COMPANY PROFILE by Stephen Sutton

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 then in March 2009 to Castle Eden. Our warehousing is undertaken by our UK distributors, RSK Entertainment. 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 the acquisition of Heritage Media, 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, apart rom a few selected titles from the fine catalogue of Move Records (Australia), the English Campion and Cameo labels, 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 web 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 providers including iTunes, Amazon, Classics Online and our own digital store.

Last year we acquired Heritage Media Ltd, a producer of historic radio dramas, which wil 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).

In August 2008 we opened an office in Brandon, Vermont, USA. We now have a retail store for our CDs and books, which will expand, provided that we are able to procure visas for senior management, to include other CD labels, record-collector and audio products and a classical music cafe/tea-room in English style - also a gift shop and art gallery. We have three great employees - Clare Schick, office manager, who looks after sales and administration, and Patti LaDuke, retail manager, who is responsible for shipping, PR and promotional work, Penny Powers who manages our lovely English tea-room and recital room, and not forgetting occasional consultancy provided by Dotty White, accounts and payroll. Visit Brandon Music

UK registered office:
Divine Art Ltd
3 Cypress Close
Doddington
Cambridgeshire
PE15 0LE