Art Union was established in 1981 as a record company Trio-Art Union Corporation (a music department of present “Kenwood Corp”). Trio-Art Union owned more than 3,000 of the master recordings and was renamed Art Union Corporation as a small record label in 1985. Art Union released a lot of reissue albums, and also newly produced a lot of Japanese artists. In 1994, Art Union created an import music department called U-Pop Records as a record wholesaler. U-Pop Records handles the CD/vinyl of 400,000 titles imported through the leading independent labels and distributors in the USA and Europe by today. Especially, distinguished services in the import CDs of The Cardigans and Tahiti 80 are known well. In 1999, Art Union started a domestic distribution for mainly Japanese independent labels. The main sales performance includes the talented artists such as The Sea And Cake, Tortoise, Hibria, Owen and Her Space Holiday. Since 2003, Art Union focus on the excellent records for own labels, including such genre as indie-pop, post-rock, electronica and loud rock.

(a list of international artists currently or formerly signed under the Art Union Corporation and its sub-labels in Japan)

13 & God, Ablaze, Airliner, Altaria, Arling & Cameron, At The Close Of Every Day, Black Majesty, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Bloom, Chanson Shigeru, Celine, Charades, Crazy Lixx, Dark Empire, Dark Illusion, Dark Sky, Deluxe, Dj Force / Numbsutra, Excalion, The Explorers Club, Flagship, The Foreign Exchange, Gepe, Headless Heroes, House Of Mirrors, Javiera Mena, Keldian, Kyrie Eleison, Limousine, Chicros, Manticora, Maps And Diagrams, Masterstroke, Mom, The Motorettes, The New Rags, Okkervil River, Ooberman, Pintsize, Popcorn, Pub, Quiero Club, Random Number, Rose Unlimited, Saidian, School Of Seven Bells, Scone, Square One, Tender Forever, This Beautiful Mess, Tommy Hools, Twilight Guardians, Verbose, Wildpath, Zs

SUB-LABELS

Moamoo, Felica, Plancha, Loyto, Listen UP, Stay Gold, Art Union Recordings, Art Union Records, At Jazz

DISTRIBUTED LABELS

(a list excluding the labels on a non-exclusive basis)

1977 Records, & Records, Ao To Ao, Afterhours, Atak, Catune, Co-CoLo, Contrarede, Dingwall Music, Egg Record Japan, Egging, EM Records, Epson, Escalator Records, Excellent Records, Flau, Favourite Records, Headz, Lantern, L’azur Record, Mao, Mitte Musique, Ontonson, Palette Label, Preco Records, Quince Records, Rimeout Recordings, Studio C+, Symbolic Interaction, Thistime Records, Wasabi Disc, Wimm Recordings, Wind Bell, Youth

CUSTOMERS

HMV Japan, Tower Records, Amazon, Tsutaya(CCC), Shinseido, Seikodo, Wave, Disk Union, Sumiya, iTunes

RELATED COMPANY

Art Union Publishing

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