Melodiya/Angel

Melodiya/Angel was a US-based label operating from 1967 to the late 1970s that released classical and folk recordings from the Soviet Union's Мелодия (Melodiya) catalog. Founded through an exclusive licensing agreement between Capitol Records and the Soviet State recording agency Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga, the label was mastered, pressed, and packaged by Angel Records. Melodiya/Angel represented the first systematic documentation of contemporary Soviet musical life available to American audiences, presenting the finest recordings from Мелодия's extensive archives. When the EMI licensing agreement expired in the late 1970s, CBS/Columbia acquired the issuing rights, and many of these Soviet-era recordings subsequently appeared on the Columbia/Melodiya label.