Arion is a French record company and label founded in 1962 by Ariane Segal. The label takes its name from the ancient Greek poet and lyre-player, Arion. In the 1960s and 1970s Arion was seen as one of the most adventurous and innovative independent labels in France with an eclectic catalogue ranging from classical music to ethnic music to jazz. Its strengths were, and remain, rarely performed classical works and ethnic music. In 1962 Ariane Segal, who had been working as a producer for the French division of Ricordi, left the firm with her entire team, including her sound engineer Claude Morel. She established a new independent label, Arion, serving as its president and managing director, while Morel served as the label's artistic director. By 1967 when Arion signed a US distribution deal with CBS, its recordings had already received prizes from the Académie Charles Cros and the Académie du disque français. While most single LPs produced in France during the 1960s and 70s were packaged in sleeves, Arion's records were presented in books with copious liner notes, most of which were written by Segal herself. With the arrival of the compact disc, Arion, with its large catalogue of vinyl records, lacked the financial resources to convert to the new medium. Rather than selling the company to one of her rivals, Segal sold it to the Italian firm Ducale, who had distributed the Arion label in Italy and had begun buying stock in Arion in 1984. Ducale's owner, David Matalon, took over as president of Arion in 1985. His daughter Manuela Matalon Ostrolenk became the managing director, while Segal stayed on as head of A&R for the label's classical division. Shortly after Matalon's takeover, Arion announced plans for its first four releases on compact disc. These included Les flutes de terres Incas performed by the Andean music ensemble Los Calchakis and Guillaume Bouzignac's Motets et scènes sacrées. In the ensuing years Arion gradually re-released the recordings in its vinyl catalogue on CD as well as continuing to produce new CD recordings and in 1997 acquired the Pierre Verany label. As of 2015 Manuela Ostrolenk serves as both president and CEO of Arion. (Rondo DB)

Labels	Disques Pierre Verany
Wikipedia	Arion_(record_label)
Country	France
Started	1962
Official website	https://arion-music.com/