`IRISH' ALBUM ON NEW LABEL.

Byline: Billboard

Paddy Moloney, the chief of the Chieftains, and the traditional Irish band's co-managers have formed a world music label, Unisphere Records, whose albums will be marketed and distributed by BMG.

The first project for the imprint - based in Vancouver and New York - will be the companion album to the six-hour, four-part PBS TV special ``Irish in America - The Long Journey Home.'' The Disney-produced program will be aired in January '98, and the album will be out Jan. 13.

Another project - on which Moloney was working in a studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at press time - is an album of Canadian artists performing the music of the Cape Breton region, a seat of Celtic culture in North America. That album - as yet untitled - tentatively is expected to be released in May '98.

The label also is in negotiations with several artists, and the first signing may be ``imminent,'' according to Steve Macklam, who will co-manage the imprint with Sam Feldman. Macklam and Feldman are co-managers of the Chieftains.

Unisphere is 50 percent owned by Moloney and the two managers and 50 percent owned by BMG. The Chieftains record for RCA Victor, a unit of BMG Classics, which will handle sales, promotion, marketing and distribution. This is said to be BMG Classics' first joint venture with an artist-created label.

The goal is to release a minimum of 12 albums during three years, which will include a mixture of projects such as the ``Irish in America'' set.

The ``Irish in America'' album will feature mostly established artists such as Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, Vince Gill, Mary Black and the Chieftains.