Wrasse Records is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

. It was started in 1998 by Ian and Jo Ashbridge. Both had been involved in the music industry prior to them starting up their own company. Its offices are based in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, but it distributes its CDs all around the world. In 2005, it licensed most of Universal Music's world music releases for distribution in the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the UK.

Wrasse Records specializes in world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

, with artists such as Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...

, Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha

Rachid Taha is an Algerian singer and activist based in France who has been described as "sonically adventurous." His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, electronic, punk and raï.-Early life:Taha was born in 1958 in Sig , Algeria, although a second source suggests he was...

, Ismael Lo

Ismaël Lô

Ismaël Lô is a Senegalese musician. He was born in Dogondoutchi, Niger on 30 August 1956, to a Senegalese father and a Nigerien mother. Shortly after Lo's birth the family returned to Senegal where they settled in the town of Rufisque, near the capital Dakar. He also plays the guitar and the...

, Souad Massi

Souad Massi

Souad Massi , born August 23, 1972, is an Algerian singer, songwriter and guitarist. She began her career performing in the Kabyle political rock band Atakor, before leaving the country following a series of death threats...

, Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo

Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...

 and Pink Martini

Pink Martini

Pink Martini is a 13-member "little orchestra" from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. They draw inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop.-History:...

.

Seu Jorge

Seu Jorge

Seu Jorge is a Brazilian musician, singer/songwriter and actor. Born Jorge Mário da Silva, he was raised in a favela in the city of Belford Roxo in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro state. He is considered by his fans a renewer of Brazilian pop samba...

's album Cru

Cru (album)

Cru is a 2004 album by Seu Jorge first released in France on sept, 21st of 2004 by parisian independent label Fla-Flu with the record company Naïve. This was his second album to be released outside his native Brazil, the first being Carolina. Many of the songs on the album are covers such as...

established Wrasse with the release of the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, The Life Aquatic.

Humphead Records is an associated label specializing in country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

.

Artists

• King Sunny Ade
  King Sunny Adé
  King Sunny Adé is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian Jùjú music and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.-Background:...
  
  
• Tony Allen
  Tony Allen (musician)
  Tony Oladipo Allen is aNigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who currently lives and works in Paris. He is currently writing his autobiography "Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat" with author/musician Michael E...
  
  
• Amparanoia
  Amparanoia
  Amparanoia is the pseudonym of Spanish singer/guitarist Amparo Sánchez combining her first name with the word 'paranoia'. It was also the name of the band she fronted from 1996 to 2006. Debut album, El Poder de Machín, has been described as being "bright, exuberant.....
  
  
• Horace Andy
  Horace Andy
  Horace Andy is a roots reggae songwriter and singer, known for his distinctive vocals and hit songs such as "Government Land", "Angel", "Five Man Army" and a cover version of "Ain't No Sunshine"....
  
  
• Issa Bagayogo
  Issa Bagayogo
  Issa Bagayogo is a Malian musician. He has released four full-length albums all under the record label Six Degrees Records. Bagayogo lends his voice and plays the kamele n'goni while Yves Wernert is the producer and keyboardist.-Career:Bagayogo blends his native Malian traditions with western pop...
  
  
• The Bathers
  The Bathers (band)
  The Bathers are a Scottish Chamber pop band.Formed in Glasgow in 1985 after the band Friends Again split up, they are essentially the vehicle for singer-songwriter, Chris Thomson. They have released seven albums....
  
  
• Jorge Benjor
• Chris Berry
  Chris Berry
  Chris Berry is a master of both mbira and the ngoma drum, from the Shona people of Southern Africa. He has earned the title of gwenyambira , a distinction reserved only for those who have achieved the highest fusion of the technical and the magical in Shona music...
  
  
• Maria Bethania
  Maria Bethânia
  Maria Bethânia Vianna Telles Veloso , better known as Maria Bethânia , is a singer and sister of Caetano Veloso. She started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião"...
  
  
• Gregg Kofi Brown
• Chico Buarque
  Chico Buarque
  Francisco Buarque de Hollanda , popularly known as Chico Buarque , is a singer, guitarist, composer, dramatist, writer and poet...
  
  
• Yuri Buenaventura
• Café De Los Maestros
• Café Tacuba
• Manecas Costa
• Gal Costa
  Gal Costa
  Gal Costa is a Brazilian singer of popular music.-Early life:...
  
  
• Daara J
  Daara J
  Daara J are a Senegalese rap trio that consists of N'Dongo D, Aladji Man, and Faada Freddy. Their music takes influence from hip hop, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and reggae and is performed in English, French, Spanish, and Wolof....
  
  
• Vinicius De Moraes
  Vinicius de Moraes
  Marcus Vinicius de Moraes , known as Vinicius de Moraes and nicknamed O Poetinho , was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Son of Lydia Cruz de Moraes and Clodoaldo Pereira da Silva Moraes, he was a seminal figure in contemporary Brazilian music...
  
