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 January 23, 2026 (physical)
 
VOLUME ONE:



1 AFTERIMAGE “Afterimage”
From the Faces To Hide retrospective album released on IPR
 
2 LESLIE MEDFORD “Leslie’s Dream”
Previously released as a digital single on IPR, first physical release
 
3 SHIVA BURLESQUE “Midnight Chapel”
Previously unreleased new recording
 
4 GREG LISHER “Zen and the Art of Long Distance Driving”
From the Underwater Detection Method album released on IPR
 
5 THE OPHELIAS “Sleepy Hamlet”
From the Bare Bodkin retrospective album released on IPR
 
6 SPRINGHOUSE “Sea and Rain”
From the From Now to OK album released on IPR
 
7 DAVID J  “Punishment By Roses”
From the forthcoming Tracks from the Attic Revisited album to be released on IPR
 
8 HALF STRING “Honeycut”
From the A Fascination With Heights album released on IPR
 
9 JEFFREY RUNNINGS “Heretofore”
From the Piqued album released on IPR
 
10 DRIVEWAY CEILING “mr walden”
From the forthcoming death of the walden newspaper co album to be released on IPR
 
11 ALISON CLANCY “The Valley”
Previously released as a digital single on IPR, first physical release
 
12 BRUCE LICHER “Tundra”
From the Tape Excavation compilation album released on IPR
 
13 WOO “The One That Got Away”
From the Xylophonics/Robot X album released on IPR
 
14 CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN “Vegetables”
Demo recording from 1983
 
15 FOURWAYCROSS “Halloween”
From the Pendulum archive series release on IPR — forthcoming retrospective release on IPR
 
16 KOMMUNITY FK “Antipop”
From the The Vision And The Voice album released on IPR in 1983 — forthcoming remastered reissue on IPR
 
17 JEFFREY CLARK “Sacred”
Previously unreleased recording
 
18 DECEPTION BAY “It’ll Be My Day”
Previously unreleased live recording
 
19 SPADRA MOODS “New Colours”
From a very limited band-released cassette tape from the mid-1980’s by this group featuring future members of Savage Republic and Scenic
 
20 BPEOPLE “Persecution, That’s My Song”
Originally released on the Alternative Tentacles Records compilation Let Them Eat Jellybeans in 1981 — forthcoming retrospective release on IPR
 
21 SCENIC “Hole in the Wall”
From the Incident At Cima album released on IPR
 
22 A PRODUCE “Tunnels”
From the The Clearing album released on IPR
 
23 RED TEMPLE SPIRITS “Dark Spirits”
From the Red Temple Spirits 3-CD set released on IPR
 
VOLUME TWO:
 
1 SAVAGE REPUBLIC “Archetype”
From the Customs album originally released in 1989 on the Nate Starkman & Son Greece label
 
2 BARRY CRAIG “I Woke Up Dreaming”
Previously unreleased recording circa 1989 by Afterimage guitarist and well-known ambient electronic artist A Produce
 
3 DAVID J “No One Looks Like Christopher Walken”
Previously unreleased demo recording
 
4 TORN BOYS “Mystery”
Previously unreleased version of a song originally released on the 1983 retrospective album on IPR
 
5 MIDDLE CLASS “Politic (Body and Soul)”
Originally released on the Munster Records compilation What Have We Wrought? A Mike Atta Benefit in 2013 — forthcoming retrospective release on IPR
 
6 SCENIC “Raintree Road”
Previously unreleased recording from the sessions for The Long Sun 10” release on St. Ives Records
 
7 THE INVISIBLE OPERA COMPANY OF TIBET “Here I Am”
Red Temple Spirits offshoot from the very limited band-released cassette tape titled The Alien Host from 1996
 
8 SNUFFY “Breezy”
Previously unreleased recording from Fourwaycross bassist Steve Gerdes circa the late 1990’s
 
9 WOO “Tibetan Trains”
Bonus track from the forthcoming expanded reissue of the Whichever Way You Are Going You Are Going Wrong album to be released on IPR
 
10 EDWARD W. DAHL “A Wink and a Nod”
Previously unreleased instrumental mix from the Louder Than You Think soundtrack album to be released on IPR
 
11 THE SUNFLOWER CONSPIRACY “Spacetime”
Indiana-based shoegaze/dream pop band — from a very limited band-released cassette tape from the mid-1990’s titled Silver Satin Grey
 
12 LANTERNA “Aegean”
From a very limited artist-released cassette tape from 1992 titled Of Shapes That Haunt Thought’s Wilderness
 
13 MIKE WHITE “Hangliders Torn Wing”
Previously unreleased solo recording from the 2nd guitarist in the early 80’s incarnation of San Francisco band The Sleepers
 
14 JAZZ BEDOUINS “Mingus Mountain”
From a very limited 2007 artist-released CDr from this Sedona, Arizona-based modern jazz trio titled Beautiful Trash
 
15 NEEF “Radiant Transfer To Non-Grey Walls”
From a very limited artist-released self-titled cassette tape from 1979, the first music release that IPR founder Bruce Licher is featured on
 
16 SCENIC “Film Music #6”
Previously unreleased recording circa 2001 
 
17 A PRODUCE “Jimbe”
From the expanded edition of the Land of a Thousand Trances album released on IPR
 
18 BOXHEAD ENSEMBLE “Rank”
From the The Unseen Hand: Music For Documentary Film album released on Jealous Butcher Records, featuring guitar work from Bruce Licher