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Gimell Records
Founded	1981
Founder	Peter Phillips Steve Smith
Genre	Classical music
Country of origin	UK
Location	United Kingdom
Official website	gimell.com

Gimell Records was established in 1980 by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith, specifically to record the work of the British vocal ensemble The Tallis Scholars. As of June 2024 its catalogue numbers 60 original albums and 15 compilation albums. The label "performed a pioneering role in the re-appraising of unaccompanied sacred choral music of the 15th and 16th centuries." According to Hyperion Records, Gimell was the first "single-artist label", preceding other similar labels by several years. It was also the first independent record label to receive the Gramophone Record of the Year award, achieving this feat in 1987 with a recording of Josquin des Prez.

Name

The label was named after the technique “gymel”, a corruption of the Latin word “gimellus”, meaning a twin, which was found in Tudor manuscripts where a part is twinned with another part. Phillips explained, "You have to understand that in those days the music wasn't written in score; it was written in parts, so you'd only see your part. If you were singing your part and you saw the word ‘gimell’ it had to be decided in rehearsal that some of you singing that part would have to look elsewhere on the page, or even pick up another book and find your part."

History

Steve Smith, a music and sound recording student on the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, met Peter Phillips, a student at St John's College, Oxford, when Smith recorded The Tallis Scholars as part of a student project at the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford in 1976. After graduation, and unable to find a suitable recording contract for a Tallis Scholars' album – Phillips had unsuccessfully approached Deutsche Grammophon, Philips and EMI – Phillips and Smith set up their own company, Gimell Records. Of this Phillips said, "Not only were the big labels not interested in us – which I can understand because we were very new at the time – but also it was clear that they had no interest in the repertory that we wanted to do." The choir's first LP was recorded at Merton College in March 1980. They would continue to record there until 1987, returning in 2005.

In mid-1996, Philips Classics, part of Polygram Classics, acquired a majority share of Gimell Records. This was just before Philips Classics was "subsequently swallowed up by industry giant, Universal". Tallis Scholars' recordings were temporarily removed from the catalogue, but Phillips and Smith regained control and re-established Gimell in 2000. Its first new issue after this hiatus was in 2000, Missa si bona suscepimus by Cristóbal de Morales.

Recording technology

Gimell's founding coincided with the rise of the compact disc and Phillips and Smith "recognised early on how the clarity of the digital sound could benefit Renaissance choral music." In 1984 Gimell was the first label to place a commercial order with a British CD manufacturer.

Gimell re-launched its website in 2007. It was only the second website globally to sell high resolution downloads. The following year the site was the first to sell FLAC surround sound downloads. In 2017 Gimell announced it would stop selling CDs and downloads from its website, which resulted in an immediate spike in sales, exceeding sales for the entire previous year.

In 2013 the group's 2007 recording of Allegri's Miserere was one of the first albums to be released on Pure Audio Blu-Ray. In 2022 Smith re-mastered the same recording with Spatial audio for Dolby Atmos.

Fifty Shades of Grey

In 2012 E. L. James published her best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey which referenced Thomas Tallis's 40-part motet Spem in alium. As a direct result, sales of Gimell's 1985 album Spem in Alium "outsold even the tenor Luciano Pavarotti", putting it at number one in the British UK Classical Charts. The subsequent release of Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album by EMI later in the year saw Gimell at the top of the charts once more. James was quoted as saying "I am delighted to have introduced so many of my readers to this amazing 16th century piece of music... the recording from the Tallis Scholars is particularly special.”

Awards

Discography

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Other releases

• Live in Rome: Celebrating Palestrina's 400th Anniversary – DVD (1994)
• Playing Elizabeth's Tune: The Tallis Scholars Sings William Byrd – DVD and SACD in conjunction with BBC (2004)
• Francisco Guerrero: Missa Surge propera – SACD (2006)
• Allegri's Miserere and Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli – Blu-ray (2014)

Other artists

In 1999, during the brief period when it was a part of Philips Classics, Gimell produced Acantus' Sacred Songs of Medieval Italy and Anúna's Deep Dead Blue.

References

1. "Gimell Records celebrates 30th anniversary". classicfm.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
2. "Gimell". prestomusic.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
3. "Gimell". hyperion-records.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
4. "The Tallis Scholars' and Gimell Records' 30th Anniversary: Peter Phillips and Steve Smith in conversation with John Quinn (JQ)". Musicweb-international.com. 1980-03-23. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
5. Insert, insert (2017). Know-It-All Classical Music:The 50 most significant genres, composers and forms. New York, USA: Wellfleet Press. p. 43. ISBN 9781577151500.
6. Eric Dawson (1999-10-20). "Renaissance music is reborn". Calgary Herald. Calgary, Canada. p. 74.
7. Roddy Phillips (2002-10-08). "Byrdsong". Aberdeen Evening Press. Aberdeen, UK. p. 6.
8. Michael Ajzenstadt (1996-03-18). "Making Renaissance all the rage". The Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem, Israel. p. 5.
9. Susan Reiter (1992-03-04). "Devotee of Sacred Renaissance Choral Music". Los Angeles Times. California, USA. p. 310.
10. "Gimell Records celebrates 30th anniversary". classicfm.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
11. Peter Phillips (April 2010). "Diary". Gramophone. London, UK: Mark Allen Group. p. 21.
12. Heidi Waleson (1996-07-07). "Renaissance Rebirth". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, USA. p. L5.
13. "Recording News". The Musical Times (Vol. 141 No. 1870 ed.). insert: The Musical Times Publications Ltd. Spring 2000. p. 4.
14. "Classical music briefs". The Gazette. Montreal, Canada. 2000-06-23. p. 52.
15. MacTaggart, Garaud (2004). The Omnibus Essential Guide to Classical CDs. New York, USA: Schirmer Trade Books. p. 615. ISBN 0825673070.
16. Roddy Phillips (2002-10-08). "Byrdsong". Aberdeen Evening Press. Aberdeen, UK. p. 6.
17. John von Rhein (1994-02-06). "Better early than never". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, USA. p. 10.
18. "Gimell". hyperion-records.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
19. Norman Lebrecht (2017-03-15). "Early music label shuts down its website". slippedisc.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
20. Andrew Everard (2013-11-19). "The Tallis Scholars embrace the sonic beauty of Pure Audio Blu-Ray". gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
21. "A classic album is remastered with Dolby Atmos for Spatial Audio". gramophone.co.uk. 2022-03-02. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
22. David Vernier. "50 Shades of Tallis". classicstoday.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
23. Charlotte Higgins (2012-07-16). "Fifty Shades of Grey sends sales of Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium soaring". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
24. "Fifty Shades keeps Tallis Scholars in Classical charts". classicfm.com. 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
25. "Tallis Scholars on top after 50 Shades of Grey effect". classicfm.com. 2012-07-16. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
26. James Jolly (2023-11-21). "Gramophone publishes a free digital magazine celebrating The Tallis Scholars at 50". gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
27. "Josquin masses". gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
28. "News". The Musical Times (Vol. 141 No. 1871 ed.). London, UK: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Summer 2000. p. 4.

• Record labels established in 1981
• Independent record labels
• British independent record labels
• Early music record labels
• Classical music record labels
• The Tallis Scholars