La Lettre du Musicien n° 283 - Mai - 22/04/2003
Interview with Flavien PIERSON, director of the Intégral Classic label and Intégral Distribution.


Is it easy to produce one record label and to distribute others?
Initially, I was record producer, but like quite a few heads of small labels I was confronted with the failure of successive distributors. So, circumstances forced me to become a distributor, and I spent some time going backwards and forwards across France! Our distribution network worked, and other labels asked us to distribute them as well. The consequences for our own productions were dramatic: for over three years we haven't had the time to produce a single record!

And at present ?
Our distribution network is well established and we've developed Intégral Distribution to a point where we can envisage producing four or five records a year under the Intégral Classic label. For our size that's more than enough!

What is the Intégral Classic repertoire ?
I was initially interested in early 20th century French music, particularly the piano repertoire. Over time, artists came to us with projects which enriched our catalogue, such as all Poulenc's works for two pianos by the Duo Benzakoun, and also Thierry Pécou's chamber music by the Ensemble Zellig and François Leleux. We'll soon be joined by the pianist Irakly Avaliani, the viola player Pierre Lenert, the Ad Novem nonet as well as the Ensemble Musica Antiqua Provence. It's important to keep with artists who are totally committed to a musical project, including all the aspects associated with the promotion of their album!

How do you envisage the future distribution of a label such as yours ?
The major groups such as Fnac and Virgin claim to be looking for a way to relaunch the Classical range, yet at the same time they give the impression that in the medium term they want to establish a per unit management of each label's titles. In other words, ideally they would like to keep extremely limited stocks and sell all the titles available before paying the producers.
This being the case, a situation like this would be difficult for the labels and would result in numerous «victims» amongst us. So, do the smaller labels have to think about creating their own sales outlets ?