Melodiya/Angel

US label: from late 1960s to end of the 1970s, Melodiya/Angel (in the USA) and Melodiya/His Master's Voice (in the UK) issued Мелодия (Melodiya) classical and folk recordings after an exclusive contract with EMI, the owner of both Angel Records and His Master's Voice. This is to be used as a label. Melodiya/Angel was created in 1967: "Capitol Records has now entered into a recording agreement with Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga (MK), official State recording agency of the Soviet Union. Under this agreement, Capitol will issue the finest recordings from MK's "Melodiya" label in a new series, to be known as "Melodiya/Angel". Mastered, pressed and packaged in the United States through the widely acclaimed facilities of Angel Records, these new recordings will, for the first time in history, constitute a systematic documentation of contemporary Soviet musical life." (Alan W. Livingston, President Capitol Records, Inc. - 1967). Melodiya/Angel were further marketed and referred to as a label, ie. in the Billboard magazine. When the EMI and Melodiya licensing agreement expired in the later 1970s, CBS/Columbia obtained the issuing rights. Many of the same Soviet era recordings later appeared in the USA on the Columbia/Melodiya label. [September 1974 Buying Guide from Billboard lists both Columbia/Melodiya and Melodiya/Angel products]