Sonora

At the beginning of the 1930s the Swedish record market was totally dominated by large European companies such as HMV, Columbia and Odeon/Parlophon. Although these companies made a lot of recordings in Sweden for the local market, the records themselves were all pressed and manufactured abroad which made them subject to rather heavy import duties. Combined with the economic hardships of the great depression this made record sales drop from more than 3 million records in 1929 to 1.5 million in 1932.

Such was the situation when Erik Ljungberg, a successful real estate business man, decided to establish a record label produced entirely in Sweden. On November 5th 1932 he founded AB Sonora and by Christmas that year the new company's first records were released. The pressings was made by AB Alpha, a subsidary of the well known Swedish phone company L M Ericsson. Whereas the imported labels sold at 3.50 kronor Sonoras were sold at 2 kronor originally and the price was reduced to 1.65 kronor during 1933! The result was an almost immediate success: soon Sonora was turning out 70,000 records every month.

Although even the very first Sonoras from 1932 boasted the proud slogan "Den svenska skivan" (= The Swedish record) on the label, these were actually, due to lack of time, pressed from imported German Artiphon masters but with the song titles given in Swedish (even when there was a vocal refrain sung in German; see first picture). From 1933 on however Sonora began making recordings of their own and would rely solely on these. Sonora used the studios of the Swedish national radio company as well as "Vargen", a local cinema in Stockholm for their recordings. At this time the label design also got the shape it would retain for the rest of the 1930s (see second picture).

Head of recordings was Helge Roundquist who was also the company's main talent scout. It was largely thanks to him that the young company managed to engage some of the most populair Swedish stars of the period such as singers Sigge Fürst, Hilmer Borgeling, Sven-Olof Sandberg, Max Hansen, Yngve Stoor, Alice Babs and opera star Folke Andersson as well as instrumentalists Olle Johnny, Gösta Jonsson and Calle Jularbo. In 1940 the comapny also "stole" Columbia's top Swedish artist, singer Ulla Billquist, whose first Sonora recording "Min soldat" (= My Soldier) became the best known song in Sweden during the war and one of Sonora's top ten sellers ever.

Sonora was also one of the first labels to launch a special series devoted entirely to pure jazz, the "Sonora Swing" label which began in 1936 (see third picture which shows a later version; the earliest issues had the same design as the second picture, only with the words "Swing serie" added in the red triangle under the label name). Among the first issues were several made by a varying pick up group led by bass player Thore Jederby under the name of "Sonora Swing Swingers", generally regarded as one of the first real examples of pure Swedish small band jazz and swing playing. Other orchestras to record for the Swing label were those of Nisse Lind, Sven Arefeldt and Lulle Ellboj.

Obviously Sonora was also successful in convincing international artists to record for the company when visiting Sweden. Thus there are Sonoras featuring Benny Carter (1936), Nat Gonella (1937) and Valaida Snow (1939).

In 1941 the red label was substituted by the yellow "Elit" label (see fourth picture) and due to the economic problems of the war the record price was raised to 2.50 kronor. There was also a special "Konsertmusik" (= concert music) label which seems to have been devoted mainly to light classics (see fifth picture).

In 1946 Helge Roundquist left Sonora to form his own record company, Cupol, taking with him several of Sonora's most popular artists. Together with lack of raw material, this meant there were few Sonora issues for the first years after the war. Later during the 1940s and during the 1950s things got better again and Sonora launched a new bunch of very popular artists, among them Bertil Boo (known as "The Singing Farmer"), Calle Reinholdz, Brita Borg and Anders Börje. The label design was also changed one last time during the 78 rpm era, now including a stroboscope (see sixth picture).

1958 was the last year of Sonora's production of 78 rpm records and also the year when the company's founder Erik Ljungberg passed away. After his death the company was taken over by Philips and the name was changed to AB Philips-Sonora, later to become AB Phonogram and finally Polygram Records. The label name Sonora has been used sparingly during the LP and CD eras, mainly for reissues of material from the company's heyday.

From 1935 on Sonora also had a special label devoted to religious songs, called Sonata (see seventh picture). One of the releases on this label, "Barnatro" (= Child's Faith) sung by Anna-Lisa "Lapp-Lisa" Öst, turned out to be Sonora's biggest selling record ever, having sold almost 90.000 copies by the time when the company stopped producing 78 rpm records in 1958.

References:
"Myggans nöjeslexikon" (Uno Myggan Ericson, ed), Höganäs 1989-93
Liner notes by Björn Englund to the LP "Sonora 50 år"
Liner notes by Thore Jederby to the CD box "Svensk Jazzhistoria Vol 3"

Notes compiled by and label scans from records in the collection of Fredrik Tersmeden, Lund, Sweden