  
• Wasis Diop
  Wasis Diop
  Wasis Diop is a Senegalese musician of international renown, known for blending traditional Senegalese folk music with modern pop and jazz...
  
  
• Arielle Dombasle
  Arielle Dombasle
  Arielle Dombasle is a French-American singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa...
  
  
• Lucky Dube
  Lucky Dube
  Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist...
  
  
• Enzo Avitabile & Bottari
• Faudel
  Faudel
  Faudel , born Faudel Belloua on June 6, 1978 in Mantes-la-Jolie, is a French singer of Algerian descent.-Early years:...
  
  
• China Forbes
  China Forbes
  China Forbes is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of Pink Martini.Forbes was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father is American of French/Scottish descent, and her mother is African American...
  
  
• Donavon Frankenreiter
  Donavon Frankenreiter
  Donavon Frankenreiter is an American musician and surfer. He is a long-time friend of Jack Johnson and his debut self-titled album was released in 2004 on Johnson's Brushfire Records through Universal Music and made the Australian ARIA Top-40 charts in April 2004.-Surfing career:He took up surfing...
  
  
• Freshlyground
  Freshlyground
  Freshlyground is a South African Afro-fusion band that formed in Cape Town in 2002. The band members variously hail from South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe...
  
  
• Gilberto Gil
  Gilberto Gil
  Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...
  
  
• Idir
  Idir
  Hamid Cheriet better known by his stage name Idir is an Algerian musician of Berber origin.- Biography :...
  
  
• Jace Everett
  Jace Everett
  Jace Everett is an American recording artist. Signed to Epic Records in 2005, he released his debut single "That's the Kind of Love I'm In" in 2005, which peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and was the first single from his self-titled debut album. He also co-wrote Josh...
  
  
• Julien Jacob
• Shooter Jennings
  Shooter Jennings
  Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings is an American singer-songwriter active in the country music and Southern rock genres as well as making his first foray into psychedelic rock in 2009...
  
  
• Tom Jobim
• Kevin Johansen
  Kevin Johansen
  Kevin Johansen is an Argentine-American rock musician. Born to an Argentine mother, Marta Calvet, and an American father, he lived most of his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, but moved with his family to Buenos Aires at the age of 12...
  
  
• Juanes
  Juanes
  Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez , better known as Juanes is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album Fíjate Bien won three Latin Grammy Awards.Juanes has sold more than 13 million albums...
  
  
• K'naan
  K'naan
  K'naan , born Keinan Abdi Warsame in 1978, is a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Somalia, K'naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia's most...
  
  
• Kando Bongo Man
• Lokua Kanza
  Lokua Kanza
  Lokua Kanza is a singer, songwriter, and composer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is known for his soulful, folksy sound, which is atypical of the dancefloor friendly soukous music that is common in the Congo.-Biography:...
  
  
• Salif Keita
  Salif Keita
  Salif Keïta is an internationally recognized afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita...
  
  
• Khaled
  Khaled (musician)
  Khaled Hadj Ibrahim , better known as Khaled, is a raï singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born in Sidi El Houari in Oran Province of Algeria...
  
  
• Angelique Kidjo
  Angélique Kidjo
  Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...
  
  
• Fela Anikulapo Kuti
• Femi Kuti
  Femi Kuti
  Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti popularly known as Femi Kuti, is a Nigerian musician and the eldest son of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti....
  
  
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo
  Ladysmith Black Mambazo
  Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a male choral group from South Africa that sings in the vocal styles of isicathamiya and mbube. They rose to worldwide prominence as a result of singing with Paul Simon on his album, Graceland and have won multiple awards, including three Grammy Awards...
  
  
• Nara Leao
  Nara Leão
  Nara Lofego Leão was a Brazilian bossa nova and MPB singer and occasional actress. Her husband was Carlos Diegues, director and writer of Bye Bye Brasil....
  
  
• Linton Kwesi Johnson
  Linton Kwesi Johnson
  Linton Kwesi Johnson is a UK-based dub poet. He became the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published in the Penguin Classics series. His poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British...
  
  
• Ismael Lo
  Ismaël Lô
  Ismaël Lô is a Senegalese musician. He was born in Dogondoutchi, Niger on 30 August 1956, to a Senegalese father and a Nigerien mother. Shortly after Lo's birth the family returned to Senegal where they settled in the town of Rufisque, near the capital Dakar. He also plays the guitar and the...
  
  
• Lo' Jo
• Baaba Maal
  Baaba Maal
  Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. In addition to acoustic guitar, he also plays percussion. He has released several albums, both for independent and major labels. In July 2003, he was made a UNDP Youth Emissary.-Biography:Born 12 November 1953...
  
  
• Vusi Mahlasela
  Vusi Mahlasela
  Vusi Sidney Mahlasela Ka Zwane is a Sotho South African singer-songwriter.His music is generally described as "African folk". His work was an inspiration to many in the anti-apartheid movement. His themes include the struggle for freedom, and forgiveness and reconciliation with enemies...
  
