BYG Records was a Frenchrecord label known for theActuel series specializing infree jazz. However, the label released a handful of non-jazz recordings by artists such asMusica Elettronica Viva,Terry Riley,Freedom andGong.

BYG Records was founded in March 1967 byJean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young, and Fernand Boruso. The name of the label was formed from the initial letters of the founders' surnames. Georgakarakos had previously established himself as a record distributor and importer, while Young worked forBarclay Records and Boruso forSaravah, the record label formed by Pierre Barouh.

The label invited American free jazz musicians toParis to record in the summer of 1969, a time when they were receiving little support or attention in the United States. Many of these musicians were already overseas at the time, having appeared at the Pan-African Music Festival inAlgiers in July 1969.^[1] (Jazz photographer Jacques Bisceglia was largely responsible for connecting the label and musicians, and the "B" in BYG is often wrongly held to refer to Bisceglia.) The resulting albums are an important repository of free jazz recordings from the period.

BYG Actuel was also responsible for organising the Actuel festival, which took place in late October 1969 in the small Belgian town of Amougies. The festival was initially intended to take place in or near Paris, but was banned by the French authorities. It featured many leading exponents of progressive rock, such asFrank Zappa,Pink Floyd,Captain Beefheart,Soft Machine,Ten Years After,Yes andThe Nice. The festival was a popular success, with around 20,000 visitors over five nights, but it was a financial failure. In July 1970, Georgakarakos organised the Popanalia festival at Biot on theFrench Riviera, but this was also financially unsuccessful. By 1972, financial problems had plagued BYG to the point where it virtually went underground. Georgakarakos and Young later formed their own record labels,Celluloid (Georgakarakos) andCharly (Young). In 2002 a compilation album featuring the best of the label,JazzActuel: a collection of avant garde/free jazz/psychedelia from the BYG/Actuel catalogue of 1969–1971, was released by Charly (as a 3-CD set) and Get Back Records of Italy (as a 6-LP set). The collection was curated byThurston Moore ofSonic Youth and journalistByron Coley.^[2]

(Actuel series releases)

(Pop Blues series releases)

BYG Records launched its own website in 2020:http://www.bygrecords.com/

• List of record labels

• Defunct record labels of France
• Record labels established in 1967
• Record labels disestablished in 1972
• French jazz record labels

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