1929 onwards
Decca
The last of the shellac houses, and the youngest
The Decca Record Company · London
The house
Decca was founded in 1929 by Edward Lewis, a stockbroker who had floated Barnett Samuel — the firm behind the portable Decca gramophone taken to the trenches — and concluded that selling machines without records made no sense.
It arrived after the acoustic era was over, so almost everything on a Decca label is electrically recorded. The company built its reputation on engineering, and by the 1940s its full frequency range recording work set the standard for the industry.
Because the house begins in 1929, only its earliest years fall inside the public-domain window this library works within. Most Decca material here is at the very edge of the shellac period rather than in the middle of it.
What it sounds like
Electric throughout, with a firmer bass and a more modern balance than the acoustic houses could achieve. Surfaces are generally quiet.
On the shelf
Pulling sleeves…