Somerset-born Will Saul developed a love and a passion for electronic music at an early age. After gaining a broad musical education in many of Britain's clubs and record shops, he went on to form the Simple label to tell the world about the power of dance music. His musical portfolio has since grown to include Aus Music, which aims to delve deeper into the organic side of techno, house and downtempo music. With a new compilation set to offer a retrospective of the label's opening releases, we caught up with Saul to discuss the resurgence of electronic music, and the trials of running a record label in the middle of a recession.

The All Night Long compilation is split into two halves, the first being a retrospective of the opening 20 singles released on Aus Music, including work by Sideshow, MyMy and Lee Jones, while the second side features a mix by Saul offering a "glimpse of where we're going for the next 20". This expertly reflects the fresh and committed approach to sourcing artists for the label, without any pre-existing musical prejudices. It also tunes neatly into Aus Music's ethos, which is to always push the boundaries and provide a platform for good music to speak for itself.

Saul started the label with the intention of building it around Fin Greenall (Sideshow) and Lee Jones (Lee Jones/MyMy). As well as being close friends of his, Saul also describes them as "two of the most talented producers/musicians I've ever come across". After selecting some of their music, Saul asked the likes of Prins Thomas, John Tejada and Jesse Rose to do remixes before finalising the label's first four releases. With branding and artwork for the label created by Build's Michael Place, Saul secured Simple's distributor Word & Sound to circulate the records.

"The label's philosophy is to embrace originality and give the artists the space they need to develop," says Saul. "If Lee wants to write a dubstep album next, then that's fine by me. The label is eclectic, as the artists all have very different sounds, yet there is a musicality and sense of melody that unites the Aus family."

The greatest moments for Aus Music so far have come with the release of debut records for Sideshow and Lee Jones, while the first time Saul saw the visual identity of the label, and the finished album artwork for its first releases proved to be "very special".

He explains: "It's also the first time you hear a new track/remix from one of the artists/remixers on the label, or every time a release gets a great review, or someone comes up to you at a gig and tells you how much they love what you’re doing with the label. Lots of little moments like these are always very special."

However, the recent crash of the global economy has been felt in pretty much every corner of society and music is no different. Saul admits it is "very difficult" at the moment, with vinyl sales having "pretty much halved in the last year". In opposition, digital sales have remained pretty much constant, which has ushered in an influx of "digital only labels". This is primarily because the "barriers to entry for doing your own label are very low", but this has sadly resulted in the "digital market place being flooded with crap music".

Saul points out that even as recently as three years ago an investment of around £10,000 was required to release five vinyl records, which meant that people had to be "serious" about the venture. It also ensured a built-in "quality control mechanism", which has now been eroded.

"Now you need to compete with thousands of digital only labels to get the front page advertising spot on Beatport around a new release, which is the only sure fire way to gain the exposure needed for sales," he says. "However, people will always spend money on music, and especially in economic downturns, as it's relatively low cost and lifts people out of the gloom."

Over recent years, electronic music has laboured in terms of popular perception against the overarching dominance of rock and indie. Dance music still pervades in the underground and the clubs, but there has not been the same broad crossover into the mainstream as seen in the early 1990s. However, Saul says electronic music has recently been going through a "bit of a resurgence" as people and producers are now getting a "little bit overloaded with jingly jangly indie". As evidence of this, he points to forthcoming albums by new artists La Roux and Little Boots, whose sounds are both heavily based on electronic tones.

"Recent albums from Animal Collective and Junior Boys have been very electronic and totally amazing," he adds. "The underground is blossoming right now. There's a lot to get excited about and everything is very diverse. Not having clear genre boundaries is a good thing for innovation and creativity. Not to mention the huge resurgence of disco over the last year. Expect disco to replace wispy folk as the mobile phone music of choice!"

Aus Music...All Night Long is released 11 May.

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