THE WELL is Independent Project Records’ own take on digging deep and unearthing revelatory treasures from its 45-year history. A trip through the past, present and future of a label that since 1980 has made the most prominent part of its name, that resounding “Independent”, not a trendy epithet but a mission.
 
The two-album compilation is an invite to join the dots and find out what makes Afterimage – the early '80s band The Los Angeles Times once called “LA’s own Joy Division” – and Alison Clancy – the artist making ethereal ambient dream pop in the basement of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, where she works as a dancer – kindred spirits. You’re invited to find similarities in the way The Ophelias reclaimed San Francisco’s unfettered psychedelic rock roots at a time (the mid '80s) when the city had consigned itself  to the commercial muscle of arena rock, and the way Half String brought a wide-eyed shoegaze revolution outside of '90s indie’s hotspots, heading the Beautiful Noise scene in Arizona.
 
What all the artists appearing in this decades-spanning, genre-defying compilation seem to have in common is a certain transfixing quality. It may be put in motion by the hypnotic rumble of a post-punk groove or by the celestial peaks of an ambient piece so immersive it seems capable of freezing time. These are musicians with a determination to do things their own way.
 
Releases November 21, 2025 (digital) and December 19, 2025 (physical)