# Your favo(u)rite discs produced on REM Editions



## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

REM Editions was one of many specialty labels from France which receives little (or no) acknowledgement from TC membership. Perhaps in the case of REM, the sound quality of most their CDs was below par for the industry and probably accounts for the neglect fallen upon their albums.

But I have not forgotten them! If it wasn't for REM, I'd likely have no discs of music in my collection by composers such as Jacques Castérède or Jean-Jacques Werner. I recall my first album of music by Charles Chaynes was on REM.

So ... for better or worse ... here's my top 5 REMs:

REM 311121 (Castérède works for brass & organ)










REM 311212 (chamber music by Castérède)

REM 311223 (Qigang Chen)










REM 311234 (Jolivet chamber works)

REM 311246 (Edith Canat de Chizy)

http://edithcanatdechizy.com/yell-hallel-canciones-de-noche.html

I wonder if any of the TC membership can surprise us with any favorites (s)he may have that was on REM Editions?


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I don´t keep a register regarding labels; I might own one or two, but have been involved in selling a few more, though it was a very rare label here in Scandinavia. Difficult to find a discography/catalogue? The discogs website mentions 30 very random releases.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Hi, joen_cph.

Very interesting input. I never thought of REM Editions as rare items, probably because it seemed to me as though every disc REM released was imported to Philadelphia and sat on shelves for years @ a Tower Records classical annex.
Qualiton imports supplied a very large amount of discs to Phila. Perhaps CD distribution in Europe is a different situation than exporting to USA? Are discs from France typically hard-to-get in Denmark?
Thanks for posting in the thread, anyway.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

My personal seller experience go back to the LP+CD period, and on top of my head, Erato, French EMI, and Harmonia Mundi were the only French labels that got some circulation. I only remember seeing a small bunch of REM new releases once in a period of more than two years.

Other labels had a distributor, but getting ordered LPs could take several months, and only very modest selections were presented for sale from time to time.

Nowadays, there´s basically one or two shops with an acceptable selection of new classical CD. Distributors exist, but French specialties mostly have to be ordered, you very rarely see them otherwise. 

The second-hand CD market here is very good and inexpensive, however. Still, when you see French specialties, it´s quite likely that the items were bought abroad, or from the internet.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Just remembered that the only 2 pieces I have by Serge Nigg (one is a string quartet & the other is an orchestral movement) are courtesy 2 different albums which were both issued on REM.

This illustrates how we music collectors may totally 'miss out' on a composer whose works are ignored by the corporate majors and only appear on enterprising independent productions.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I agree, a lot of contemporary composers have had only one recording of the major works, especially in the LP and early CD era, this applies to Scandinavian ones as well. Nigg got fine mentioning in my extended and very recommendable Larousse Story of Music I-II, and I similarly have his piano cto, Bosch symphony and Violin cto etc, mostly in their lonesome LP versions.


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