Compass Point Studios
Compass Point Studios is the name of a recording studio in Nassau , Bahamas .
history
The studio was founded in 1977 by Chris Blackwell , owner of Island Records . It was not intended as a recording studio for local musicians, but was intended to meet the needs of established artists from North America and Europe. In the late 1970s, Blackwell formed a studio band called The Compass Point All-Stars , whose main line-up included drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robert Shakespeare and who made their first recordings with singer Grace Jones . By combining modern recording technology with the climatic and tax advantages of the Bahamas, the studio soon became a popular recording location for well-known artists and experienced its first heyday from its founding until the mid-1980s. For example, AC / DC recorded their most successful album Back in Black here in 1980 . After the accidental death of studio manager and producer Alex Sadkin in 1987, the studio began to fall into disrepair. The recording technology was becoming obsolete and fewer and fewer artists were booking the studio for recordings. In 1992 Blackwell decided to avert the impending closure by means of a fundamental technical upgrade. For this purpose he hired the producer duo Terrie and Sherrie Manning, so that the Compass Point Studios could reopen at the end of 1992. Since then it has been one of the best known and most popular recording studios in the world for artists.
Since September 2010 the studio has been closed due to the domestic political unrest and the associated security risks for the operators and their customers.
literature
- Robert Wittmer: Compass Point Studios (the Bahamas) . In: John Shepherd (Ed.): Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World . Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8264-6321-0 , pp. 655 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sasha Frere-Jones: Retro Active . In: Spin Magazine . July 1998, p. 124 f .