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Odin

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Established in Bergen May 31, 1981 In 1981 Norsk Jazzforbund [Norwegian Jazz Federation] established its own record label to ensure opportunities for releases of jazz albums by Norwegian artists. The original catalog, released during 1981 -- 1996, comprises 53 releases, two of which are ODIN samplers, [r=8902736] & [r=9913956] Release #09 was the 5LP box set [r=3894095], documenting recorded Norwegian jazz up to 1980. The box set was released in 1983, as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Norsk Jazzforbund. The remaining 50 releases were new, original albums by mostly Norwegian jazz artists. In 1998 the reissue of the first CD release of [r4514901], originally released on Sonet in 1970, was added as the final 54th title to the original catalog list. It was important from the very start that there were no stylistic restrictions. The only requirement was that the music was new, and created by artists that deserved wider recognition for their music. Hence, a range of styles of jazz and improvised music are represented in the catalog. The bestseller in the ODIN catalog is [m=74698] by and . This record has several times been graded as one of the most important jazz releases in Norway. In 2007 the album was #3, after [m216030] and [m102122], in the music journal Ballade's creation of a Norwegian Jazz Canon, based on nominations from 16 invited jazz experts. On this latter list, another best seller on the ODIN list, [m=310579], was #4. It was also deemed the best Norwegian music album of all times in a listing of the 100 best albums by Morgenbladet in 2011, a list nominated by 100 selected Norwegian musicians. At the time of the tenth anniversary of the label in May 1991, a total of 35 titles had been released, and almost 100 000 copies had been sold in total. Following the CD release of [r=4514901], the ODIN catalog was not renewed for several years. From 2003, the distribution, re-production and administration was licensed to . In 2013 the contract was awarded to . In 2015 Grappa, in collaboration with , renewed ODIN as working record label, and started a new program of reissues and new releases. The first release of the new series, with catalog number 9551 starting the new series, was a new edition -- the Original Master Edition -- of [m=74698], where it was remastered from the rediscovered original 1982 digital files. The next release, 9552, was the first LP release of [r8779218]. With [m1067234], the renewed ODIN catalog also included new releases.