Label Guide: Shandar

Shandar was a French avant-garde label, established in 1970, founded and run by Parisian artist Chantal d'Arcy. The label was financed by Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, creators of the Maeght Foundation which organized modern art exhibitions and concerts. The label did groundbreaking work in the experimental, minimalist and free jazz genres with recordings by Albert Ayler, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Sunny Murray, Philip Glass, Richard Horowitz, Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, Alan Silva, Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra.

By the end of the 1970s the label was gone. According to press reports it was run out of an art gallery basement in Paris, which was flooded in 1979, causing irreparable damage to both vinyl stocks and recordings. The gallery had to close and with it Shandar Records was discontinued.