Stereotomy

This article is about a musical album. For the descriptive geometry term, see Stereotomy (Descriptive Geometry).

Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in December 1985 by Arista Records.

Stereotomy
Studio album by The Alan Parsons Project
Released	December 1985[1]
Recorded	October 1984 – August 1985
Studio	Mayfair Studios
Genre	Progressive rock pop rock new wave
Length	41:58
Label	Arista
Producer	Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson
The Alan Parsons Project chronology
Vulture Culture (1985) Stereotomy (1985) Gaudi (1987)
Alternate cover
Re-release cover

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]

Not as commercially successful as its predecessor Vulture Culture, the album is structured differently from earlier Project albums: containing three lengthy tracks ("Stereotomy" at over seven minutes, "Light of the World" at over six minutes, and the instrumental "Where's the Walrus?" running over seven and a half minutes) and two minute-long songs at the end. It is a full digital production and both the LP and CD releases were encoded using the two-channel Ambisonic UHJ format. Stereotomy earned a Grammy nomination in 1987 – for Best Rock Instrumental Performance: Orchestra, Group, or Soloist – for the track "Where's the Walrus?"^[4]

Stereotomy marks the final appearance of David Paton on bass – he went on to join Elton John's touring band – and is the first Project release since Tales of Mystery and Imagination not to feature Lenny Zakatek.

Background

The word "stereotomy" is taken from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.^[5] It refers to the cutting of solid shapes into different forms, and is used as a metaphor for the way that famous people (singers, actors, etc.) are 'shaped' by the demands of fame. The short track "Chinese Whispers" also references "Rue Morgue" in that although an instrumental, it features Eric Woolfson’s daughters Sally and Lorna reciting a sequence of words from the story.

Richard Cottle, who first worked with the Alan Parsons project on Vulture Culture, reprised his role as the band's dedicated session synthesiser player. His keyboard rig consisted of a PPG Wave 2.3, Emulator II, Fairlight CMI, Yamaha DX7, and two Sequential Prophet 5 synthesisers that were retrofitted with MIDI capabilities. Cottle primarily used the PPG Wave as his master keyboard and used the Prophet and DX7 for chordal pads. Parsons's TX Rack, which was positioned in the control room, also connected to some of Cottles instruments, included the DX7. The Friend Chip SRC synchronizer was relied on to overcome the latency associated with MIDI by delaying the feed to various instruments. Cottle's keyboards mixes, which were treated with audio effects such as reverb, were sent directly to the mixing console.^[6]

At the time of release, Parsons said, "Stereotomy is really our best album in years." However, he and Woolfson noted that the record suffered a lack of record label support.^[7]

Artwork

The original vinyl packaging was different from all the reissues: it featured more elaborate artwork of the paper sleeve supplied with a special color-filter oversleeve. When inserted, the over-sleeve filtered some of the colors of the artwork, allowing four different variations (two per side). In the reissues, only one variant remained. The artwork was nominated for Best Album Package at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards, but lost to Miles Davis's album Tutu, designed by art director Eiko Ishioka.

Critical reception

Stereotomy generally received negative reviews from music critics. Music Week wrote that with the exception of "Real World" and "Light of the World", the album failed to live up to the potential of the band's previous work, resulting in an album that they found to be "frustratingly commercial, meandering and sadly disappointing."^[8] In his review of the album, J. D. Considine of Musician wrote simply: "Unnecessary surgery."^[9] AllMusic felt that the album "came up short" and was only partially salvaged by some of the instrumental compositions, which created "some musical buoyancy among the blandness of the other tracks."^[2]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.

Side one

No.	Title	Lead Vocals	Length
1.	"Stereotomy"	John Miles up to 5:11, Eric Woolfson 5:11 to 5:50	7:18
2.	"Beaujolais"	Chris Rainbow	4:27
3.	"Urbania"	(Instrumental)	4:59
4.	"Limelight"	Gary Brooker	4:39

Side two

No.	Title	Lead Vocals	Length
1.	"In the Real World"	Miles	4:20
2.	"Where's the Walrus?"	(Instrumental)	7:31
3.	"Light of the World"	Graham Dye, backing vocal Steven Dye	6:19
4.	"Chinese Whispers"	(Instrumental, spoken word by Sally and Lorna Woolfson)	1:01
5.	"Stereotomy Two"	Miles	1:21

Stereotomy was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:

10. "Light of the World" (backing track) – 6:14
11. "Rumour Goin' Round" (demo) – 5:01
12. "Stereotomy" (Eric Woolfson guide vocal) – 6:37
13. "Stereotomy Two" (backing rough mix) – 1:23

Inspirations

The track "Chinese Whispers" is based on the game of Chinese whispers. It has some snippets of dialogue heavily overlaid on top of each other. The words are taken from Edgar Allan Poe's work Murders in the Rue Morgue:

"...The larger links of the chain run thus – Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichol, Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer."

The titles of "Urbania" and "Where's the Walrus?" can be attributed to Lee Abrams, a (then) radio programmer for WLUP Radio (Chicago, IL) and friend of Parsons and Woolfson. Eric Woolfson remembers:

"He was really quite inspirational in this album [Stereotomy] in telling us what we'd been doing wrong, in his view, on the previous albums... 'Urbania' was one of the words he came out with during the course of a long conversation. Another title he's responsible for... is 'Where's the Walrus,' the other instrumental, 'cause he was really giving us a hard time, I must tell you: 'Your guitar sounds are too soft, and your whole approach is, you know, slack, and your lyrics—there’s no great lyrics anymore! I mean, where's the walrus? I don't hear the walrus!' Referring, of course, to John Lennon's `I am the Walrus’..."

^{[10][better source needed]}

Abrams is frequently credited on Project recordings as "Mr. Laser Beam" ("laser beam" being an anagram of Lee Abrams).

Personnel

• Eric Woolfson – pianos, keyboards, vocals
• Alan Parsons – additional keyboards, producer
• Ian Bairnson – guitars, guitar synth
• David Paton – bass
• Stuart Elliott – drums and percussion
• Richard Cottle – synths and saxes
• The Philharmonia Orchestra, leader – Christoffer Warren-Green
• Orchestra arranged and conducted by Andrew Powell
• Sally Woolfson – voices on "Chinese Whispers"
• Lorna Woolfson – voices on "Chinese Whispers"
• Vocals: John Miles, Chris Rainbow, Gary Brooker, Graham Dye, Steven Dye, Eric Woolfson

Charts

Chart (1985–1986)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[11]	50
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12]	15
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[13]	32
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14]	13
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[15]	16
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[16]	15
Italian Albums (Musica e Dischi)[17]	17
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[18]	49
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[19]	5
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[20]	21
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[21]	13
US Billboard 200[22]	43

In popular culture

A copy of Stereotomy can (very) briefly be seen in The Big Lebowski when Maude tells The Dude to look through her LPs.

"Limelight" was used by NBC Sports for a music video of the 1986 New York Mets during the postgame show of the 1986 World Series after the Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 to win the World Championship.

in 1989 "Stereotomy", "Where's the Walrus?", and "Chinese Whispers" were used as background music in Cuando Llega El Amor starring Lucero, and Omar Fierro.

"Limelight" was used CBC Sports for the closing montage of the 1992 Grey Cup where the Calgary Stampeders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24-10. Doug Flutie led Calgary to their first Grey Cup title in 21 years.