Shandar

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Shandar was a French record label focused on avant-garde music, active mainly in the 1970s. It released work by artists such as Albert Ayler, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Sunny Murray, Philip Glass, Richard Horowitz, Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, Alan Silva, Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. Many records carried the Shandar name and the Shanti logo. The label was funded by Aimé and Marguerite Maeght, creators of the Maeght Foundation, which ran modern art exhibitions and concerts. As a result, much of Shandar’s catalog comes from Maeght-sponsored concerts, including Cecil Taylor’s and Albert Ayler’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght.

One notable release is La Monte Young’s Dream House 78' 17", the music for Young’s Dream House installation. Each side runs for almost 40 minutes, totaling 78 minutes and 17 seconds—an unusually long format for the time due to the nature of the work. Shandar also released Guitares Dérive, a live recording by the classical guitar duo Vincent Le Masne and Bertrand Porquet.

The label did not last long. In 1979, a flood damaged a cellar under an art gallery at 40 Rue Mazarine in Paris where founders Daniel Caux and Chantal Darcy worked, ruining vinyl stocks and recordings. The gallery closed soon after, and Shandar disappeared. Some of its catalog was picked up by other small labels and remains available, but much of it has vanished.