The alan parsons project

1975-1990

The history of the group began with the fact that in the summer of 1974, Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson met at the sideboard of the London recording studio " Abby Road ".

Parsons was a sound engineer , producer, and composer who worked for Abby Road. By then, he had already built up his name and reputation through work with Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd . In particular, he was the sound engineer for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon , Beatles' Abbey Road .

During the 1960s, the composer, poet and pianist Wolfson wrote many compositions that included in the repertoire of such performers as Marianne Faithfull , Frank Ayfield , Joe Dassin , The Tremeloes , Marmalade . In addition, Eric tried his hand at management in the music industry - in particular, in the project of Karl Douglas " Kung Fu Fighting ." He ended up on Abby Road as a session pianist.

Parsons invited Wolfson to become the manager of his sound engineering projects, which Eric willingly agreed to. Together they worked with the bands Pilot , Cockney Rebel , Ambrosia and The Hollies , as well as performers John Miles , Steve Harley and Al Stewart.

The Alan Parsons Project team (hereinafter referred to as APP) was formed in 1975 when Wolfson showed Alan his sketches of a conceptual music album inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe . Parsons liked the material, especially since he was a fan of Edgar Allan Poe's mystical prose. It was decided to try recording an album. Wolfson proposed a division of control. Parsons was responsible for producing, creating the concept of the album and preliminary vision of the music, arranging and recording it, and also partially a composing function. Wolfson took on the role of composer and author of texts and everything that related to the direct performance of music. In the same year, a contract was signed with 20th Century Fox Records .

The studio album, called Tales of Mystery and Imagination , was released in 1976 . To record the album, many session musicians were involved. These were mainly those who had previously worked with Parsons, primarily the musicians of the Pilot and Cockney Rebel groups, who formed a kind of “backbone” of The Alan Parsons Project, although officially APP never had a permanent composition. In addition, John Miles, Andrew Powell and other famous musicians were involved in the recordings. The album is a philosophical creation in the genre of symphonic art rock with echoes of psychedelicism and arranged as a single whole , not a set of separate compositions.

The subsequent APP discs - I Robot ( 1977 ) (based on the works of Isaac Asimov ) and Pyramid ( 1978 ) (a tribute to the "Egyptian boom" that covered Europe at that time) turned out to be commercially successful and emotionally powerful. This was followed by a less commercially successful (and according to some critics ^{[ what? ]} , and in music too) the Eve album ( 1979 ). However, the album The Turn of a Friendly Card ( 1980 ) released after him restored the group's reputation. On this album, Wolfson first acted as a leading vocalist, and very successfully - Wolfson's recognizable vocals became a kind of "calling card" of the group.

The band's next album, Eye in the Sky ( 1982 ), was perhaps APP's most famous album - and the most successful commercially. Erik Wolfson's song “Eye in the Sky”, named after the album, finished third on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The cover of the album was decorated with the Eye of Horus - an ancient Egyptian symbol that later became the emblem of the group. Starting with Eye in the Sky , in the art-rock plan, the arrangements were somewhat simplified, but at the same time they acquired refinement and accuracy - according to some critics, APP music became “refined”.

Then followed the albums Ammonia Avenue ( 1984 ), Vulture Culture ( 1984 ) and Stereotomy ( 1985 ) - sound and high-quality records warmly received by the public. True, the new albums still did not reach the band’s earlier works, which gave critics a reason to start talking about the imminent onset of the “crisis of the genre” usual for musical groups for APP. However, the album Gaudi ( 1987 ), dedicated to the work of the legendary Spanish architect Anthony Gaudi , was thematically sustained and composed like the band's early work.

The total circulation of ten original albums by The Alan Parsons Project exceeded 50 million copies.

After 1990

It was originally planned that the album Freudiana (1990) - the result of Wolfson's reflections on the ideas of Sigmund Freud - would be the group's eleventh album, but Eric Wolfson had already decided to start a solo career with a bias in theatrical art. Therefore, it was decided not to position the album as a creation of APP, especially since it was almost entirely (except for one thing) written by Wolfson - Parsons acted as a producer and sound engineer. True, in the recording of the album, which lasted almost three years, the entire performing "backbone" of APP took part. Subsequently, Eric directed the highly successful musical of the same name on Freudiana , which was followed by theatrical productions of Gaudi ( 1996 ) on the APP and Gambler ( 1997 ) in the 1990s. In 2003, Wolfson recorded the album Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination close to the early works of APP.

