Odyssey Records is a budget

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

record label founded by

Columbia Masterworks Records Columbia Masterworks was a record label started in 1924 by Columbia Records. In 1980, it was separated from the Columbia label and renamed CBS Masterworks. In 1990, it was revived as Sony Classical after its sale to the Sony Corporation. Histo ...

in 1966 as a reissue label. It is currently an imprint of Sony Masterworks. In the 1970s, Odyssey became well known for issuing albums of avant-garde classical music, including electronic works. Works by

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

, Maxfield, Oliveros,

Reich ( ; ) is a German word whose meaning is analogous to the English word " realm". The terms and are respectively used in German in reference to empires and kingdoms. In English usage, the term " Reich" often refers to Nazi Germany, also ca ...

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

("The Early Years"), and many other composers were made available through the label in that era. In the early 2000s, Sony Classical repurposed the Odyssey imprint to showcase its growing roster of “crossover” artists, such as Canadian violinist Lara St. John, Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis, Brazilian singer and guitarist Rosa Passos, and American classical pianist Christopher O'Riley.

References

Classical music record labels Columbia Records {{US-record-label-stub