After years spent within the Milanese music industry, in 1991 Luciano Cantone felt the need to follow a more personal, free, and independent vision.
This is how, by the end of that year, Edizioni Ishtar was born: a project rooted in a passion for music and the desire to explore new sonic horizons.
Shortly after, Davide Rosa joined the project, and together they formed a partnership. Their union of musical and cultural sensibilities strengthened the identity of the emerging record company.
These were years of great creative ferment. A sense of change was in the air: the boundaries between genres became more blurred, and from the reinterpretation of traditions, new musical aesthetics were born—more hybrid, deep, and contemporary. In this climate of exploration and cross-pollination, Ishtar emerged with a keen and sensitive eye, becoming one of the most interesting hubs of the independent Italian music scene.
From this pioneering spirit, collaborations and productions would emerge that would profoundly impact both the national and international music scenes.
Edizioni Ishtar, through its label, Schema Records, became the launching pad for artists such as Nicola Conte (over 400,000 copies sold with the albums “Jet Sound,” “Other Direction/Blue Note,” and “Ritual/Impulse”), Rosalia De Souza (over 180,000 copies sold with the albums “Garota Moderna, Brazil Precisa Balancar,” and “D’Improvviso”), Mario Biondi (over 350,000 copies sold of “Handful of Soul”), S-Tone Inc., Gerardo Frisina, The Dining Rooms, Toco, Les Hommes, and many others.
These artists are capable of blending jazz, soul, bossa nova, Latin jazz, dance and electronic music into a unique and recognizable language that would win over audiences around the world.
In December 1995, with an increasingly broad and international vision, Luciano Cantone founded Family Affair Distribution, a distribution company designed to represent in Italy some of the most innovative labels in the global music scene.
The goal was clear: to build a bridge between emerging international music scenes and the Italian public, providing access to sounds that reflected the ongoing cultural evolution.
Family Affair Distribution thus became an essential node for spreading the new sonic aesthetics emerging worldwide, including indie, electronic, jazz, soul, and Afro-Latin music.
In 2000, to confirm its commitment to preserving and promoting the great European jazz tradition, Edizioni Ishtar carried out an important cultural and entrepreneurial operation: the acquisition of the prestigious catalogue of the Italian-German producer Gigi Campi.
A historic figure in European jazz, Campi played a pivotal role in the promotion of modern jazz across Europe, producing and promoting one of the most important big bands of the time, the Kenny Clarke – Francy Boland Big Band. This legacy was integrated into the Ishtar universe, enriching it with a dimension of extraordinary historical value.
Today, Ishtar owns a catalogue of approximately 4,000 recordings and a repertoire of around 2,500 works, showcasing a carefully curated and deeply inspired collection that spans decades and continents.
In 2019, driven by the desire to explore new musical trajectories and open a new generational chapter, Luciano founded Space Is the Place. This new business venture further expanded its reach in the independent music scene.
From this vision, two distinct but complementary labels were born: Space Echo and Dialogo.
Space Echo is dedicated to the future: a space where new voices and emerging talents find a fertile ground to express themselves and grow, maintaining the same attention to sound quality and artistic identity that has always characterized Cantone’s work.
Dialogo, on the other hand, looks to the past with a contemporary lens. Its mission is to recover and enhance historical catalogues through meticulously crafted reissues, bringing rare and fundamental works of Italian and international music history back to the public—often forgotten or inaccessible.
Furthermore, Space Echo manages the master and publishing rights of the Hyperjazz label, curated by Raffaele Costantino, further strengthening its role in promoting musical avant-gardes and contemporary sonic expressions.
Contatti: info[at]spaceecho.it