After the departure of Eric Wolfson, Alan Parsons considered it inappropriate to leave the name The Alan Parsons Project, and the group officially ceased to exist. Nevertheless, with the former musical collective, Parsons released three more records under his own name: Try Anything Once (1993), On Air ( 1996 ) and The Time Machine ( 1999 ). The permanent guitarist of the group Ian Burnson actively joined in songwriting , drummer Stuart Elliot and arranger Andrew Powell . Released in 2004, A Valid Path was already a completely independent creation by Alan Parsons.

On December 2, 2009, Eric Wolfson died at the age of 64 of a cancer he had been fighting for many years.

Officially, the group never had a permanent composition, excluding the founders of the group:

• Alan Parsons - producer, sound engineer, music author, keyboards, acoustic guitar, bass, flute, vocoder, programming, additional rhythm guitar;

• Eric Woolfson ( Eric Woolfson ) - executive producer, author of music and lyrics, vocals, keyboards;

• Ian Bairnson ( Ian Bairnson ) - a permanent guitarist, author of music and lyrics.

However, there was a more or less constant "backbone of the group" in the following composition:

• Andrew Powell - keyboards, arrangement, music author;
• David Paton ( David Paton ) - bass guitar (1975-1985; 1991-1993);
• Lauri Cottle ( Laurie Cottle ) - bass guitar (1985-1990);
• Stuart Tosh ( Stuart Tosh ) - drums (1975-1977);
• Stuart Elliott - drums (since 1977), author of music and lyrics;
• Mel Collins ( Mel Collins ) - saxophone (1980-1984);
• Richard "Trix" Cottle ( Richard "Trix" Cottle ) - saxophone, keyboards (1984-1987).

In addition, a huge number of session musicians were invited to participate in the recording of The Alan Parsons Project albums (once their number exceeded 300), especially vocalists. Most often met:

• Lenny Zakatek ( Lenny Zakatek ) - vocals;
• John Miles ( John Miles ) - vocals;
• Chris Rainbow ( Chris Rainbow ) - vocals;
• Colin Blunstone ( vocals );
• Dave Terry ( Dave Terry AKA Elmer Gantry ) - vocals;
• Arthur Brown ( Arthur Brown ) - vocals;
• Graham Dye - vocals;
• Steven Dye ( Steven Dye ) - vocals;
• Steve Harley ( Steve Harley ) - vocals;
• Allan Clarke ( Allan Clarke ) - vocals;
• Robert Corman ( Robert Koreman ) - vocals;
• Lesley Dunkan (Lesley Dunkan) - vocals;
• Dean Ford ( Dean Ford ) - vocals on the album Pyramid (1978), the song "What Goes Up", "Can't Take It With You."

From the moment of its creation to the departure of Wolfson, The Alan Parsons Project has been a completely and completely studio group - no "live" performances have been held anywhere. However, in 1994, the group conducted a European tour, in which the entire musical backbone of The Alan Parsons Project took part, except for Eric Wolfson. According to Alan Parsons himself, the reasons for such a decision are not completely clear even to himself. “Perhaps it is just the“ right ”time for our live shows,” he said.

That year, under the name The Alan Parsons Live Project , the group held several concerts in Europe, in particular in Paris and London. The concert repertoire comprised the compositions of 1975-1990.

The band's concert during the 1994 European tour:

• Alan Parsons ( Alan Parsons ) - keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals;
• Ian Burnson ( Ian Bairnson ) - solo guitar;
• Stuart Elliott - drums;
• Richard Cottle ( Richard Cottle ) - saxophone, keyboards;
• Jeremy Meek ( Jeremy Meek ) - bass, backing vocals;
• Chris Thompson ( Chris Thompson ) - vocals;
• Gary Howard ( Gary Howard ) - vocals.

After the tour, the live album Alan Parsons was recorded . The very best LIVE ( 1995 ), which included recordings from various concerts and three additional studio tracks. In this composition, the group conducted several more tours, and also took part in a number of large national concerts, including the World Liberty Concert on May 8, 1995 in Arnhem (Netherlands), where the group was accompanied by a full symphony orchestra.