  
• Mahotella Queens
  Mahotella Queens
  The Mahotella Queens are a South African singing group formed in 1964 comprising Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu and Mildred Mangxola...
  
  
• Miriam Makeba
  Miriam Makeba
  Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....
  
  
• Souad Massi
  Souad Massi
  Souad Massi , born August 23, 1972, is an Algerian singer, songwriter and guitarist. She began her career performing in the Kabyle political rock band Atakor, before leaving the country following a series of death threats...
  
  
• Sérgio Mendes
  Sergio Mendes
  Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
  
  
• Pablo Milanes
  Pablo Milanés
  Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...
  
  
• Rhett Miller
  Rhett Miller
  Stewart Ransom Miller II , better-known as Rhett Miller is the lead singer of the alternative country band Old 97's and a successful solo musician. He graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas, a private boys' school in Dallas in 1989 and briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College on a creative...
  
  
• Morley
  Morley
  - Places :United Kingdom* Morley, County Durham, England* Morley, Derbyshire, England* Morley, West Yorkshire, England* Morley Saint Botolph, Norfolk, England* Morley Saint Peter, Norfolk, EnglandUnited States* Morley, Iowa* Morley, Michigan...
  
  
• Mungal
• Nude Girls
• Orange Blossom
  Orange Blossom
  Orange Blossom is a French band that plays a mix of electronic and world music.The band was formed in Nantes in 1993 with Pierre-Jean Chabot on violin and Jean-Christophe Waechter on percussions and vocals....
  
  
• Geoffrey Oryema
  Geoffrey Oryema
  Geoffrey Oryema is an internationally renowned Ugandan musician. In 1977, at the age of 24 and at the height of Idi Amin's power, Oryema was smuggled across the Ugandan border in the trunk of a car, after the death of his father, Erinayo Wilson Oryema, who was a cabinet minister, beginning a life...
  
  
• Vanessa Paradis
  Vanessa Paradis
  Vanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer, model and actress. She became a child star at 14 with the worldwide success of her single "Joe le taxi"...
  
  
• Pascal of Bollywood
• Pink Martini
  Pink Martini
  Pink Martini is a 13-member "little orchestra" from Portland, Oregon, formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale. They draw inspiration from music from all over the world – crossing genres of classical, jazz and old-fashioned pop.-History:...
  
  
• Randy Crawford & Joe Sample
• Elis Regina
  Elis Regina
  Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known simply as Elis Regina was an important singer of Brazilian popular music. She became nationally renowned in 1965, after singing Arrastão in the first edition of TV Excelsior festival song contest, and soon joined O Fino da Bossa, a television program on TV Record...
  
  
• Sa Dingding
• Ivete Sangalo
  Ivete Sangalo
  Ivete Maria Dias de Sangalo is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian Axé and MPB singer, songwriter, and occasional actress and television show host...
  
  
• Seu Jorge
  Seu Jorge
  Seu Jorge is a Brazilian musician, singer/songwriter and actor. Born Jorge Mário da Silva, he was raised in a favela in the city of Belford Roxo in the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro state. He is considered by his fans a renewer of Brazilian pop samba...
  
  
• Idrissa Soumaoro
• Kristi Stassinopoulou
  Kristi Stassinopoulou
  Chrisavgi Stassinopoulou is a Greek singer, lyricist and fiction writer. A native Athenian, she is an internationally known artist of the world music circuit. She is accompanied by composer, arranger, co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis...
  
  
• Rachid Taha
  Rachid Taha
  Rachid Taha is an Algerian singer and activist based in France who has been described as "sonically adventurous." His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, electronic, punk and raï.-Early life:Taha was born in 1958 in Sig , Algeria, although a second source suggests he was...
  
  
• Tiken Jah Fakoly
  Tiken Jah Fakoly
  Tiken Jah Fakoly is a reggae singer from Côte d'Ivoire.Tiken Jah was born into a family of griots and christened Doumbia Moussa Fakoly on June 23, 1968 in Odienné, north-western Côte d'Ivoire. He discovered reggae at an early age, assembling his first group, Djelys, in 1987...
  
  
• Tinariwen
  Tinariwen
  Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed around 1979 in refugee camps in Libya but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s...
  
  
• Boubacar Traore
  Boubacar Traoré
  Boubacar Traoré is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, "the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: "a nickname I got from playing soccer when I was young...
  
  
• Caetano Veloso
  Caetano Veloso
  Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
  
  
• Yerba Buena
  Yerba Buena
  Yerba buena is a rambling aromatic herb of western and northwestern North America, ranging from maritime Alaska southwards to Baja California Sur...
  
  
• Zucchero
  Zucchero
  Adelmo Fornaciari, Commander , more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero /ˈtsukkero/, is an Italian rock singer. His music is largely inspired by gospel, blues and rock music, and alternates between ballads and more rhythmic boogie-like pieces.Zucchero is the...