Angel Records is a record label belonging to EMI. Formed in 1953, its specialty is classical music. Additionally, the Angel mark has been used by EMI, its predecessors, and affiliated companies since 1898.
Recording Angel
A recording angel is a traditional figure that watches over people, marking their actions on a tablet for future judgment. Artist Theodore Birnbaum devised a modified version of this image, depicting a cherub marking grooves into a phonograph disc with a quill. Beginning in 1898, the Gramophone Company in the United Kingdom used this angel as its trademark on its record labels and players, as did affiliated companies worldwide.
From 1909, Gramophone and related companies began replacing the angel with the familiar drawing of a dog looking into a horn. The angel was retained in areas where the depiction of a dog was deemed offensive, and where the "His Master's Voice" trademark was not secured.
Angel Records
In 1953 Gramophone successor EMI lost its U.S. distribution arrangement with Columbia Records, which had elected to instead use the Philips catalog for its new Epic Records label. In response, EMI established Angel Records in New York City under the direction of record producers Dorle Jarmel Soria (December 14, 1900 - July 7, 2002) and her husband Dario Soria (May 21, 1912 - March 28, 1980).¹². The couple concentrated on distributing EMI classical recordings in the U.S. market. They departed the label in 1957, having already accumulated a catalog of about 500 titles, when EMI merged Angel into its recently acquired Capitol Records subsidiary and moved from imported discs to U.S. production. ³
Since 1990, international use of the Angel mark has been replaced by the EMI Classics label.[1] It is still active in the U.S.
See also
References
- "New Records". TIME, November 23, 1953.
- "Angel at Two". TIME, December 19, 1955.
- "Singing Land". TIME, December 23, 1957.
External Links
