Alan Parsons

This article deals with the British musician Alan Parsons, for the badminton player of the same name see Alan Parsons (Badminton) .

Alan Parsons (2017)

Alan Parsons (born December 20, 1948 in London ) is a British musician , sound engineer and producer and co-founder of The Alan Parsons Project .

Life

As a child, Parsons learned to play the piano , guitar and flute . He learned in the Abbey Road Studios in London and was an assistant-engineer the recordings of the Beatles - albums Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970). He was also the sound engineer of the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother (1970) and had his breakthrough as a sound engineer with their album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). He then sat at the mixer for artists such as Pilot , Steve Harley , John Miles and Al Stewart .

Eric Woolfson , whom Parsons met while working at Abbey Road Studios, proved to be a creative head with lots of ideas for songs . In 1976 Parsons and Woolfson adapted various stories by Edgar Allan Poe and, together with guest musicians, formed the album Tales of Mystery and Imagination from them , which they released under the name " The Alan Parsons Project ". They had their first Top 10 success at the end of 1979 in Germany with the instrumental piece Lucifer from the album Eve . Parsons was the producer and sound engineer of the film music for Richard Donner's film " Der Tag des Falken " (Ladyhawke) (1985), which was composed by Andrew Powell in the typical Alan Parsons Project style, but is also completely instrumental.

In 1990 the collaboration with Woolfson ended. Parsons then released other albums with moderate success - partly with old colleagues from Project days such as Stuart Elliott ( drums ) and Ian Bairnson (guitar): Try Anything Once (1993) and On Air (1996) are in classic rock style. On the following albums The Time Machine (1999) and A Valid Path (2004) a transition to electronica can be noted. In 2013 he produced his third solo album The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) together with the three-time Grammy-nominated prog rock musician Steven Wilson .

After 12 previous nominations without winning Alan Parsons won at the Grammy Awards in 2019 for his work as a sound engineer of the mix and the audio mastering and as producer of the surround sound of the re-release of Alan Parsons Project album Eye In The Sky - 35th Anniversary Edition , the award for the Best Immersive Audio Album . He received the award together with sound engineer Dave Donelly and PJ Olsson, who is also the singer for Parsons Band. After a 15-year hiatus, a new album entitled The Secret was released on April 26, 2019 . Also in 2019, Alan Parsons took part as a guest star in the Night of the Proms concert series .

Private

Parsons lives with his second wife Lisa in Santa Barbara , California and has daughters Tabitha and Brittni with her. From his first marriage he has sons Jeremy (Jerry) and Daniel.

Discography (solo)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Try Anything Once   DE 78 11/29/1993 (9 weeks)   CH 34 11/21/1993 (2 weeks) Alan Parsons Live   DE 86 01/30/1995 (7 weeks) On air   DE 61 09/30/1996 (18 weeks) The Time Machine   DE 98 09/27/1999 (1 week) A valid path   DE 72 09/13/2004 (3 weeks) The Secret   DE 12 05/03/2019 (5 weeks)   AT 36 05/10/2019 (1 week)   CH 13 05/05/2019 (5 weeks)

Studio albums

• 1993: Try Anything Once
• 1996: On Air
• 1999: The Time Machine
• 2004: A Valid Path
• 2019: The Secret

Live albums

• 1994: Alan Parsons Live
• 2010: Eye 2 Eye: Live in Madrid
• 2013: LiveSpan

Standalone singles

The songs of the following singles were initially not published in connection with albums or compilations, but as independent publications on CD, vinyl or as a download.

• 2010: All Our Yesterdays
• 2013: Fragile
• 2015: Do You Live At All

Individual evidence

1. ^ National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc .: Winners & Nominiees 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards (2018). Retrieved April 11, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Tabitha Parsons: Pre-order of my new studio album “the secret” available now. Retrieved April 11, 2019 . 
3. ↑ These are the Stars 2019 - Notp.com -. PSE Promotion of Special Events GmbH, accessed on December 24, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Family and place of residence
5. ↑ DE AT CH
6. ↑ Discogs entry on All Our Yesterdays , accessed June 1, 2016
7. ↑ Discogs entry on Fragile , accessed June 1, 2016
8. ↑ Discogs entry on Do You Live At All , accessed June 1, 2016

Web links

Commons : Alan Parsons  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Internet presence of the artist
• Official fansite
• Alan Parsons at laut.de
• Alan Parsons in the Internet Movie Database (English)