COMPANY PROFILE by Stephen Sutton

Well, two company profiles really. You are in our American website so I should tell you about Brandon Music. Operated by our company Diversions, LLC, we opened the office here in Brandon, Vermont in August 2008. We have a retail store for our CDs and books, a retail area for sale of our CDs, a music cafe/tea room, a gift /antique shop and an art gallery. We have three great employees - Clare Schick, office manager, who looks after accounts and administation; Patti LaDuke, retail manager, who is responsible for shipping, PR and promotional work, and Penny Powers, who helps with retail and also manages our lovely English style tea-room and recital room. Not to forget Dotty White, former office manager, who is always on hand to advise on payroll and taxes. We also now have a gift shop and art gallery too.. Visit Brandon Music main site. This company is the parent of the international Divine Art Recordings Group, though the core of the business remains at present in England where it began. So to the beginning:

In 1992, I lived in a very small village in Northumberland, England, by the name of Simonburn. I worked as a commercial lawyer, and also had many connections with the famous village church of St. Mungo, being both the Reader (lay minister) and the assistant organist. As part of the exercise to raise funds for the restoration of our fine Walker organ, I agreed to produce a recording. That was Divine Art's first release, on cassette only (now on CD24101). It came to the attention of music critics, and led to my meeting several musicians who enlisted my help in producing CDs; they in turn introduced me to colleagues, and though I never intended to become a record producer one thing led to another until now we have an international business, which has acquired a reputation for quality and for introducing new music and fascinating rarities. The company was first based in South Shields, where I carried on my law practice, but we relocated a few years ago to East Harlsey, on the edge of the beautiful Hambleton Hills and our warehousing is undertaken by Sony/BMG (Arvato Services) in the Midlands. Terry Bickerdike, who has long experience in inventory and shipping management, joined the Board in December 2008 and was joined in January 2009 by Toby Horton, following our acquisition of a company specialising in vintage radio plays - an interesting new area for us to explore.

In 2003 we acquired the highly-regarded Athene label, specialising in period piano performances, and its sister label Athene-Minerva.  For a time we also distributed other labels but have discontinued this, except that we do offer the fine catalogue of Move Records (Australia), the English Campion and Cameo titles, and the privately produced CDs of Jill Crossland (Calico Classics), Peter Katin (RP Music) and Dan Evans (Dansing).   These arrangements were made as favours to friends and we cannot take on any more "other labels", although we are always happy to discuss releasing and distributing quality recordings on our own labels.

In April 2005 we launched the first in our new Historic Sound series, in partnership with Pristine Audio, leaders in sound restoration. More releases in this series will follow drawing on the collection of the Northern Vintage Recordings Archive which I manage. Our new recordings of classical, romantic and baroque music continue, both at home at abroad, and we are also working with the British Music Information Centre in respect of recordings of contemporary British music.

Our next step was completed on 1 April 2007, when we proudly accepted the acclaimed Metier label into our family.  Metier is renowned as among Europe's most important labels for contemporary music, and as well as the existing 77 titles, a new series of releases began in May 2007.  The label has drawn praise from many quarters for the quality of its productions and the innovation of programming, ideals which also underpin the divine art ethos. In April 2008, we added a further catalog, that of Dunelm Records; this label has always been available to special order only and all of its 200+ titles are in our UK store now; it will take some time for them to be available within the USA, but many of the best titles are being transferred to our Diversions label anyway.

The company now has seven labels, distribution in several countries, and an ever-increasing list of new projects, but the two founding principles remain: the company looks to produce recordings of rare and unusual music of quality, and is also artist-led. We trust our artists to know their audience and their repertoire, and act as the vehicle by which they can reach out to a larger audience.

Our CDs are currently distributed to retail stores and mail order companies in several major territories, and to selected outlets in other countries. Also, any product listed on this site may be ordered from us direct. Recordings from Divine Art, Diversions, Metier and Athene, (not Dunelm yet) are available in digital download format from all major porviders including iTunes and our own digital store.

Last year we acquired Heritage Media Ltd, a producer of historic radio dramas, which will be re-launched in 2010 both in digital and CD form.

Divine Art is a member of British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) and the International Federation of the Phonograph Industry (IFPI).

Diversions is a member of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and the Brandon Chamber of Commerce

Brandon Music:

Diversions LLC
(Brandon Music)
62 Country Club Road
Brandon, VT 05733