linking records both ways

Hmm, is there a specific business reason you need it to be a link?  If you're fine with it being a lookup field, try, in the "Artists" table, right click the linked field to the Sales base and click "Add lookup fields", then select the linked field to the Clients table.  This should show all the clients that have bought something from this artist, and you'll be able to click into the linked Client records too

And then repeat it for the Clients table

hey adam, cheers!
yes a lookup would be the second step but particularly the link to the sales base is my issue. i can't set up that link, that's what i'd like to have automated. i have a link to the artist (and another to the client) in the sales base which i set manually but the other way around i don't have a link that is also automatically established in the artists record in the contacts base referring to the sale that contains an artist. of course i could link to the newly created sale in the contacts base every time i set up a new sale but it seems a bit redundand to me and also it'd be a pain doing that for all the already existing sales/artists. 

Hmm, I think I'm not understanding something, sorry!  Could you check out these screenshots and let me know what you need done differently?  Once I understand what you're wanting to do I'll try my best to help!

Link to base

thank you for taking the time,

this is roughly the situation – the second screenshot would be what i set up manually. the first screenshot doesn't happen automatically though, right? you have to also add the link to the sale to the artist. the new sale showing up in the artists record  what i would like to happen automatically as soon as that artist is mentioned in a new sale. i'm assuming it'd only work with an automation then.

and another two things which might be making the matter unnecessarily more complicated are that 1.: there are no separate clients and artists tables, they all are part of the contacts table .maybe that doesn't really matter though. and 2.: sales and contacts tables are in different bases. i have a synced table of the sales in the same base as the contacts though so i assume that is also kind of working.

re: the second screenshot would be what i set up manually. the first screenshot doesn't happen automatically though, right?

It's automatic!  The "Clients (from Sales)" field is a lookup field that updates automatically: https://support.airtable.com/docs/lookup-field-overview

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Oh that's fine, I've updated the base accordingly and it works the same:

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re: 2.: sales and contacts tables are in different bases. i have a synced table of the sales in the same base as the contacts though so i assume that is also kind of working.

Yeap that's fine too!