave them a contract, which left them free to do what they wanted.

Both Dominic and Justin agree they are pleased with Rising High. They wanted to aim for a more prestigious label, especially one which released other tracks that they like. Rising High are definitely for them.

Syzergy don't yet do a PA but they have said if hey do they have be very different from the traditional way. They are very interested in the audio visual aspect of PAs. Whilst looking at the new "Morpheous" keyboard coming out soon, they are interested in it's ability to allow them to put visual's to the sounds. They want people to literally see what you hear.

Reload on Infonet Records, they feel, are another band making some interesting music, combining atmospheric ambiance with "In yer face" Techno, which is the same sort of thing that they like. They also feel Future Sound of London and Sequential are producing a lot of good material luckily though, some their favourite artists are on Rising.

Justin and Dominic are not really followers of the club scene on a big level, too expensive they say, but when they do you find out they tell us their favourite clubs are Deep Space, Knowledge and The Marquee. Their favourite DJ's are Trevor Rockcliffe and Loftgroover, and although the tare not DJ's themselves, they have done a pirate radio show where they played not only their own tracks, but also others they simply liked. As yet they have not any decks of their own.