A Jazz-orientated independent label from 1967-72. Decibel appears to have been owned by Jazz bassoon player Graham Lyons: the labels' first release, a short two-track 'EP' called 'Jazz Bassoon' (BSN-1; 1967) was by him, and he wrote, arranged and produced its second release, 'Sunshine Island' by the Sunflower Crew (BSN-2; 1971). The only other Decibel record that I have been able to trace was an LP featuring Jazz drummer Phil Seaman, ' The Phil Seaman Story' (BSN-103; 1972). Word has it that the LP was intended to be recollections interspersed with music but Seaman died before recording the second half of the autobiograpical material; thus side one features as much of his story as he survived to tell, while side two is made up of previously unissued recordings. The Sunflower Crew single is rather difficult to pigeonhole: basically it is a Jazz-tinged Easy Listening instrumental - there are a lot of different instruments on it - with a Girls' Choir singing 'la-la-la's and 'Sunshine Island's over the top of it.
Copyright 2009 Robert Lyons.