ASV Records was a
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
-based
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
set up by
Harley Usill
Harley John Vaughan Usill (13 July 1925 – 7 October 1991) was a British record company executive. He was joint founder and managing director of British record label Argo Records.
After an extended period in various occupations, including a ...
, founder of
Argo Records, Decca producer and former Argo general manager, Kevin Daly, and producer Jack Boyce, after Argo's parent company
Decca Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label
* Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...
was bought by
PolyGram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
in 1980. ASV stood for "Academy Sound and Vision". The label was bought by the
Sanctuary Records Group
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is as of 2013 a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest m ...
in May 1999.
ASV, which was founded in London in 1981, was mainly a classical label, but its catalogue included
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
,
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
,
The Ink Spots, and
The Boswell Sisters.
Starting in 1986, ASV had an imprint called Living Era, created by Kevin Daly, which specialized in reissuing recordings (particularly American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
recordings) that are in the public domain in the UK, which are all at least 50 years old. It also showcased American
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
, American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
, British dance bands, and British nostalgia.
Much of ASV's classical catalogue was reissued on Sanctuary's Resonance budget label. Sanctuary's UK recorded music business was shut down shortly after
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
bought the firm in 2007.
This also included the ASV and ASV/Living Era imprints.
As a fulfilment of conditions imposed by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
following UMG's acquisition of most of
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
in 2012, Universal sold Sanctuary to
BMG Rights Management
BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label.
BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...
in 2013. Thus,
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...
, through its
Alternative Distribution Alliance
Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) is a music distribution company owned by Warner Music Group, which represents the rights to various independent record labels. ADA provides "independent artist and label partners with access to the resource ...
division, handles the catalogue of reissues from ASV's artists' releases on Sanctuary's behalf after BMG designated ADA in March 2017 as its distributor.
Roster
Conductors:
*
Enrique Bátiz Campbell, Mexico
*
Francesco D'Avalos
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...
, Italy
*
David Allinson
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, United States
*
Ross Pople
Ross Pople (born 11 May 1945) is a New Zealand-born British conductor. He is the principal conductor of the London Festival Orchestra. He has worked with Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon, David Oistrakh, Kentner, George Malcolm (musician), George ...
, New Zealand
*
Christoph Eschenbach, Germany
*
Jane Glover
Dame Jane Alison Glover (born 13 May 1949) is a British-born conductor and musicologist.
Early life
Born at Helmsley, Glover attended Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. Her father, Robert Finlay Glover, MA ( TCD), was headmaster of M ...
, United Kingdom
*
Andrew Carwood, United Kingdom
*
Loris Tjeknavorian
Loris Haykasi Tjeknavorian ( hy, Լորիս Ճգնավորյան; fa, لوریس چکناواریان; born 13 October 1937) is an Iranian Armenians, Iranian Armenian composer and conductor. He has appeared internationally as a conductor, servin ...
, Iran, Austria
*
Steven Sloane
Steven Sloane (born 1958) is an Israeli-American conductor.
Biography
Born in Los Angeles, California, Sloane developed an interest in conducting at age 16. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in music. Se ...
, United States
Performers:
*
London Festival Orchestra
The London Festival Orchestra (LFO) was established in the 1950s as the 'house orchestra' for Decca Records. In 1980 it was incorporated as an independent performing orchestra under Ross Pople. At least in the world of pop music, the orchestra is b ...
*
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...
*
Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra
The Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra ( es, Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México) is an orchestra of international rank founded and underwritten by the National Government of Mexico. The home venue is the Silvestre Revueltas Hall at the ...
*
Nikolai Demidenko
* Robert Gibbs
*
Young Uck Kim
Young may refer to:
* Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents
* Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood
Music
* The Young, an American roc ...
*
John Lill
John Richard Lill (born 17 March 1944 in London) is a British classical pianist.
Biography
Lill studied at the Royal College of Music with Angus Morrison, and with Wilhelm Kempff. His talent emerged at an early age, he gave his first piano rec ...
*
Jorge Luis Prats Jorge Luis Prats Soca (born 3 July 1956) is a Cuban pianist living in Spain.
Prats Soca was born in Camagüey. He studied piano since 1963 under Barbara Díaz Alea. In 1970, he was accepted into National Art School, from which he graduated in 1976 ...
*
Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber (born 14 April 1951) is a British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster, a former principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme.
Early years and education
Julian ...
*
Lindsay String Quartet
The Lindsay String Quartet (or The Lindsays) was a British string quartet from 1965 to 2005.
History
The quartet first performed at the Royal Academy of Music in 1965 to compete for a prize and set out to make the string quartets of Bartók and ...
*
The Cardinall's Musick
The Cardinall's Musick is a United Kingdom-based vocal ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries and contemporary music.Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton - The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music - 2008 Page 28 ...
*
Ensemble 360
Ensemble 360 is a British chamber music ensemble founded in 2005 by Music in the Round following the retirement of the Lindsay String Quartet. It comprises five string players, five wind players, and a pianist, and as often as possible presents con ...
*
Gordon Fergus-Thompson
Gordon Fergus-Thompson FRCM (born 9 March 1952) is an English concert pianist.
Biography
Fergus-Thompson's first piano teacher waChristine Brown a pupil of Denis Matthews. Subsequently, he became a student of Gordon Green at the Royal Northern ...
*
New Chamber Opera Ensemble
*
Emma Johnson
*
Sandro Ivo Bartoli
See also
*
Lists of record labels
References
External links
ASV's Living Era series discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asv Records
Classical music record labels
Jazz record labels
British record labels