Since 2004, The Alan Parsons Live Project in the new line-up has been giving regular concerts around the world - in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

The modern concert composition of the group:

• Alan Parsons - keyboards, guitar, vocals, backing vocals, percussion
• Godfrey Townsend - guitar
• Steve Murphy - drums
• PJ Olsson - vocals
• John Montagna - bass, backing vocals
• Menny Focarazzo - keyboards, backing vocals
• Kevin Kennedy and Jeremy Parsons are sound engineers

The concert repertoire consists of hit songs from the albums of APP 1975-1990, as well as a number of songs from the latest albums by Alan Parsons. In addition, the group performs a number of exclusively concert things - such as instrumental Luciferama . The “live” sound of the group is distinguished by its quality factor and high quality (all performers are highly professional musicians), although arrangements in places are very different from studio versions.

In April 2005, The Alan Parsons Live Project gave concerts in Russia (April 21 - St. Petersburg, October Concert Hall ; April 23 - Moscow, the State Kremlin Palace ).

The Alan Parsons Project has released the following albums:

• 1976 - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
• 1977 - I Robot
• 1978 - Pyramid
• 1979 - Eve
• 1980 - The Turn of a Friendly Card
• 1982 - Eye in the Sky
• 1984 - Ammonia Avenue
• 1984 - Vulture Culture
• 1985 - Stereotomy
• 1987 - Gaudi
• 1990 - Freudiana
• 2014 - The Sicilian Defense

After the departure from the group of Eric Wolfson and the end of the existence of The Alan Parsons Project, the old members of the group released albums:

• 1993 - Try Anything Once
• 1996 - On Air
• 1999 - Time Machine

In addition, a live album was released:

• 1995 - Alan Parsons. The very best live

Alan Parsons Solo Albums:

• A Valid Path ( 2004 )
• The Secret ( 2019 )

Eric Wolfson's solo albums:

• Black Freudiana (double album - studio version and original soundtrack of the German musical) ( 1991 )
• Gaudi (APP-based Musical) ( 1996 )
• Gambler (Das Geheimnis Der Karten) (Musical) ( 1997 )
• POE: More Tales Of Mystery And Imagination ( 2003 )
• That Never Was ( 2009 )

Compilation Albums:

• The Best of the Alan Parsons Project (1983)
• The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 (1987)
• Instrumental Works (1988)
• Pop Classics (1989)
• Anthology (1991)
• The Best of the Alan Parsons Project (2CD) (1992)
• The Definitive Collection (1997)
• Gold Collection (1998)
• Master Hits: The Alan Parsons Project (1999)
• Love Songs (2002)
• Ultimate The Alan Parsons Project (2004)
• Silence & I: The Very Best of the Alan Parsons Project (3CD) (2005)
• The Essential Alan Parsons Project (2007)

In 2007-2008, Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson worked on the re-release of the group's original albums in the Expanded edition version. Distinctive features of a series:

• complete digital restoration and re-translation of the sound of the original tracks;
• 5-7 additional tracks were added, which were compositions, sketches, experiments, arrangements and information that were not included on the disc, etc .;
• the booklet has changed - extensive information has been added from Parsons and Wolfson about the album, photos not previously published, etc.

They were released during 2007-2008:

• Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Deluxe edition on two discs with album mixing options from 1976 and 1987 and 8 additional tracks)
• I Robot (30th Anniversary edition, 5 additional tracks)
• Pyramid (Expanded edition, 7 additional tracks)
• Eve (Expanded edition, 7 additional tracks)
• The Turn of a Friendly Card (Expanded edition, 7 additional tracks)
• Eye in the Sky (25th Anniversary edition, 6 additional tracks)
• Ammonia Avenue (Expanded edition, 8 additional tracks)
• Vulture Culture (Expanded edition, 5 additional tracks)
• Stereotomy (Expanded edition, 6 additional tracks)
• Gaudi (Expanded edition, 7 additional tracks)

In the USSR, the record company “ Melody ” released two licensed records with recordings of The Alan Parsons Project, namely:

• The collection of the best songs “ The West of Alan Parsons Project” (published in the USSR in 1986), numbered edition of 1983, the Soviet copy lacks the track Psychobabble.
  • The same collection was released on audio cassettes (catalog number SM 01552)
• Studio album "Gaudi " (published in the USSR in 1989 ).

In addition, the composition Mammagamma from the album “Eye in the Sky” (1982) was used as background music in a number of popular scientific broadcasts of Soviet television , in particular, “ Travelers Club ”, and the composition “Where's The Walrus?” From the album Stereotomy ( 1986) was used in the intro to the program of the Central Television “ Searchlight for Perestroika ”.

• The Alan Parsons Project Official Website
• Official site of Alan Parsons and Alan Parsons Live Project
• The Alan Parsons Project Official Fan Club
• Interview with Alan Parsons on musicbox.su