Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract. The label's name was derived from combining French-born composer Edgard Varèse's last name with the musical term sarabande, a slow Spanish dance.

As of February 2018, Varèse operates as a division of Concord Music Group's Craft Recordings label.[1]

History

Varèse Sarabande's roots trace back to 1972, with the introduction of a predecessor imprint called Varèse International. The first LP release was "Lumiere" by Dub Taylor. Varèse International Records was originally conceived as an avant garde classical label. In the years that followed, under the management of the founder–owners, Dub Taylor and Chris Kuchler, the label expanded its catalogue to include jazz, classical and other genres of recordings. In 1977, Tom Null's Sarabande Records merged with Varèse International to form Varèse Sarabande Records. The early LP issues of the label were reissues of classical recordings from the American

Soundtrack Listeners Communications (SLCS)

From 1990 through 1997, Varèse Sarabande licensed their releases vintage and current to Soundtrack Listeners Communications (SLCS for short) in Japan through this label run by Yashiro Wada. The label specialized in releasing soundtracks that have never been on CD before as well as reissuing out-of-print titles that were on CD as well LP that has been in demand by collectors. They had a special limited edition Club called SLCS Club which was somewhat similar to Varese's US club that issued soundtracks from other labels such as RCA/Victor and many others as limited editions but were not numbered like Varese's were at the time. Yet, only up to 1000 copies were produced which included John Williams's "Space Camp", Henry Mancini's "Return of The Pink Panther" and "Two For The Road" and Dave Grusin's "Three Days of The Condor." Many came with an OBI Strip, a paper that wrapped around the side of the CD case containing information on the release in Japanese with the title and date of release as well as the price in Japanese Yen currency. These strips are very popular amongst soundtrack collectors and particular, their older releases. Most titles contained a fold out booklet or a regular sized booklet with liner notes in Japanese pertaining to the title and the composer.

Their versions of Varese's releases utilized the US poster artwork as well much improved artwork in a lot of cases to distinguish themselves from their US counterparts. However, the music was identical to that of the original US releases and were never expanded in any way unless Varese themselves expanded the title. They also released soundtracks from Varese's LP catalogue that were exclusive for the Japanese market which included Joseph LoDuca's "Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2", John Harrison's "Creepshow" and David Mansfield's " Year of the Dragon". They also produced a compilation set dedicated to Oscar Winner Jerry Goldsmith called "Jerry's Recall" amongst these special releases not available in the US.

These releases were made available through imports in the US for double the price of a regular US priced disc averaging from thirty to forty dollars per disc for a single disc release, and much more for multi-disc sets.

The label ceased operations in 1997.

parent	Concord
founded	1972 (as Varèse International) 1977 (as Varèse Sarabande)
founder	Tom Null Chris Kuchler Dub Taylor
distributor	Universal Music Distribution (worldwide distribution) Craft Recordings (reissues)
genre	Film scores Original cast recordings
country	United States
location	Beverly Hills, California
website	varesesarabande.com

History

Colosseum Schallplatten

Soundtrack Listeners Communications (SLCS)

Volcano Records

See also

External links

References