EGREM (Estudios Areíto)
EGREM (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales) is Cuba's state recording company, founded in 1964 after the Revolution nationalized all private recording labels. Its main facility, Estudios Areíto in Havana, is where virtually every important Cuban recording from the Revolution era was made.
History
Before the Revolution, Cuba had a vibrant commercial recording industry with labels like Panart, Puchito, and the local operations of RCA and Columbia. After 1959, these were nationalized and merged into EGREM, which held a monopoly on recording in Cuba for decades.
Estudios Areíto
The Areíto studios became the legendary recording space of post-Revolution Cuban music. Their distinctive room sound — the slightly warm, roomy acoustic of the tracking room — can be heard on recordings from Los Van Van, NG La Banda, Irakere, and hundreds of other essential Cuban records.
The Buena Vista Social Club album (1997) was recorded here, bringing the studios to international attention.
Significance
EGREM's catalog is the archive of Cuban music under the Revolution: every major Timba band, every classical recording, every folkloric ensemble. Because of the US embargo, this catalog was long inaccessible internationally, which contributed to the relative obscurity of Cuban music outside the country — and made the Buena Vista Social Club's international success all the more striking.
📝 Sources
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