ABSTRACT
A Canadian firm, established in the Montreal suburb of Lachine by Herbert S. Berliner on 2 Nov 1921. Berliner (son of Emile Berliner) had been president of Berliner Gramophone Co. of Montreal, the Canadian Victor affiliate, but he resigned in April 1921 in a policy dispute with Victor. The Compo label, Apex, provided steady competition for Canadian Victor; it was among the earliest to issue electrical recordings (in late 1925; identified first as “New Process” records, then as “Electrophonic”), and was instrumental in driving down prices of the major firms by lowering its own. From 1923 to 1925 Compo issued race records in the U.S. under the label name Ajax. MCA, Inc. acquired Compo in 1964. [Robertson 1983.]
In 1889 Johannes Brahms became the first major composer to perform his music on record; he played (in Vienna) his “Hungarian Dance Number 1” for anEdison cylinder, using the Perfected Phonograph. Jules Massenet recorded a scene from his Sappho in 1903, with soprano Georgette Leblanc Maeterlinck. Camille Saint-Saens was recorded in 1904 and 1919, doing original piano works and transcriptions.
