Founded 1981 | Country of origin France | |
Official website | ||
1981 – 1990
FGL was founded by three friends in 1981, the name of the company deriving from the acronym of their first initials. The company releases music under multiple labels.
The first labels, “Eva” and “Lolita”, started with the reissue of underground American and English rock from the 1950s and 1960s, including editions of Doctor Feelgood, The Plimsouls, The Inmates and the collections; Sound of the Sixties, Other Half, Texas Punk and Sixties Archives. The label "Axe Killer" produces hard rock.
A new label “Revenge” contributed to the comeback of (Iggy Pop) and reissue of the rarest tracks of "Motorcity" as MC5, The Flamin' Groovies, The Stooges, New Race and Destroy All Monsters.
The same year the "Mantra" label was created, offering progressive music including Gong Amon Duul, Dashiell Hedayat, Tim Blake and also of contemporary music with Pierre Henry, Art Zoyd and the reissue of the best titles of Saravah.
1991 – 2000
In the 90s, Mantra reissued and produced the French rock bands, including Cyclops, The Straight Heads, Le Cri de la Mouche and Parabellum.
The “Play-Time” label specialised in film scores. Many soundtracks were republished as those of Peau d'Âne and Michel Legrand. The label then turned to television theme music.
FGL developed a catalog of songs of French heritage, under the label “Orphee”.
The “Swingmania” label offered collections of dance music lounges.
FGL became the owner of a large back catalog of artists from French artists Lio, Robert Charlebois Hervé Cristiani, Peter Vassiliu, Catherine Ribeiro, Eric Morena and international artists, including Jimmy Cliff and The Korgis.
Following these successes, FGL released luxury editions of French or international variety with their label "Anthologies", offering anthologies of Petula Clark Adamo and Marilyn Monroe.
In early 1999, FGL opened its first website, www.musicentury.com, offering online and music news.
FGL planned a catalog of world music under the label “Kosmos”, becoming the exclusive producer of the world famous orchestras Bolshoi and the Red Army Choir.
FGL opened several overseas offices, such as Moscow, Bangkok and even London and New York.